The buzz about bees

Business is booming for local beekeepers, but the prognosis isn’t so hot for the bees. Some populations have declined by 70 percent.

By Ellen Spitaleri

The Clackamas Review, Aug 26, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Jim Barlean handles a bee from one of the 40 hives in his Milwaukie backyard. Barlean keeps additional hives on properties throughout Northwest Oregon.

Ellen Spitaleri / Clackamas Review

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When it comes to beekeeping, Jim Barlean believes in taking the gloves off — literally.

The Milwaukie resident and his wife Dolores have been selling pure, raw honey from their home just off King Road for more than 20 years.

He does not wear a traditional beekeeping outfit, and even goes gloveless when handling the trays in the hives.

Barlean said he has taught himself everything he has learned about bees and making honey, and added that is “the fun of beekeeping — inventing your own methods.”

“If you are wearing gloves, you are not paying attention to what the bees are doing,” he said. “I used to have the meanest bees, but after I took the gloves off, the bees got gentle.”

He has about 40 hives in the backyard of his Milwaukie residence, and one of his most popular honeys is called “neighborhood honey.” Many of his customers believe it helps their allergies.

“Honey has a certain percentage of pollen in it, and people who eat honey or pollen by where they live tell me they don’t have allergies anymore,” he said.

“Raw honey is really good for you; it tastes good and it contains a minute amount of every mineral and vitamin,” Barlean said.

“Any honey heated over 120 degrees is not raw — it might be pure, but it is not raw,” he explained. “When you heat it up, it loses its nutrients and loses its delicate flavor.”

Barlean also sells beeswax and pollen which he collects from pollen traps that he sets.

From blueberries to bees

Barlean, who was a Marine for 22 years, started out trying to raise blueberries in 1984, but they kept dying on him, he said.

When he went to consult with a local blueberry grower, he noticed the man had beehives.

“I said, ‘forget the blueberries; let me look at these.’ I bought one hive and that was my downfall.”

Soon Barlean had five hives, which he said is the “perfect number for a backyard beekeeper.”

But then a friend “made me take 12 hives, and then I realized that when I gathered honey off of 17 hives it was too much for me to eat. I started selling honey, and the rest is history,” he said.

Now Barlean has 15 beeyards, from Troutdale to Detroit Lake, and tries to keep 20 hives in each location. His bees produce 15,000 pounds of honey, which he and his wife process, put in jars and label.

He takes the honey away from the bees in July and August, and then the bees keep the honey they make from late summer and fall blossoms.

“They need 50 pounds of honey to get through the winter,” Barlean said, noting that he checks the hives all winter long, and will give the bees sugar syrup if they need it.

“Every beeyard will produce a different flavor honey,” he said, as “the bees are flying over two miles in each direction.”

Beekeeping is “fascinating”

It is most definitely a full time job, he noted, adding that he works “seven days a week, 10 hours a day,” during bee season, which runs from March to November.

But he continues to do it, Barlean said, because “there are so many people loving our honey, I can’t say we’re quitting. I get little notes from people, thanking us.”

Customers tell him they ship honey to North Dakota, which is one of the biggest honey producers in the United States, and even take it back to China, because “their honey isn’t as good as mine,” he said.

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