Lincoln County Beekeepers stay educated about their sweet hobby

HALLS GAP — A unique sight was visible outside Tim Siler's house June 11.

At first glance, it may have appeared quite alien: a dozen or so humanoid creatures covered almost entirely by white suits, doing their best to resemble astronauts as they plodded through the green grass.

But this was no extraterrestrial sighting; it was actually a congregation of down-to-earth beekeepers, striving to learn more about their trade.

The beekeepers in attendance ranged from veterans like Siler, who hosted the educational event, to newly initiated beekeepers who have just started up their first hives this year.

The event was one of many regularly coordinated by a unique group, Lincoln County Beekeepers.

Siler showed off the combs of some of his bee-covered hives, located a new queen that had recently come of age, explained how to rotate hives, showed how to remove honeycombs full of honey without bringing along bees and gave everyone a demonstration of how he extracts and jars the final product.

"I just like doing it," Siler said. "They're kind of amazing little creatures."

Siler got his start after finding his first swarm of bees in a bush and raising them for their honey.

After raising bees for about a decade, Siler said he understands more than he did originally about bees, but he's also discovered more mysteries. Raising bees presents a challenge because bees have minds of their own and beekeepers can't always make them do what they want, he said.

Siler said for him and many members of Lincoln County Beekeepers, their bees aren't for turning a profit; they just enjoy a good challenge.

"It's hard to make any money out of it," said Siler, who raises cattle on his central Lincoln County farm. "It's just a hobby for most of us."

Eubank resident Paul Sluder founded Lincoln County Beekeepers with Siler and currently serves as the organization's president.

Sluder said the group began as an effort to educate people in Lincoln County about beekeeping. The group tries to hold educational events for its members about once a month.

Sluder said bees are an incredibly valuable gear in the machinery of agriculture, which makes the problem known as "colony collapse" a big worry.

"If we lost all the honey bees in this country, it would cost us $67 billion in food from the pollination," he said.

Bees don't just make honey, they pollinate a vast variety of crops, from corn to cucumbers to squash to watermelons to almonds. When you look at all of bees' contributions, honey is really “just a byproduct," Sluder said.

A likely cause of colony collapse — a devastating event where all or nearly all the bees in a hive fail to return home and die — is chemicals used to treat crops like corn, Sluder said.

"It's impossible to combat something that's legal to use," he said. "Unless our government does something to stop it, it's going to continue."

Sluder first started raising bees in the 1970s, but had to stop after a bee sting sent him to the hospital with a severe allergic reaction.

"They couldn't even get a pulse on me," he said. "They liked to have killed me."