English 280: The Journalistic Essay

By Cathy Krug

Standing in the middle of a swarm of bees, Liz Brillon points to a hive nearby. It’s a series of four boxes stacked upon one another, balancing on a cinder block. She bravely walks amongst the hives, checking the status of the honey and the general well being of the bees. The bees never hit her, circling her while following their path to the hives, hence ‘bee-line.’ She’s covered from head to toe in a white suit and veil that hide her features. It’s an intimidating image, but it’s important to protect her from any stings. Liz says that everyone has some sort of allergy to bees; hers, luckily, is very minor. It’s one of the risks of the job, but to Liz it’s worth it. At the end of the day, it’s all about making high quality beauty products and candles that aren’t harmful to her buyers.

With the current emphasis on organic, U.S. made products, their business venture should fit right in. In most candles and beauty products, one of the main ingredients is petroleum. “Would you buy a house next to an oil refinery?” is the question Liz uses to put it in perspective. Every time one of those candles is lit, or someone bites their lip after using chap-stick, they are ingesting the petroleum.

Liz walks into her brother’s kitchen. It’s a chilly morning near the end of October and she’s dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. Her short, dark hair is covered with a baseball cap, and she’s at ease in the house. She quickly washes her hands and picks up a plate of food, eager for her breakfast of toast and an omelet. She gathers her thoughts for a moment, thinking back to when she first became interested in bee keeping.

“It was nine years ago…I was still in college at the time,” she determines before eating a small forkful of food.

Looking through the newspaper nine years ago, an ad caught Liz’s eye. It was for a bee keeping course. Curious, she spoke with her mom about it and they decided that it would be a good mother-daughter activity. The class taught budding apiarist, or bee keepers, everything they would need to know leading up to the creation of their own hives. By the end of the course, Liz and Mrs. Brillon brought home their first hive. Nine years later, they have nine hives and are learning something new each year.

“Each year is different,” Liz says. “The bees surprise us every year.”

A typical hive is comprised of four boxes. The bottom two (called the ‘hive bodies), are much larger, containing several thin frames for honey production and to hold the brood, or baby bees. The top two, called ‘honey supers,’ are smaller and used for extra space as well as excess honey. The bodies are used throughout the season, while the honey supers aren’t added until spring. The bottom box sits upon cinderblocks to prevent the wood from rotting, and has a wooden running board attached for the bees to enter the hive.

What started out as a hobby has turned into a small business. The first few years of their endeavor, the two women focused on harvesting and selling the honey. The bees make the honey on the thin frames inside the hive bodies. It is then covered in a thin sheet of wax, to protect the honey and allow it to ripen. When it’s ready, the wax is scraped off and the honey is harvested. After harvesting the honey, Liz was left with a lot of wax and didn’t know what to do with it, so she researched on the internet to see what other people did with the wax. Batiking, crayons, lip balm, soap and candles were the main by-products she discovered.

Family interest is her main reason for making the products. Her family does not use products that are not natural. All of her lip balms and candles contain 100% all natural ingredients. Bee’s wax is a natural substance; she doesn’t want to disrupt it by inserting an artificial smell or taste.

When asked how the business is doing, Liz said it “…varies year to year. Last year was a big honey year, so more focus was put on harvesting and selling it. We didn’t do so well with honey this year, so we’re working on the lip balm and candles.” At this point, she takes a sip of water and rips off a piece of toast. She calls her dog, Wicca, over and holds the morsel over her nose as the dog obediently sits down. The Golden Retriever joyfully eats the bread and begs for more.

“She likes to nip at the bees,” Liz giggles as she recounts a story about the dog. Wicca will sit near the hives and patiently watch the bees fly by. Steady, she waits until one bee breaks away from the line and hovers near the dog, curious about this big creature. When it’s near enough, Wicca’s jaws snap open and lock on the bee, trapping it between her front teeth. The crunching of its exoskeleton against the dog’s molars catches Liz’s attention, and she shakes her head at the dog.

Bee keeping has become a bit of a family affair. While Liz and her mom are the primary bee keepers, her father and two of her brothers get involved as well. When the hive becomes too crowded, groups of bees leave and take shelter in the surrounding trees. Liz’s brothers, Greg and Dan, have been recruited in these instances to climb up trees and retrieve the escaped. In one year alone, Greg had to climb eleven different trees. “The boys aren’t big fans because they get stung more than us,” Liz laughs when remembering it.

Finished with her breakfast, Liz stands up and walks over to the sink to wash her plate and utensils. She picks up a pair of worn work gloves and heads outside into the cool October air to help her family clean up the yard. The leaves rustle in the wind as Mrs. Brillon hands her a rake.

“We want to put one out here, but the boys don’t seem too keen on it,” Mrs. Brillon says as Liz smiles. The sounds of a nearby brook add to the atmosphere, and it’s easy to imagine a small hive in the clearing. Liz will probably find a way to sneak one onto they property, a new sanctuary for bees. She smiles and laughs softly at this idea, an apiarist’s dream.