Stan Houk and Carla Adkins Park maintain 26 beehives and are the owners of Chestnut Ridge Garden & Apiary. (Photo by Jay Paul)
For Stan Houk, some of his sweetest childhood memories are of his father’s experiences keeping bees.
In the autumn of 2014, he and his wife, Carla Adkins Park, were shopping at a farm supply store where they saw some tools and equipment for raising and managing bees. That set Houk off to reminiscing about his father’s apiary pastime. His wife saw how the memories brought joy to her spouse, so she secretly went back to the store later and bought him a beehive for Christmas.
Beekeeping became a shared experience for the South Chesterfield duo. Today, Adkins Park is president of the Virginia State Beekeepers Association, and Houk is president of the Rockwood Park Backyard Beekeepers Association.
They maintain 26 hives, and they’re the owners of Chestnut Ridge Garden & Apiary, which offers products made from bees. You can usually find them on Saturdays at the Colonial Heights Farmers Market.
They are passionate advocates for the hobby, but they say it takes some effort to be successful.
“Anyone can buy an empty starter hive, but to be successful you need to invest time to learn about bees and beekeeping skills,” Adkins Park says. She suggests first signing up for beekeeping classes through area bee clubs to learn from experts and other beekeepers.
There are about 5,000 registered beekeepers in Virginia, but that’s just an estimate, since registration is voluntary. There are about 48 bee clubs in the commonwealth that are registered with the Virginia State Beekeepers Association.
The health of pollinators is deeply connected to that of humans, according to Adkins Park. She notes that there are 900 crops that rely on bees, and that one in every three bites of food you take at some point required pollination.
“We should all do what we can to increase the overall health and vitality of honeybees,” she says. “Everyone is a beekeeper, whether they know it or not. Choices made in cultivating more native blooming plants, growing less lawn and utilizing less herbicides and pesticides have far-reaching effects on all local pollinators.”
The Rockwood Park Backyard Beekeepers Association in June celebrated the 400th anniversary of beekeeping in America with the 11th annual Honey Bee Festival at the Rockwood Park Nature Center in Chesterfield.
Wayne Surles, president of the Richmond Beekeepers Association, has been keeping bees for about seven years. He has a bachelor’s degree in biology and a doctorate in entomology and a fascination with honeybees. He’s focused on protecting these vital creatures through positive actions.
If you are interested in becoming a backyard beekeeper, Surles advises that you “commit to the stewardship of your colonies.”
Surles notes it takes a lot of hard work by the bees to produce honey: Each one only makes a few drops of honey in its lifetime.
