Everybody knows bees are necessary. So when Johnny Morton retired from his job and rodeo roping, he still wanted to do something productive and feel needed in the community.
He found beekeeping and went from roping calves and steers to rounding up honey from bees.
“I roped for years, but had some health issues and had to quit roping,” Morton said in a recent interview in Rockdale. “I was looking for something to do and a neighbor had honeybees.”
His neighbor, Art Thomas Sr., had many years experience in keeping bees, Morton said.
“I credit him for helping me get to where I am now,” said Morton, who has been tending bees for around five years.
“It’s a learning process. I am always learning something. I’m still a rookie at this,” he said. “But I enjoy doing this because there is so much to learn.”
To keep up his learning he has joined bee clubs and been to bee school.
One of the many things he has learned over the years is to care for the health of his hives.
Beekeepers have to be wary of a tiny Varroa mite which preys on Western honey bees and are terrible for hives if not monitored and destroyed.
“They eat the soft tissue of the bees and that is deadly,” Morton said. One of the ways he gets rid of the mites is to use a food grade mineral oil as a vapor to spray on the bees in the hive. This causes the mites to fall off and is not toxic.
A healthy hive has a queen and many workers that are all infertile females. There are males there for a while. Males serve only to fertilize the queen. After that the males are kicked out of the hive.
“We are lucky around here to have bees making really good honey,” he said. “Yaupon has a really big nectar flow. Horsemint is another big nectar flow in this area. All the various wildflowers are good, too.”
Morton has a good time working with the bees and gathering up the dark, rich-tasting honey that bees in the area produce, he said.
Morton sells his honey at various spots around the county, including The Rockdale Reporter.
“I do enjoy it,” he said. “I enjoy messing with them and it keeps me in walking-around money.”
Morton takes care of swarms that happen when a queen takes off from a hive and some of the workers fly off with her in search of a new home.
“We do bee removals from trees, water meters, attics, porches and under houses, many places,” he said.
“We save the bees,” he said. “Every time I look at them, I wish I knew more.”
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