7-year-old Pennsylvania beekeeper has beehive with 50,000 bees

MANHEIM, Pennsylvania.

Dressed in black and yellow to look like the bees in his hive, Kellan Borecky, 7, of Penn Township spoke about how his bee friends accept him.

Kellan is the legal owner of his own apiary and one of the youngest members of the Lancaster County Beekeepers Society. He and his father, Justin Borecky, 33, of Penn Township, recently raised Kellan’s Hive to level three, which means adding 10 more frames to the hive for the bees to work on.

The hive is home to around 50,000 bees.

“All the bees in the hive… are the queen’s children,” Kellan said. “She’s just laying eggs.”

Over the past three months, Kellan and his father have learned from avid beekeeper Dale Long, 69, of Warwick Township. Kellan received his first beehive as a birthday present from Long this year.

When asked if he wanted to be a beekeeper when he grew up, Kellan replied confidently, “I’m a beekeeper,” emphasizing “Am.”

“I also want to be a chef and work at the Lego store,” Kellan added, but he’s currently focusing on beekeeping.

Kellan was 4 when he first asked his dad for bees, telling him how good it was that bees helped everything, remembers Justin Borecky.

“They pollinate (the flowers). They take the nectar from one flower and put it on the other flower so that the other flower will be healthier and produce more nectar for the next time, ”Kellan said.

Justin Borecky explained why he and his son were initially intrigued by bees, saying, “(Kellan) has very high anxiety, and for some reason the bees calm him down … He likes it.”

One recent summer day, Kellan, donning a white beekeeper costume, helped Long smoke one of Long’s beehives they were about to open. Beekeepers often expose beehives to smoke to keep the bees calm, which allows beekeepers to manipulate the hives.

“We are looking for eggs. We are looking for the brood. We are looking for the larva and the queen, ”said Justin Borecky. “If we don’t find the queen, we’re looking for eggs. If there’s an egg at the bottom … that means she’s been there recently. If we can’t find her, they’ll take one of those eggs she laid and turn it into another queen.

To make honey, bees first extract nectar and pollen from flowers; nectar is what turns into honey, while pollen is the source of protein that baby bees eat.

“They sometimes make pollen cake for babies,” Kellan said. “It looks like a chocolate cake but instead it’s in little combs.”

The bee produces wax through the glands in its body to make a comb that then fills with nectar, Borecky explained. Once the nectar evaporates into honey, they produce a bit more wax to cover it.

Kellan explained the importance of using fluid movements so as not to crush the bees.

“(Kellan) really makes sense with bees,” Long said. “I’m more experienced, but I’m not that fluent. ”

Before Kellan got his own bees, he did a lot of research on bees for a school project. He said his favorite parts as a beekeeper were eating honey and watching bees.

“They look like they have little eyes, but they’re big eyes,” Kellan said.

Her favorite way to eat honey is straight off the comb.

“It’s a beeswax with honey in it and you can eat beeswax with the honey,” Kellan said.

Neither Kellan nor Justin Borecky have ever been stung by their bees. Kellan said that although bees are known for their stingers, male bees, officially called drones, do not have stingers. They are much bigger and their eyes are connected on the top.

Justin Borecky thought it was a phase, but three years later he is convinced that bees have become a passion for his son.

“They accept me,” Kellan said. “They fly around me and then say I’m fine.”

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