Welcome to our New President, Steve Clifford!
I was born and grew up in North Dakota. In 1970 I was drafted and spent two years in the US Army, and when released I had no idea what I wanted to do. I worked construction that first summer, and when winter came I headed for the beaches of Mexico’s West Coast. I stopped in Tucson, Arizona to visit an old Army buddy, and he wanted to start keeping bees. Together we attended a Tucson Bee Club meeting, and there we met a wonderful elderly gentleman named CP Hedgecock. John approached him about buying a hive, and CP offered to take us out and show us his bees. By the time he had the cover back on the first hive I knew this was for me.
Back in ND I bought my first hive and got a job working for an outfit owned by Jim Powers, who at that time owned some 30,000 hives all over the US. After two years there I landed a job as a bee inspector for the State of North Dakota, which I enjoyed very much. I was getting paid to go out and learn about beekeeping.
I answered an ad about bees for sale my second spring as a bee inspector. I didn’t know the fellow who’d run the ad; turned out he was Larry Gunter. Larry was a third generation beekeeper and he and his brother were running 9,000 hives in ND. I found Larry’s house late one afternoon; we drove out to a spring yard and I made a deal to buy 20 nucs. He then suggested we head back to the local hotel for a steak. As we finished eating he looked at me and said “how’d you like to come up to Canada and run a bee outfit for us?” I took Larry up on it of course. They’d bought a 1,500 hive outfit in Nipawin, Saskatchewan; I bought 25% of the business and arranged to buy the balance over the next ten years. The Gunters migrated with their bees to SE Texas, and we raised packages in April for me to take up to SK. Larry put me to work in the queen yard the first winter; we raised cells for the 10,000 nucs they raised, and for several hundred baby queen nucs. We also sold lots of queen cells to smaller migratory beekeepers. When the border closed I was wintering about half of my outfit and I liked the way it spread out the work, but 20 – 30% winter losses were still normal. I knew I could not maintain my 1,800 hive outfit with no package bees. I sold my outfit, and I was happy I did. I then ran 400 hives for honey and developed a good queen cell business in May and June. Beekeepers would split their strong colonies and use cells to get them started, and eventually the package bees shipped from New Zealand provided some stability for hive numbers.
This past year marked 51 years in beekeeping for me. Nine years ago I sold my business in Saskatchewan and moved to the Sunshine Coast. Not willing to give up the bees altogether, I hauled 100 hives out here with me, and have certainly enjoyed getting involved in the BCHPA. I’m currently serving as President of the Sunshine Coast Bee Club and am also the Sunshine Coast rep to the BCHPA. I’m also a Past President of the Saskatchewan Beekeepers Association. The honeybee industry has been important to me all my working life, and I believe organizations like the BCHPA are crucial to the future of the honey bee industry. It’s a great honour for me to be elected President and I look forward to doing my best job for BC beekeepers.