Taking the sting out of bee season

BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

The signage in this farming area may seem funny: “Honey bees in flight.”

Take it seriously.

Jack and Lorraine Hamilton in Dempsey Corner look after the Bragg Lumber bee operation for areas between Digby and Pereau: that’s 800 hives that need to be moved every year from winter storage out into pollination yards.

“We go out and gather up 800 hives on a Monday night, they sit there all day Tuesday to go on a flatbed to wherever that night - so that day, we have a lot of bees,” Jack says.

“Our neighbours put up with a lot.”

The bees, coming out of dark winter barns, feel the sun and the light in their hives and start coming out.

“And they’re cranky,” says Lorraine.

“The bees,” says neighbour Nancy MacMillan, “but it depends on how cranky the bees are” how the neighbours take it.

For a couple of weeks, it can be tricky hanging out clothes, sitting outside or walking down the road.

“We had a group of army guys march down the road once, and I had to go out and tell them,” Jack says. “You don’t realize....”

The Hamiltons and their staff make it up with what’s become an annual event: the “bee breakfast,” held once they hives are hauled off to orchards and spring yards around the Valley. With a few coffee perks, a grill and a good spatula, the family will feed up to 50 employees and neighbours on a Saturday morning - and there is a jar of honey for your tea or toast!

“I grew up beekeeping with my family out in Northeast Saskatchewan, and worked with other beekeepers all my life,” Jack says.

“We’re the ‘spark plug’ of agriculture.”

Jack says John Bragg of Nova Scotian blueberry fame realized the potential of bees for his crops - for every extra hive on an acre of land, you might get an extra 1,000 pounds of blueberries - and started his own hive business.

When the hives aren’t in the blossoming blueberry fields, the Hamiltons move them around the Valley to farmers looking to boost their own yields from crops that depend on pollination.

“We try and leave 48 hives in an orchard, but we’re always waiting for the blossoms to get over,” Lorraine says. “The boss says the bees do blueberries, and we have to get them to Collingwood. It’s always a bit of a Texas scramble getting them up from all our blocks and on the road in time.”