FAMILY OPERATION … The Dinius family presented Archbold Rotary’s final program of 2025 recently on beekeeping, a hobby and vocation that most of the family members have been involved with for more than 35 years. And, in Wayne’s case, for much of his adult life since beekeeping is a vital part of farming. Pictured from left: Wayne Dinius with his granddaughter Anna Kaufman, his daughter Ruth Dinius-Kaufman, and Rotarian Bob Aschliman, who arranged the program.
PRESS RELEASE – For long-time Fulton County farmer Wayne Dinius, beekeeping is a natural extension of farming since bees are responsible for helping produce about 20 percent of the fruits, nuts and vegetables that people eat as a result of pollination.
His daughter Ruth Dinius-Kaufman told Archbold Rotarians that bees are the only insect that produces a product that people eat – honey.
Further, he said that about 80 percent of the honey in Ohio comes from bees that pollinate soybean fields.
The father-daughter team recently told the Rotarians about the family’s experience in beekeeping for more than 35 years.
Bees are very social with each hive having one queen, whose sole job is to lay eggs. The rest of the bees in the hive serve specific functions.
Some of the bees in a hive are there solely to serve the queen – either feed her or guard her. Others leave the hive to gather nectar – flying from one from reblooming plant to another and in the process pollinate the blooms so that they produce fruit and seeds.
As those bees return to the hive they produce honey from the nectar in six-sided honey comb cells.
Wayne explained that the hexagonal cells that the bees created are the strongest, most efficient shape.
The honey combs are in the top frames of a hive with the lower frames reserved for the queen to lay her eggs and for the young bees to develop.
When hives become too crowded, it was explained that bees will seek a new hive where a beekeeper has placed a different queen. And, the process of starting a colony begins.
They explained that every winter they may lose about one-third of their hives. A number of reasons could cause a colony to collapse, such as mite or other insect infestation, bacteria, dysentery (caused when bees cannot void their digestive system outside the hive for one reason or another, and pesticides used by farmers and gardeners to kill insects that also kill the bees.
Wayne said a number of beekeepers truck their hives in the winter to Florida or California where they are paid to provide bees that in turn pollinate their cash crops.
However, Wayne said that they do not do that. Their bees remain in Ohio – waiting for spring.
When beekeepers are working around bees, they use smokers to create a haze that calms the bees, and wear protective gear – particularly covering their eyes, an area that bees seem drawn to try and sting.
Finally, honey is shelf stable – it doesn’t spoil. It may become granular, but simply heating the honey a bit returns it to its original form without any loss of flavor.