By Anne Groebner

We all know how important bees are to our environment, but did you ever think about raising bees for their honey? The White Mountain Nature Center recently invited Beekeeper Dennis Chandler of Sweet DAC’s Apiary out of Snowflake, to speak about extracting honey — and he is a wealth of knowledge. He not only talked about extracting honey but how to raise bees the right way and get the most out of a beekeeping business.

“Bees do really well up here,” Chandler told us right off the bat. However, one of the most important things to know, is that Arizona is an Africanized identified state, which means we have Africanized bees. It’s important to prevent raising your own personal swarm of Africanized bees. Most folks know how aggressive they are, not to mention how dangerous it could get. To prevent that from happening, Chandler recommends getting a marked queen. So you will know what you have in your hive. 

You can buy bees to start your hive. There are a couple of different ways to go about it. You can purchase a bee nuc, which is normally 2 or 3 frames of brood and 1 to 2 frames of honey/pollen. Or, you can purchase a bee package which is a screened box with about 3 pounds of bees, including a queen. Bee packages can be shipped.

Once you started a hive and your bees start to swarm, it’s time to divide them. This is where you take half of them and move them to another hive. Once they are in a different hive, include a queen (hopefully a marked queen). It’s important that your queen keeps producing new bees. Once the hive begins to dwindle, there is a chance that it could be invaded by the dreaded wax moth. The wax moth will lay eggs in the comb and then its larvae will eat the bee larva until the hive is no longer functioning.

Bee hives are generally raised to about 18 inches, or more, off the ground. If honey-hungry predators approach the hive and climb, they will expose their bellies and the bees can make it very uncomfortable. They will get the message and move on. Bears are different. You may need an electric fence to keep them out. A healthy hive has guard bees that protect the hive, keeping insects and other predators out, and keeping the worker bees safe.

The frames that hold the honey and comb are man-made which makes it easier to extract the honey. Once the frames are full, Chandler takes a long serrated knife and de-caps the comb to expose the honey so the extractor can remove it from the wax using centrifugal force — spinning. Any frame that has a honeycomb that isn’t attached gets scraped off the frame into a bucket. The loose honeycomb is then put into a pan which is put into another pan with hot water (double boiling) to melt the wax and separate the honey. The wax is then used for other products. If the loose comb was put into the extractor, it would fall apart.

“Honey never goes bad,” Chandler tells us. If it has an expiration date, then it’s because something else is in it. There are some beekeepers that will dilute the honey using corn syrup. In Arizona, there are no regulations. It’s impossible to tell if there is something else in the honey. The safest way to know that you are getting pure honey, is to buy it from a local bee farmer. Buying it still in the wax comb is also a certain guarantee.

Beekeeping is a lot of work and it’s a sticky job, but the end result is pretty tasty.

Dennis Chandler’s bee farm is located at

453 W. 1st Street N

Snowflake, Arizona.

Phone: 928-457-8651

Other beekeepers at the Nature Center were John Tod and Jack Babb.