Ross Conrad buzzes with activity

Author: Polly Johnson

If you've ever wanted to meet someone who is the General Manager of a soap store and a beekeeper in his spare time, look no further than Ross Conrad of Middlebury, the acting general manager of Vermont Soap, a company located in town on Exchange St. The company specializes in the production of organic soaps, bath and shower gels, pet shampoo, organic household products and cleaning supplies. Conrad became involved in the company in 2001 when he met the owner and founder of Vermont Soap at a conference. He began working for the sales and marketing team and eventually worked his way up to General Manager.

Raised in Manhattan, Conrad decided that New York was just not for him, and moved to Vermont in 1988. He found work and has been living here ever since.

But how did he become involved with beekeeping? "During the winter of 1990-1991, I started to do a lot of soul-searching about my life, what I was doing with it and where I wanted to go", explained Conrad. After spending time with the Bear Tribe Medicine Society, he had a "religious experience" where he became "aware of the fact that there is more to this world than what we are able to see, hear, feel, smell and taste." During a specific ceremonial ritual with the tribe, called a Vision Quest, he had his first encounter with a honeybee. "I remember observing many yellow jackets and wasps, but no honeybees. Anyway, this honeybee seemed to be trying to tell me something. It spent several minutes flying around me and landing on various parts of my body before it flew off." Six months after his experience with the tribe, Conrad returned to Middlebury, where he was offered a job as a beekeeper by a local beekeeper he knew at the Champlain Valley Apiaries, Bill Mraz. Mraz's father, Charles, who died in 1999, was a "world-renowned beekeeper and apitherapist" and it was from observing Bill, Charles and the bees that Conrad received the best beekeeping education he could get. Charles Mraz was one of the early pioneers of beekeeping in the Champlain Valley. He founded the Champlain Valley Apiaries in 1931 and wrote a book entitled "Health and the Honeybee," which advocated the use of bee venom therapy. Since his death, beekeeping has continued to flourish in the Champlain Valley.

After spending many years learning the ropes of beekeeping, Conrad has become an established beekeeper who sells the honey he bottles at the Natural Food Co-op here in town. But there is quite an extensive process that comes before the bottling and selling. Beekeeping entails "a lot of hard work and the constant threat of being stung," although Conrad noted that "honeybees are a lot easier to work with than most people." Not to mention that the "primary risk in keeping bees is financial," and that there is the "possibility of throwing out your back lifting the supers full of honey."

Like any other job, beekeeping requires specific conditions and proper care. "Like other agricultural endeavors, beekeeping is very reliant on the weather. Too much rain, too little rain, extremely hot or cold weather will all have an impact on a hive. In Vermont the average honey harvest is usually between 30 and 40 pounds of honey per hive per year," Conrad explained. And in order to be most prolific, "honeybees typically need temperatures of at least 50 degrees Fahrenheit in order for it to be warm enough for them to fly and gather nectar. Flower nectar is basically diluted sugar water." Beekeeping also needs to be practiced in the ideal climate. "During the winter months," Conrad explained, "the honeybees become inactive due to the cold. When temperatures drop below 50 degrees, the bees will form a cluster. They basically snuggle together and use their body heat to keep themselves warm. As long as they have honey to eat they can flex their wing muscles and generate heat. In Vermont, bees typically need about 80 pounds of stored honey in their hive in order to get them through the dearth of fresh nectar over the winter."

Once these conditions are met, and the hive of bees has been established, what comes next? "The beekeeper just lets them live out their lives collecting nectar and making honey in the hopes that they will store more than they will need to get them through the winter. The beekeeper then harvests the excess honey. Of course the conscientious beekeeper will take the time to regularly inspect the bees to make sure they are healthy and disease and parasite free."

Conrad is clearly one of these "conscientious beekeepers" - not just in the way he cares for them, but in the way he allows them to be a part of his life. The bees "have taught me many lessons," he said. For one, "they are one of the few creatures in nature that has a tendency to make more honey than they need. Of course what happens to this excess honey is that the beekeeper will come along and take it from the bees. From this I have learned not to hoard and take more than I really need."

Additionally, Conrad noted, "The honeybee is the only higher form of animal life I know of that does not harm a single living thing as it goes about its life. All the bee requires from the world outside the hive is fresh air, sunshine, water, pollen, nectar from flowers and some plant resins to keep healthy. In this way the honeybee actually makes the world a better place, simply by taking what it needs to survive. This is a wonderful lesson that I continually work to incorporate into my life - how to take from the world what I need to live my life, and do it in a way that leave the world better than how I found it. When I imagine what this planet might be like if all people endeavored to live this way, I envision a very different world."