A Queen in the Making

Samantha Stein
Ms. Lei Lani
English 1001
16 October 2007
A Queen in the Making

A short balding man with a pointed noise, thin lips, and a slight Louisiana accent, Ricky Bordelon’s job stings and buzzes; he is a bee keeper. Ricky’s grandfather started E.J. Bordelon Apiaries more than 75 years ago in Hamburg Louisiana and is one of only three apiary companies in the Louisiana community. Ricky explained that “an apiary is another word for a bee yard where bee hives of honey are kept.” His grandfather E.J. started raising bees in the 1920’s as a hobby with one hundred fifty hives which were later taken over by his three sons. The three sons began selling queen bees “up north” where it is too cold to raise queens.
Unlike most apiaries in the country, Ricky’s company doesn’t sell honey. “Honey only goes for sixty cents a pound, not nearly enough to raise a family.” explained Ricky. In order for Ricky to make a large profit from honey, he would have to increase the number of his hives which is of no interest to him. E. J. Bordelon Apiaries “fools mother nature” by making queen bees. The fifteen day process starts when tiny eggs are grafted from a breeder queen. Ricky’s company buys four to five breeder queens each year from California; each breeder queen cost about 400 dollars. As he adjusted his glasses, Ricky said “Breeder queens are used as a way to ensure pure breeding among the bees.” This year, Ricky is using Minnesota Hygiene Bees as breeders because they best resist the viruses carried by bees that can kill a hive; Minnesota Hygiene Bees were first created at the University of Minnesota in 1995.
Eggs laid by the breeder queen take 36 hours to hatch into larvae. Ricky and his team of workers collect larvae from the breeder queens. The delicate larvae are handled using a small rod that resembles a “crochet needle” because it has a hook on the end. Ricky carefully places the larvae into “cell builders or cell cups” which are a set of connected compartments made of plastic that house a larva until they are hatched. The cell cups used are larger than a natural larvae cell. The size difference determines whether the bee will be a queen or a worker. Ricky and his workers place about 36,000 larvae into cell builders per day; 85% of the larvae will survive.
Ten days later, the larvae are placed into the cell cups; Ricky’s team of workers places the larvae into incubator for a day until the queen larvae are less than 30 hours from hatching. Ricky explained the importance of tracking the metamorphosis; newly emerged queens will cut a slit in other cells in the incubator and sting the other queens to death in order to insure “a seat in the throne.” The mature larvae are placed into nukes. Ricky used his hands to gesture a shape of a nuke. A nuke is a miniature square beehive made of two wooden frames and a feeder. The nuke contains worker bees left a day without a queen. In the nuke, worker bees realize that there is no queen and begin to feed the larger cell cup with plenty of royal jelly. Ricky explained that royal jelly is secreted by the salivary glands of the worker bees; the larger amounts of royal jelly produce a bee of “royal blood” or a queen bee.
A royal larva will hatches into a “virgin” bee which is a bee that has never mated. Eight to nine days after hatching, a virgin bee will fly off to mate; she returns to the nuke three days later to lay eggs. Ricky then catches the queen, cages her up and ships her to northern state. The next day Ricky places a new queen in the nuke; the nuke is used 6 times in a season.
Ricky ships the queen bee in a small cage with three holes; the cage contains a small candy made of powdered sugar and corn syrup. The small piece of food is mixed by Ricky who claims to have a special eye for the correct consistency; “too soft, the candy will melt, too hard, the bee won’t eat it.” One queen bee from Ricky cost $11 though his son wants to raise the price to make a larger profit. Other bee vendors range in location from California, Texas, Florida, Mississippi, and Georgia. Ricky explained that “apiaries that sell queens are found in the south because the season starts earlier and ends later than northern states. “ The southern season starts in March and ends in August. The northern season starts in June and ends in July. The price an individual queen bee rages from $8 to $16. Ricky also sells two and three pound packages of worker bees; a three pound package cost $44. Packages are used to build bigger hives and are placed into hives with a pre-existing queen. Ricky mainly sells his queens and packages to northerners who collect bees as a hobby. Hurricane Katrina had no affect on Ricky’s business because of his northern location in Avoyelles Parish, all of his customers are from the north, and he was already finished for the season.
During the season, Ricky relies on 5 to 6 workers to maintain and feed the hives. His sons Joey and Jeremy Bordelon also put in their share of work aside from their day jobs. In the off season Ricky uses 1 to 2 workers to maintain feeding. When the weather is cloudy or rainy the bees are more aggressive and sting more. The tips of Ricky’s fingers are hard and callused; Ricky can watch a bee sting his finger and feel nothing. At the peak of the season Ricky’s finger tips peel, crack, and bleed from the amount of stings. So why doesn’t he where gloves? Ricky can only use his bare fingers to catch the queen. The queen must be delicately caught by the wings to ensure her survival. Ricky said “I only wear a head vale to protect me from mosquitoes not really bees.” Ricky and his employees also wear a special body suite to protect themselves from the stings. Ricky estimated that he receives about 100 to 200 stings a day, even with the protective gear. Once, a bee flew into Ricky’s ear; he said “it sounded like it was in my brain.” He tried to get it out with a rusty nail that he found lying around, but the bee remained stuck until he shook his head enough. The bee never stung him; it just flew right out. The gear the beekeepers wear along with the materials used to raise the bees is purchased from a bee supply house. Ricky maintains 11,000 hives in his apiary.
Ricky isn’t sure what will become of his bee company. He hopes one of his two sons will take over the business. Ricky hopes for his business to grow and to continue to supply his customers. Ricky ended the interview by saying “’If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would have four years of life left‘ that’s from Albert Einstein, make sure you put that in your paper!” Ricky wanted to show how important bees are in the pollination of vital vegetation to animals and humans.