Closer Inspection
Honey-do Backyard beekeeping’s sweet rewards
by Kris Coronado When Charlie Brandts was diagnosed with heart arrhythmia four years ago, he decided it was time for a more healthful diet. In lieu of cooking with refined sugar, he started using honey. There was just one problem: High-quality honey isn’t cheap. “So I said, ‘Why don’t I get a beehive, put it in the back yard and make honey out of it?’ ” Brandts recalls. Today, Brandts, 53, has expanded
beyond a small backyard operation at his Silver Spring home to caring for 23 hives scattered around the region, including one at a famous home on Pennsylvania Avenue: the White House. The kitchen staff learned that Brandts — who has been the White House carpenter for 26 years — had a tasty hobby, and in March 2009, 1600 Pennsylvania got its own hive as a complement to the first lady’s organic garden. Here, Brandts buzzes about
the eight hives he keeps at S&W Farm in Silver Spring.
A colony at full strength can consist of 45,000 to 70,000 bees, Brandts says.
Young bees are raised in the brood chamber
and produce honey in the honey super above it.
Once the first super is full, a second can be placed on top of the first, and so on. Wooden frames are placed in the honey super with a wax pattern that the bees replicate.
When Brandts inspects a hive, he’ll fire up his smoker by burning leaves or old rags. A
few puffs at the entrance, and the guard bees won’t be able to release the pheromone that signals danger. “You’re just breaking down all communications in the hive,” he says.
When the honey is ready to process, Brandts removes
a frame from the super and slices the wax capping off the comb. Once the honey is exposed, he puts two to six frames in his stainless steel tangential
extractor and cranks it to spin the honey out.
“You can get three and a half to four pounds per frame,” he says.
Brandts wears goatskin gloves and a cotton hive inspection jacket from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm. “Tey
aren’t going to sting you much, [unless] you’ve been careless and stir them
up,” he says. “It’s always fun when you get a bee up your pants. Tat’s a heck of a dance.”
Brandts is slightly allergic to bees, so he carries an EpiPen [self-injected epinephrine] with him around his hives.
Last year, the hives on the White House’s South Lawn produced 134
pounds of honey. Michelle Obama presented crystal vases of the sweet stuff to spouses of the world
leaders at the G20 summit in September.
The WashingTon PosT Magazine 7
PHOTOGRAPHS BY BENJAMIN C. TANKERSLEY
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152