Do you have what it takes to be a beekeeper? EDC hosts Dunlop

Ormond Beach Environmental Discovery Center hosts honeybee program.

By Lisa Wolfe
| 3:08 p.m. June 27, 2016

Jack Dunlop demonstrates how the smoker is used.

Jack Dunlop shows the honey supers.

Jack Dunlop breaks down a bee hive and shows it to attendees.

Jack Dunlop shows what a frame looks like.

Bees on display at the Environmental Discovery Center.

Ormond Beach Observer
Your Town

The Ormond Beach Environmental Discovery Center held a Honey Bee Program, on June 23, at the EDC. Beekeeper Jack Dunlop is one of six beekeepers from the Volusia Beekeepers Association who care for the hives at EDC. He shared his honey bee knowledge to attendees and was there to answer questions.

For 17 years Dunlop worked for the school district. Beekeeping was something he had always wanted to do and decided to take it up after retiring three years ago.

One of the three hives at the EDC is open for viewing inside the center. Dunlap explained the three types of bees: a worker bee, a drone bee and the queen. Worker bees are only female bees and live 45 days. They do everything necessary to keep a hive clean, including disposing of dead bees.

Drone bees are males and only live one month. They are the only ones to mate with a queen bee, and they die after mating.

Although many think that queen bees run the hive, it is actually the worker bees who do. The queen bee’s sole purpose is reproduction. After mating with a drone, she can lay 2,000 eggs per day during her life span, of one to two years.

Honey bees work hard to make the honey. With a little might and muscle, a beekeeper like Dunlop can jar honey within three to four days, once the honey is ready.