Want one more thing to DIY during the pandemic? Become a backyard beekeeper in Phoenix

The latest buzz on Arizona State University’s Polytechnic campus might be coming from the beehives. 

The ASU Bee Lab in Mesa used to be a place just for scientists and researchers to study honeybees, but for the last couple years, lab manager Cahit Ozturk has been offering courses to the public that range from introduction to beekeeping to queen bee rearing. 

Ozturk moved from Turkey to Arizona in 2014 and has spent his entire career researching bees. He has over 30 years of experience as a beekeeper. At the Bee Lab, he shares this knowledge with hobby beekeepers from around the country who travel to Arizona to learn more about the practice.

With over 70 hives of relatively docile European honeybees, there is ample opportunity for hands-on learning in the hobby beekeeping classes. The classes are so popular that most of them are full this semester, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ozturk said he is developing some online courses for next year because in-person class size is  is limited. 

What are the benefits of beekeeping? 

Outside the lab, white wooden boxes are packed full of tens of thousands of busy bees. To reduce the chances of being stung, Ozturk uses a bee smoker when he opens a box to pick up one of the wooden frames that contains the bees and their honeycomb. Even so, it happens quite often, he said. 

The smoke masks the pheromones the bees use to communicate, so it is akin to “shutting off their WiFi,” Ozturk said. It also stimulates their feeding response, so they take the smoke as a signal to go get a taste of honey. 

Bees store an array of valuable substances in the honeycomb. An obvious byproduct of keeping a hive is honey — and lots of it — but hobby beekeepers can also use their bees to produce royal jelly and beeswax. Royal jelly is a secretion made by nurse bees that is meant to feed queen bees and larvae. It is also sold as a health supplement for humans.

Of course, these products don’t hold a candle to the most important job of honeybees: pollination of plants and crops.

“We cannot count the benefits of pollination,” Ozturk said, but estimates are high. A study from Cornell University reported that the agricultural value of insect pollinators in the United States was worth around $29 billion in 2010.

With honeybees in decline worldwide due to habitat loss and pesticide use, keeping a hive is something positive people can do for the environment Ozturk said. 

Can anyone keep bees in their backyard? 

Ozturk had three points to consider for anyone deciding whether to pursue beekeeping as a hobby. The first: “You should not keep bees if you have an allergy,” he said.

If you pass that test, he said, you then need to abide by local ordinances on backyard beekeeping and ask your neighbors if they are allergic. 

Each city or town has its own code that regulates backyard beekeeping. For example, Phoenix has minimum lot-size requirements and the hive must be more than 5 feet from the property boundary line. Other Valley cities require your home or lot to be zoned for agriculture to keep hives, so potential future beekeepers should contact their local  government.

Are there ‘killer bees’ in Arizona? 

A prospective beekeeper also needs to know that hives involve a lot of maintenance, everything from preventing mite infestations to making sure your European honeybees are not hybridizing with African honeybees. 

Ozturk said that this close relative of the European honeybee is not quite the “killer bee” it was made out to be when it reached the southern U.S. in the 1990s, but when they hybridize these “Africanized” bees are more defensive than European honeybees. 

Hybridized bees do make honey like the European honeybees, but they are more difficult to care for. Ozturk said that a bee veil can be suitable protection while taking care of a European honeybee hive, but a full bee suit is needed when dealing with Africanized honeybees. 

He also said beekeepers need to monitor their hives to look for a queen cell, which could mean a new hybridized queen bee is growing.

Killer bees:Know these Africanized-bee safety tips

Is beekeeping an expensive hobby? 

Keeping bees takes time, but it does not necessarily cost too much to get started. Ozturk said local beekeeping clubs can help new hobbyists find new or used gear to start out with and it won’t necessarily run more than a couple hundred dollars. With honey typically retailing around $10 per pound and one small hive able to produce around 50 pounds of honey a year, it’s a hobby that can soon pay for itself.

Arizona beekeeping resources

• Arizona Backyard Beekeepers Association: https://azbackyardbeekeepers.org.
• Beekeepers Association Central Arizona: https://www.azbeekeepers.org.
• Arizona Honeybee Festival: https://azhoneybeefest.org.
• ASU Bee Lab classes: https://sols.asu.edu/hobby-beekeeping. 

Reach the reporter at Shaena.Montanari@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @DrShaena.

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