Still buzzing: Hob-bee keeps man busy

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  • Florahome resident and bee enthusiast Ray Merrill returns a frame of his honeybees to their hive after showing how the bees work together.
    Florahome resident and bee enthusiast Ray Merrill returns a frame of his honeybees to their hive after showing how the bees work together.
  • Florahome resident and beekeeper Ray Merrill takes out boxes of jarred honey that he bottled from the honeybees he keeps in his backyard.
    Florahome resident and beekeeper Ray Merrill takes out boxes of jarred honey that he bottled from the honeybees he keeps in his backyard.
  • Ray Merrill, 92, suits up in gear to protect him from being stung as he prepares to take care of his backyard honeybee hives.
    Ray Merrill, 92, suits up in gear to protect him from being stung as he prepares to take care of his backyard honeybee hives.
  • Ray's Honey Bee Farm in Florahome.
    Ray's Honey Bee Farm in Florahome.
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FLORAHOME – A 92-year-old man suited in head-to-toe protective gear gathered his tool bucket and headed toward the steady hum of buzzing in his backyard on a sunny April morning.

Ray Merrill has been a hobbyist beekeeper in Florahome since 2002 and even jars his own honey on the property, deemed Ray’s Honey Bee Farm. 

Although Merrill said he has slowed down over time, he keeps nine honeybee hives behind his house that he regularly takes care of and even still teaches beginner beekeepers how to care for the pollinating insects. 

“As much as I know now, I’m still learning,” Merrill said. 

Until August 2019, Merrill served as president of the Beekeepers of Putnam County Florida. The veteran beekeeper said he likes teaching people about bees and never wanted to pursue commercial beekeeping. 

His beekeeping journey goes back before his Florahome hives. 

He said his curiosity for bees began in the 1950s when his son was in a New Jersey 4-H club and a club teacher had honeybees. After receiving a tour of the teacher’s beehives, Merrill said, his son asked if they could try taking care of a honeybee hive and he said, “OK, we’ll get a couple of them.”

But he moved around, had different jobs such as managing a motel in the Florida Keys and being an automobile dealer, where honeybees were not part of his life. 

He wasn’t abuzz in the honeybee hobby again until he and his late wife moved to Florahome in 2001 for retirement. 

Merrill said he’s taught many of his neighbors and even the new Beekeepers of Putnam president, Ann Aktins, all about bees.

Atkins now does bee extractions thanks to Merrill’s help. She said she’s probably done about 50 bee extractions from local homes and wants to encourage people to save the bees. 

“They’re close to endangered,” Atkins said. “It’s because of backyard and commercial beekeepers that they’re still here.”

The beekeepers club finally met again April 20 after not being able to because of the pandemic.

Atkins said taking over for Merrill as president has made her be the best she can be. 

“I didn’t just jump in with one foot. I jumped in with my whole body,” she said. “… I think the last couple of years have been just hands-on.”

And in early April, Merrill said he still planned to attend the beekeepers meetings. When he was president, club members would come out to his backyard hives for workshops and honey extractions, according to the club’s Facebook page. 

Merrill can go into great detail of each bee’s role in the colony. He said bees have been working as a system for thousands of years and he loves to sit on his porch watching them go in and out of the hive. 

There is the queen bee in charge of the colony. Merrill said her job is to create more bees with drone bees. Drones are the only males in the colonies, and the drones are used only for procreation. There are nurse bees that feed the larvae, worker bees in charge of pollination and even guard bees that fly around the hive as protection. 

Merrill said he’s seen honeybees dance, something they do to tell the other bees where the nectar is.

“Tell me that bees aren’t smart,” Merrill said.

And he isn’t a stranger to getting stung. He said it happens all the time. It’s just part of being a beekeeper, but he suits up in protective gear when going to the backyard. 

However, he said his 5-year-old rescue dog, Blondie, had to learn the hard way by getting stung on the nose. She follows Merrill down to the honeybee hives but keeps a safe distance under a shady tree while he takes care of the hives. 

As the 92-year-old beekeeper put the lid back on a hive of buzzing honeybees that flew around on a sunny April day and glided in and out of the manmade boxes, Merrill brought out a piece of beeswax. It’s a piece the honeybees discard, but he kept it – a token of the day’s activity. 

For him, beekeeping isn’t a job as some people might see it. “There’s a pleasure to it, also,” he said.

 

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