Grand Strand beekeepers highlight the dos and don'ts of beekeeping
Mike Macri first got into beekeeping when he watched a PBS special on the topic. Now he has 30 hives on a small farm in Conway with his wife and has been doing it for 16 years.
Mike Macri, inspecting a frame, is a beekeeper on his property outside of Conway on June 28, 2024. After being stung so many times, he said the stings don’t even swell on him.
“I found them so fascinating that I fell in love with them,” Macri said. “I got everything I could read about them and I read everything I could, and then I went to the University of Connecticut and studied them and I’ve been doing it for 16 years.”
Macri said beekeeping is work-intensive in order to keep them healthy and protect them from varroa mites, tiny red-brown parasites of honey bees, and hive beetles.
A bee is full of honey at Macri Honey Bee Farm in Horry County on June 28, 2024.
“So you’re almost like a veterinarian, too,” Macri said.
Macri said instead of watching YouTube videos on the subject, aspiring beekeepers should instead find a mentor to help them get started.
“The bees are the boss,” Macri said. “You’re just a keeper. That’s why they call us beekeepers. You can’t tell them what to do. They’re going to kind of dictate what you need to do for them to keep them going.”
Macri said he and his wife have “field days” at their hives to teach beekeeping tips.
Mike Macri, using a smoker to calm the bees, is a beekeeper on his property outside of Conway on June 28, 2024.
“What works for one guy may not work for the next,” Macri said. “You could ask five beekeepers the same question, you’re going to get six different answers. It’s like being an artist, right? So an artist puts his paint on the canvas his way. You take all your knowledge and you do what works best for you while you’re taking care of your bees. There’s really no book that you could just follow … because the bees will dictate what they’re doing and what’s going on.
“So it’s really a lot of observing and it’s pretty scientific.”
Macri also emphasized the importance of bees, noting that they populate 90 percent of our food.
“Without bees, we don’t survive as human beings,” Macri said.
Bees at Macri Honey Bee Farm in Horry County line up on a brood box on June 28, 2024.
Joe Framkiewicz, a beekeeper in Pawleys Island, participates in beekeeping on a much smaller scale. He has one hive and is still relatively new at it, having done it for just a year.
Framkiewicz said the main reason he got into beekeeping is the honey and to have a hobby.
“(There are) excellent aspects of having raw, unfiltered, unheated honey, which is hard to come by,” Framkiewicz said. “… When you heat honey, you alter or kill enzymes which are good for you.”
Framkiewicz is a member of the Blackwater Beekeepers Association, which is a community of beekeepers sponsored by Clemson University Extension in Conway.
Bees move around the frames in a brood box at Macri Honey Bee Farm in Horry County on June 28, 2024.
“We have classes there (and) meetings there once a month,” Framkiewicz said. “… They’re very good. All these beekeepers, if you have a question, call them.”
Framkiewicz said some don’ts of beekeeping are to not open the hive at night or when it’s raining or when it’s cold, as the bees keep their hive around 90 degrees. Opening the hive at these times is also a good way to get stung.
Brood boxes are lined up at Macri Honey Bee Farm in Horry County on June 28, 2024.
“At night or a rainy day or a cold day, they’re not out foraging, so when you take the top off, the only thing they see is some beekeeper and (think) let’s go sting him,” Framkiewicz said. “So you want to keep them active doing what they’re doing when you take the top of it off and look at the frames.”
A bit of advice Framkiewicz received is to sit next to the hive and watch them, sort of like a movie. He said it’s interesting to watch the bees bring the pollen in and to see the different roles the bees play in the hive.
“Some of them are foragers, some of them are guards,” Framkiewicz said. “It’s kind of interesting just watching the front of your hive when the bees come in and out. It’s entertaining. Some people may think it’s kind of boring, but (not) if you know what you’re doing.”
