When Captain Keith Longlois of the Orange Police Department goes home after work he takes off his bullet-proof vest and trades it for a different style of protective gear. On goes the wide-brim hat with the long netting. On go the long-sleeved gloves. Out comes the portable smoker. He’s ready to get his buzz.
Earlier this year, Longlois decided to become a backyard beekeeper as a way to eliminate the stress of his job as a patrol captain. People with melissophobia, or a fear of bees, would not understand his new relaxation hobby. But it’s not new for him.
“My dad and grandfather had bees when I was a child and I was always intrigued by it,” Longlois said.
This past spring, Longlois read on kogt.com about a Lamar State College-Orange community class on beekeeping. He went to one session but his 12-hour a day patrol shift schedules didn’t allow him to complete the course.
He became friends with Mike Ginn, an experienced beekeeper, who helped him get started with hives. Now Longlois has five hives in his backyard acre in a Little Cypress neighborhood.
The wooden hive boxes are painted bright Mardi Gras colors of purple, green and yellow. Each has several special screens inside where the bees make their honeycombs, lay their eggs and hatch. Some of the honey is used by the bees as food, the beekeeper collects the extra as the reward for the work.
“There’s science behind it. There’s an art behind it and if you do it right, you get something out of it–honey,” Longlois said.
He explained the science. Bees detect pheromones, excreted chemicals. If one bee gets angry, the scent is released and the other bees get mad and attack. The smoke beekeepers use hides the pheromones. If a bee is upset by the beekeeper, the others don’t get the message to attack.
The smoke is produced by a special canister with a bellows attached to keep a fire going until smoke gets thick. The smoke and protective gear allow a beekeeper to get in the middle of a hive and work. If done properly, the bees calmly go about their business and don’t bother the beekeeper.
Longlois has been gathering honey in jars for a few months, but he won’t sell it. His buddy Ginn sells honey and Longlois doesn’t want to compete. During the summer, he went and helped Ginn get 110 gallons of honey. A quart is worth $25, Longlois said, which makes the haul worth $11,000. Longlois pointed out that it was hot, sweaty work.
Honey has natural antibiotics and doesn’t spoil. If it gets grainy and hardens, soak the jar in hot water for a few minutes, he said.
Longlois loves ice tea after a long day on patrol. This year, he’s able to use his honey to make sweet tea and adds mint from his herb garden. His wife, Cyndi, has been making pancakes and biscuits so they can savor the sweet liquid bee gold. Their daughter, Jessica, started Lamar University as a freshman this week.
After years as a police officer, Longlois has spent time as a people watcher. Now that he’s a bee watcher, he can see similarities. “People are gentle for the most part, but if you treat them wrong, they’ll bite back. There’s a lot to be compared with bees. Always treat them right. Have a little respect for everything and we’ll all be all right.”
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
Social Media