About . . .

I started with honeybees about 10 years ago. As a child my daddy had honeybees but I was allergic to the stings and he would not let me get near them. I took a series of shots at the age of 8 and the stings were not so bad. In 1999 I bought 4 hives of bees from a friend of mine. The bees were his father's that had died. The hives have increased to about 250 now and I plan on increasing to about 400 by the spring of 2007. In 2002 I decided that I wanted to raise Queens. I Stayed on the internet learning all that I could and I stayed on the site Beesource.com. While on the site I met a gentleman in Georgia that had been raising queens for the last 50 years. I went to visit the gentleman and started apprenticing with him and thats how I started raising queens. I also have a good friend that lives in lincolnton Ga. That helps me with the bees in ga. He has been a very good person to help with the bees. His name is Ted Tate as has been very instrumental in getting queens raised in ga. He's also learned alot about handling the russian bees and queens.  I also have  other friends that help me out with the bees in S.C. I have  helpers named Earl Gentry and Tim Dover that has been helping for 2 years now. They have came a long ways working bees. I also have an evening guy that helps out with the bees. He has been with me for 3 year and is going in to the 4th year and his name is  Tony Ellison. Tony has been very willing to listen and learn the system. Also we have Sam Stone down in Little Mountain S.C. that that rasises some brood for me. All the guys have been a real asset to the russian bee program.

Also I would like to give a great big thanks to Kerry Owen, The Owner Beewell Honey Farms. Kerry has helped me out tremendously since starting with the queen raising. He has gave me numerous ideas about equiptment and feeding.  I owe him alot and thanks again.