PrintIt makes sense that Robert Sears, a sole practitioner who specializes in contracts and disputes related to architecture and design, would get a buzz from his hobby.
Sears, president of the Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association, is fascinated by bees' social hierarchy, the intricacies of the hives they build and the purposeful role they play in the ecosystem and in producing food for people.
"The satisfaction of beekeeping is being in touch with the flowering cycle and the seasonal life cycle," said Sears, who maintains bee colonies in St. Louis and at a vacation home in the Ozarks. "What beekeeping does is heighten the beekeeper's awareness of the natural environment. "
He became involved when he and his wife, family law attorney Erica Leisenring, were looking into a vacation home for themselves and their young children. The Ozarks had been a favorite destination for float trips and camping, but Sears and Leisenring, who practices law for Stewart Mittleman Heggie & Henry in Clayton, wanted more from a second home.
"A weekend place made sense, but we wanted an activity because we didn't want to have television" occupy the family's vacations, Sears said. "I saw a newspaper notice about a beekeeping workshop at a community college, and it started from there. It sounded interesting. "
The family bought property in a forest area in southern Franklin County, near Meramec State Park and a tributary that feeds into the Meramec River. The Meramec empties into the Mississippi River south of St. Louis.
The next step in the odyssey was to purchase the guests of honor: bees, plus the equipment to house and care for them. Beekeepers buy their bees the same way the rest of us order guitars, fruitcake and flowering bulbs: through the mail.
The package, a caged box, contained between 12,000 and 15,000 bees, 98 percent of them female, Sears said. The shipment included a queen bee - the center of the bees' environment and a key cog in their social organization, hive expansion, pollination of plants and flowers and honey production.
Once the queen bee is placed in the hive - she arrives in a separate enclosure in the package -- the other bees are attracted by the scent of her pheromones, a chemical she produces and passes to her offspring.
"The queen is the key to survival of the colony," said Sears, who researched, read and attended many workshops to expand his understanding. "To survive, [the other bees] have to gather around the queen. "
Worker bees - primarily the queen's daughters - also have important roles to play, Sears said. In addition to helping build intricate passageways through the hive, they fly miles to pollinate plants, flowers and shrubs and return to the hive with nectar. The bees convert the nectar into honey, a byproduct of the busy interaction that occurs inside the colony.
Honey production is an offshoot of Sears' beekeeping activities, not the focus. His central interests are the bees and the duties they perform both in the colony and the larger ecological system.
"In doing the work people find tremendous relaxation," he said. "Honey is sort of a bonus. The real thrill is caring for and being in touch with the bees. "
Sometimes "being in touch" becomes literal, and Sears and his wife, who helps him, get stung. Neither is allergic to the stings, one of the core requirements for a beekeeper.
Although Sears and Leisenring give away much of their honey, the bees produce a surplus that's sold in St. Louis at the Garden Gate Shop at Missouri Botanical Garden and at the Bowood Farms Nursery, Greenhouse & Cafe in the Central West End. Their honey also can be purchased at the Missouri Farmer's Association Coop store in Sullivan. That's where his wife comes in.
"I help as needed," Leisenring said. "I do some of the bottling and the labeling," which takes place in a basement that serves as a beekeeping storage and bottling area. "It's still a hobby, but there are certain times when we can be very busy. "
But beekeeping provides greater rewards than the work it demands, Sears said.
"It's tremendously rewarding, but it takes study and time to keep the bees healthy," he said. "Beekeeping has been called 'farming for intellectuals. ' I don't know who coined that expression, but beekeeping has had a fascination for many people. "
