A bee on a flower may be a nuisance to some, but to Ken Keefe, a bee on a flower means a whole lot more.
Keefe, owner of Keefe’s Pure Honey, began his bee farm five years ago off North IL-47 as a gardener who wanted bees to pollinate his plants and apple trees. But, as Keefe’s bee farm grew from a couple beehives to six hives in 2017, Keefe is now more interested in the care of the bees.
“It’s really cool to see such a complex system working and adapting” Keefe said. “It’s a very cool thing to observe because I’m not doing much work, they are doing all the work. To see the phases of life in there and to see these tiny little creatures that seem like simple bugs do complex things, communicate with each other and manage a large family of 100,000 individuals. It’s fascinating to watch.”
Keefe’s in-laws started their bee farm 10 years ago. When they retired, they gifted expensive equipment, such as the hive bodies, frames inside the boxes and tools to harvest and process the honey to Keefe.
Keefe also recommends classes at the University of Illinois Extension to learn about beekeeping and purchasing equipment from Long Lane Honey in St. Joseph for those who are interested in becoming beekeepers.
Once the honey is extracted from the hive, Keefe said his process is 100-percent natural. The honey is run through fine mesh filters to remove any debris, but the natural components, which often help seasonal allergy suffers, stay in tack.
“One easy way to do that is have a little bit of locally grown honey every day or every other day and all the pollens around you will be present,” Keefe said.
He also said that large honey producers will pasteurize their honey, making it uniform, but without the local organisms. And sometimes, they will also supplement the honey with high fructose corn syrup.
At Keefe’s Pure Honey, the packaging is also 100-percent natural. He also does not treat the bees with antibiotics.
“We only use sustainable materials; we don’t use petroleum-based products,” he said. “We use a glass jar with a cork stopper, and to seal it we dip the top of it in wax. Everyone loves the taste of our honey, but everyone raves about the packaging.”
Keefe said customers have commented on the citrus flavor in his bee’s honey, which he believes comes from nearby soybean or goldenrod fields. Bees will roam up to a 5 mile radius from their hive.
“Honey tastes differently each year, and (the flavor) also changes over the course of the year,” he said. “If you harvest in the early spring, it will have a dandelion flavor, but if you harvest in the late fall, it will have a goldenrod flavor. I don’t like to harvest too late in the year because I’m worried it will take away from the bee’s (winter) supply.”
He said his property is abundant with different types of pollinators, such as butterflies and bumblebees, too.
“Maybe we’re just lucky or doing the right things,” Keefe said. “But we have a variety of pollinators in our area.”
Keefe also harvests the beeswax from the hives. Last year he began to produce lip balm from the wax. Local vendors, such as a woodworker, have also purchased beeswax from Keefe to seal their product.
Keefe’s honey is available in the late summer and early fall at Flora in Mahomet. Orders can also be filled directly through Keefe’s website.
Each spring Keefe replenishes the hives that did not survive the winter months with bees purchased in a bee package, which includes a queen bee. In the winter months, the hive population will get down to about 10,000 bees, but in the summer months, the hives can house as many as 120,000 bees.
With a lifespan of three to four years, the queen bee will lay eggs every day her entire life to replace the worker, drone and scout bees who only live 6 to 8 weeks. At times, during the summer months, the hive may house too many bees, and so some of the bees will leave to form another hive. Keefe said these swarms of bees are useful to bee farmers.
“A lot of people will see them in their trees or in their lawn, and that’s a great time for a beekeeper to come along and kind of just scoop them into the hive. Once you do that and you give them their frames that they will start building on, then they find they are very happy where they are, they will stay there and then you have a new hive,” he said.
This typically happens in the late summer months.
Keefe said he will spend 5 to 6 hours a month maintaining the hives in the spring, late fall and winter months, but during harvest in late summer he may spend about 20 hours a month getting the honey ready to sell.
When he first became a beekeeper, Keefe said he was nervous around the beehive, but over time, he has learned that honeybees are extremely passive and that each hive has its own personality.
“They will only sting really if you are threatening their hive,” he said.
Naturally, bees will attack when humans act as bears or raccoons as they approach the hive. Keefe said he is careful not to mimic that behaviour by bumping the hive when he approaches it.
Although he read a few books on bee behavior prior to taking on bees, Keefe said “you can tell which bees are being defensive and which bees are just being passive,” when you approach the hive.
He also encourages Mahomet residents to plant bee-friendly plants in their yard to attract bees. Keefe said buckwheat, a white flower that will reseed itself, blooms at a time of year when bees are desperate for a plant to pollinate. Buckwheat is durable in the dry period of summer when dandelions and sunflowers have faded, but the goldenrod has not quite bloomed.
While the survival of honey bees is vital to a wide-variety of plants humans consume, Keefe also encourages residents to build homes for more solitary pollinators, such as bumble bees and mason bees. By drilling a hole in a block of wood and placing it in the garden, these insects will make a home and pollinate tomatoes or blackberries.
Being a beekeeper has ignited Keefe’s four-year-old daughter’s interest in the way the hive works. He said when she’s a little older, he will take her out to the hives while he is working. Keefe’s wife has no interest in getting stung, so she works on the sales side of the operation by bringing jars of honey to her school when it is packaged at the end of the summer.
