Considering the numerous benefits of raw honey and its tantalising taste, it comes as no surprise that a beekeeper from Bothasig attracts customers like the proverbial bee to a honeypot.
However, certified beekeeper Jonathan Kenyon's first encounter with bees was anything but sweet. In fact, it was terrifying. He remembers playing as a twelve-year-old in a fort when a swarm of bees descended on him like a dark, stormy cloud. While the fear subsided, the fascination lingered.
A bittersweet bee encounter
His second encounter would be bittersweet, the bees entering his life in the wake of a tragedy.
His eldest son passed away, and Jonathan found himself spiralling into depression. During his lunchbreaks he would take walks in a field near the factory where he worked as a maintenance fitter to clear his head. One day he saw a swarm of bees that had built a hive in a concrete pipe.
From a passing interest to a passion
What was perhaps a passing interest at first, soon evolved into a passion. Jonathan started education himself about beekeeping by watching YouTube videos and soon he was spending every lunch hour observing the bees. He even helped them by digging out the area around the pipe so that they could build a bigger hive. However, it soon became clear that the bees were outgrowing the hive and Jonathan asked their current honey supplier for a beehive box so he could move the bees to his own garden.
The bees, huddled around their beloved queen bee, were brought home in cardboard boxes. After his other two sons went to bed, he closed up all the windows in his house, placed the hive box on his living room floor and released the bees into it.
10 000 bees taking flight in a living room
"There were approximately 40 000 bees," remembers Jonathan. "About 30 000 swarmed into the hive, while nearly 10 000 took flight in the living room."
He soon figured out that bees, like moths, are attracted to light and he switched the main light off, sitting in the dark while the bees flew about him like disorientated thoughts. Eventually the bees settled down. When he woke up the next morning, all the bees had moved in.
Initially beekeeping was a hobby, but when the company that he worked for closed down, he decided to make it more profitable. For a while all went swimmingly, or rather swarmingly, until personal circumstances compelled him to remove the bees from his property. Jonathan eventually sold his hives to a pollinator.
And then the scouts came ...
As the bees moved out, depression and loneliness moved back in. Until the day the scouts came.
Jonathan became aware of bees scouting the empty hive boxes lying in his back yard. When they came back again, they were followed by nine swarms.
The bees have found their keeper.
These days he has various bee boxes that are kept by host families who receive rent in the form of liquid gold - honey. Although the general impression is that hives are kept in rural areas, Jonathan prefers suburban gardens which are often planted with a wide variety of flowers.
Bees, who feed on pollen and honey, evolved into producing seven times more honey than what they need since other creatures (and humans) love to take their honey.
Each hive delivers about 10 kg honey. Pure gold. This is referred to as raw honey as opposed to the irradiated honey sold in retailers. About 60 percent of the honey on our shelves are imported, and importers are required by law to irradiate imported honey to kill any bacteria and pathogens to prevent outbreaks such as American Foul Brood disease that caused havoc in SA in 2009 and 2015. Unfortunately, irradiation do not only kill harmful bacteria, but can also destroy "friendly" enzymes, natural antibodies, and microorganisms.
Getting bees out of a wall
If you want to make sure each spoonful of honey is a spoonful of healthy goodness, make sure to buy raw honey from a local beekeeper, says Jonathan. "Otherwise, you can just as well buy syrup."
How to tell if it is the real deal? Honey will crystalise after a while.
These days, Jonathan and his bees are thriving. Apart from the honey and beeswax that he sells, he also services and tends to the hives that are kept by bee hobbyists. He also owns Cape Bee Rescue where he comes to the rescue of home owners and bees alike.
How you get the bees out, depends on what they are in, says Jonathan. He is not joking. Bees trapped inside a wall is no laughing matter.
Jonathan is as passionate about bees as the swarms are about their queen bee and his knowledge is endless.
Bees aren't good flyers and aren't even supposed to be flying according to scientists, but ...tell the bees that, he jokes. Then there is the fact that bees love the smell of lemon grass, but hate the smell of almonds - handy knowledge if you want to lure bees from one place to another.
As long as they stay on earth. Because as Maurice Maeterlinck wrote in The Life of the Bee: "If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years to live."
For raw honey, beeswax or bee removals, contact Jonathan at +27 84 414 4155.