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August 21, 2002
Los Gatos, California Since 1881 |
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Photograph by George Sakkestad
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Apiarist Tracy Hofstrand of Beelicious
Honey removes a frame full of honey—and
bees—from one of her Los Gatos hives.
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Hofstrand finds herself a honey of a job
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Shari Kaplan
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If Tracy Hofstrand answers "none of your
beeswax!" when asked what her job is, she's
not being rude—she's being truthful.
That's because Hofstrand is an apiarist. To
those not familiar with her buzzingly busy
profession, an apiarist is a beekeeper.
Hofstrand, who lives near the border of
Campbell and Los Gatos, has been keeping bees
for the past three years and has found it to
be a sweet profession. She owns approximately
45 beehives, or colonies, which are currently
thriving on private properties located in Los
Gatos, Hollister and the Sierra foothills.
"Forty-five colonies is actually small,"
Hofstrand says, citing 2,000 as the amount
typically owned by professional honey
businesses. However, the size of her bee
family is just right for her.
"It was all based on a dare," she says,
chuckling at the leap of faith that is now
Beelicious Honey. A friend from her alma
mater, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, worked for
a property management company that ran almond
orchards in the Orland area, and he spoke of
the difficulty of getting all the trees
pollinated. He wondered if Hofstrand was up
to the task.
"He said I wouldn't be able to keep the bees
going over winter, I wouldn't be able to
figure out how to move them and I wouldn't
stick with it after being stung a dozen
times," she recalls.
And so Hofstrand made a beeline to accept the
challenge. She, along with her husband, Jeff,
took beekeeping classes and carefully read up
on the complex industry. The culmination was
purchasing "bulk bees," as Hofstrand calls
it.
For approximately $100, an apiarist can buy a
complete hive—consisting of one queen bee,
several thousand worker bees and the woodwork
necessary for the hive and its internal
frames—the structures on which workers build
honeycombs, pack nectar and nurture larvae.
The goal of beekeepers, Hofstrand says, is to
achieve "strong hives." In the industry, a
hive must have a minimum of 10 productive
frames to be considered strong. Hers are all
strong.
While bees do not bond with their keepers
like pet dogs or cats bond with their owners,
Hofstrand says the little buzzers do become
accustomed to her over time. "The bees learn
to recognize the white beekeeper's suit if
you always wear it. They stay pretty mellow,"
she explains. Using a hand-held device that
emits puffs of smoke is another method of
calming bees.
This doesn't mean her honey-harvesting job is
without danger, however. Because bees crawl
around at night rather than fly, she's had
some uncomfortable incidents of the furry
insects sneaking into the space between her
shoes and bee suit pants and crawling up her
leg.
Although she has preferred areas for her bee
colonies, she moves the bees around to follow
the nectar so she can get more honey. For
that feat, she packs all the hives into a
tractor-trailer and transports them at night,
when they're least likely to get overheated
or stressed. Hofstrand says her husband, who
works for a Silicon Valley high-tech company,
is particularly useful during these times.
"He's my 'hired hand,' " she says with a
chuckle.
Among the honeys Hofstrand enjoys producing
are those made from the collected pollen and
nectar of citrus blossoms, sage, star
thistles, clover, buckwheat and—during the
most prolific spring blooms—wildflowers.
"Each honey is different; it's kind of like
wine," she says. The fruits of her labors can
be seen in the variety of products she sells
at various South Bay and Bay Area farmers'
markets, including regular honey, creamed
honey, flavored honey sticks, fresh
honeycombs, bee pollen and beeswax candles
and bars.
Beelicious Honey can be reached at
408.379.6209. The website is located at
www.beelicioushoney.com.
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