by Robert GerardLes Crowder always had a great cu-

riosity about insects when he was a kidgrowing up in Bernalillo, New Mexico.This interest was particularly pronouncedwhen it came to social insects such asants, wasps and bees. He was fascinatedwith the organization of ants as they ad-justed their behavior to the food he wouldbring them. Crowder said it appeared thatthe ants showed intelligence, as they gotto know he would feed them at a certaintime and a certain place every day andhad the ability to communicate this infor-mation with their “sister” ants. Later, hemanaged to catch a bee swarm, which heput into a box. From that point, he wascaptivated by bees and would eventuallyspend the greater part of his life studyingand making a business out of them. Henow owns an apiary at Sparrow HawkFarm with his wife, Beth, and family.

In developing his art, Les Crowder hasborrowed and adapted techniques and in-formation from beekeepers worldwide.One of the most obvious innovations thathas been initiated at Sparrow Hawk Farmwas the change from Langstroth totop-bar hives.

BUILDING A BETTER HIVELangstroth hives are known to bee-

keepers and laymen alike as the box-shaped structures so often seen in api-aries. The design was invented in theearly 1800s by a Presbyterian ministernamed L.L. Langstroth and constituted astroke of genius that revolutionized bee-keeping. A Langstroth hive is made up ofstacking boxes called “supers,” withabout 10 frames in each box. The thinwooden frames hold sheets of machine-pressed beeswax or beeswax-coated plas-tic, called “foundation,” upon which thebees build honeycombs. The supers arewhere the bees make honey in the spring

and summer. These boxes are removedand stored off the hive during the winter.

The bottom one or two boxes arecalled the “brood nest” and contain honey,pollen and the brood, or larval bees. Eggsare laid in the hexagonal cells by thequeen. The eggs then hatch into larvae,which are fed by their adult sisters. Thelarvae eventually spin cocoons and hatchout as adults in this part of the hive.

Working with Langstroth hives isheavy work and hard on the back. Its de-sign dictates that supers have to be re-moved as a unit to harvest. These boxes,which contain between eight and tenframes, are carried to the centrifuge,where the honey is separated from thehoneycombs.

Beekeeping with Langstroth hives canalso be an expensive proposition. Thereare between 50 and 70 frames in a hive,each of which costs $3 and has a limitedlife. The centrifuge or extractor used toseparate the honey from the honeycombcosts between $300 and several thousanddollars.

The frames eventually become so dirtythat, even with conscientious cleaning,they will have to be thrown out. On aver-age, a frame in the supers will last 10years and in the brood chamber about fouryears. If not done in a timely fashion, thebees will begin to sicken. Punctuality inthrowing out old, dirty frames is easiersaid than done — with the expense of theframes and the labor involved in changingthem, this activity is often put off, whichputs the bees at risk for disease or otherproblems.

Although the hive with its frames isbasically maintenance-free while the beesare at work, a lot of effort must be ex-pended to keep the frames clean, since thebee larvae defecate under the cocoon,dirtying the comb. The frames are alsocleaned so that moths, which Les Crow-

der calls “the weeds of beekeeping,” donot become a big problem

When the supers are removed at theend of the season, they are then treated formoth eggs imbedded in the wax of thehoneycomb and in the wood of the frame.Treating for moths must be done with ut-most care, as any material or chemicalused on the frames will affect the beeswhen the frames are reused.

One of the most effective methods ofkilling wax-moth eggs and larvae is withparadichlorobenzene, the active materialin mothballs. This treatment involvesstoring, stacking, and making the framesairtight before adding mothballs. Al-though this method performs its task well,it is a lot of work. In addition, the Crow-ders and other beekeepers are concernedthat the mothballs themselves might leaveresidues that could affect the bees the fol-lowing season.

As an alternative to mothballs, theCrowders have tried storing frames on theroof of their house so that the New Mexi-

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June 2004 • Vol. 34, No. 6

The Crowder Family — for the past 20years they have made a living as bee-keepers at Sparrow Hawk Farm inSabinal, New Mexico.

Building a Better BeehiveInnovative Beekeeping & Value-Added Marketing

co sun and dry climate could work onthem, and foraging bees could clean outany honey residues. Wax moths don’t likeclean, honeyless combs. This methodworked well on the moths, but the Crow-ders discovered that the mice could get onthe roof and tear up the beeswax, allowingthe sun to melt it.

Another option was to scrape clean thedirty frames and put in new foundationsheets during the winter. The honeycombsheets could be bought at a relativelycheap price and could be installed into the

frames on the farm. However, the Crow-ders found this approach equally or evenmore expensive when labor was consid-ered. It was as tedious a task to recycle oldframes as it was expensive to buy andbuild 1,000 new frames each year.

The Langstroth hives served the Crow-ders well, but it was inevitable that theframes would get dirty and decrepit. Ear-ly on in his beekeeping enterprise, howev-er, Crowder read an article on Africanbeekeeping in which a “top-bar hive” wasdescribed. Impressed with the simplicity

of the design, he decided to construct afew as an experiment. Over the years, hekept track of these top-bar hives and howthey compared with the Langstroth de-sign.

When the Crowders suffered lossesfrom Varroa mite, they needed to put thebees in a clean environment immediately.Their Langstroth hives were old, dirty andfalling apart. To avoid the huge expenseof buying new hives and frames, theCrowder family decided to build top-barhives as a practical, cheap and effectiveenvironment for their bees. They haveused this design ever since.

A top-bar hive is elegantly simple in itsdesign. It can be a box of basically anyshape or design or a 55-gallon drum cutlengthwise. Across the top of the box area series of wooden bars or stakes. On theside of the box is a small hole where thebees can enter and exit. Les Crowder hasfound through experimentation that thebees prefer an entrance at the bottom ofthe box so as to easily get rid of waste anddead bees.

When introduced into the top-bar hive,the bees construct their own honeycombs,which extend down from each bar. Whenthe honeycombs are made and filled bythe bees, they are removed from the barfor harvest. Once the honeycomb is re-moved, the bees once again begin theprocess of building a new honeycomb.

In the top-bar hive, the ripe honey-combs are harvested from the bars in theback half. The 12 bars in front are left asbrood combs. Often, at the end of winter,half of the brood combs are disposed of ifthey look old and dirty.

The top-bar hive design has several ad-vantages. Crowder says the hives arecleaner and more conducive to natural beebehavior. In the wild, Crowder has no-ticed that bees are continually movingfrom old, dirty combs to build new ones.When the bees have moved out, the oldcombs are soon attacked by wax moths,which eat and demolish them. Similar tonature’s model, the honeycombs of thetop-bar hives are regularly removed dur-ing honey harvest, which keeps themcleaner and means that the bees are

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June 2004 • Vol. 34, No. 6

Beeswax hanging on the right, made from the mold on the left. Many of the beeswaxproducts at Sparrow Hawk Farm reflect the diversity of various cultures.

Peter Crowder holding candles made at the farm. The Crowders use the excess waxinherent in top-bar hives to make a series of products that are sold both locally andthrough the mail.

healthier and have less problems withmites and diseases.

Top-bar hives are also economical, at acost of $25 each, or less. They don’t needan expensive centrifuge to separate thehoney. They don’t demand as much laboror time to produce honey as Langstrothhives. Another very important aspect oftop-bar hives is that the whole wintercomb-storage job is eliminated.

The harvest of honey from top-barhives is less difficult than with theLangstroth model. Instead of the heavylifting to carry boxes to a centrifuge, thehoney is cut directly off the bars and intoa bucket. Once the bucket is filled, it iscarried inside, where the honeycombs arecrushed, and the honey filtered from thewax. Beth Crowder says that harvestingfrom top-bar hives is easy on the back andis not unlike picking vegetables.

Crowder feels that through the use oftop-bar hives, the farm has saved signifi-cant amounts of money in beekeepingsupplies and labor. These savings have inturn played a major role in the success oftheir venture. Crowder strongly contendsthat in beekeeping, as in other forms ofagriculture, “It is not what you make thatis important, it is what you save.”

The top-bar hive only demands that thebeekeeper keep the honeycombs straightas they develop. If this task is not done —especially when the bees are first buildingthe honeycomb and at two week intervalsafter that — “cross-combing” might re-sult, that is, the bees build their honey-combs on two or more bars, causing themto tear when the bar is removed from thehive.

In Langstroth hives, the foundation forthe comb is imprinted with six to eight ar-tificial cell sizes. In general these sizes arefor the workers, which produce the honey,rather than drones, which don’t. Each ofthese sizes has proponents and detractors.Larger cell sizes produce larger bees,which perhaps work harder and are stur-dier than smaller bees. However, it isthought that larger bees are more suscep-tible to disease and mites than are smallerbees.

Top-bar hives, on the other hand, allowthe bees to choose the correct cell size for

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June 2004 • Vol. 34, No. 6

Les and Beth Crowder teaching a workshop on top-bar hives and the skills necessaryto be a successful beekeeper.

Wooden bars with abandoned honeycombs still clinging to them. Honey is harvestedeasily in this style of hive by cutting the honeycomb from the bar.

themselves. They also determine by cellsize and other means how many workersand drones they want to produce, as wellas the size of bees they will raise. Crow-der believes that these decisions are bestleft to the bees, who know better than theapiculturalist the conditions they face andwhat is needed for a healthy hive.

Sparrow Hawk Farms has about 100top-bar hives in different locations. Theyare basically permanent, although they aresometimes moved to take advantage ofclover or purple sage. Each hive containsbetween 50,000 and 80,000 bees in sum-mer and 2,000 to 3,000 in winter. Crowdersays the population varies in response tothe availability of flowers that supply thehoney. In spring, the queen lays a lot ofeggs as flowers come into bloom, but withthe onset of fall and decreasing flowering,the supply of honey drops, and fewer eggsare laid.

Each top-bar hive produces one toeight gallons of honey and three to fivepounds of beeswax per year. This is 20 to50 percent less honey but a significantlygreater amount of wax than are producedby a Langstroth hive. Crowder explainsthat the greater quantity of wax in thetop-bar hive is due to fact that the beeshave to build their own honeycomb eachyear. Crowder has turned this extra waxproduction to his advantage, utilizing it tomake a number of products that have be-come an integral part of the business.

DEALING WITH DISEASEOne of the biggest problems facing

beekeepers is bacterial brood disease.These diseases attack larvae and can beextremely destructive. The most commonmethod to combat these diseases is the useof the antibiotic oxytetracycline, which ismixed with powdered sugar so the beeswill feed on it. The literature suggests thatthis chemical should only be used 30 daysbefore honey making begins in the springand after honey making ends in the fall.The treatment leaves bees vulnerable forthe entire honeymaking season. “So whatdoes a beekeeper do if they have a lot ofsick bees in the middle of summer?” asksCrowder.

Crowder did not use antibiotics whenhe started as a boy in beekeeping, but hesuccumbed to their use when the beesstarted to get sick. He always questionedtheir necessity, however, and wonderedwhat ancient Greek and Roman beekeep-ers had done, since they obviously hadn’tdeveloped antibiotics.

In an article by Steve Taber, Crowderdiscovered that breeding disease-resistantbees was a realistic alternative. In Taber’sexperiment, bee larvae were killed to seehow long it would take the bees to cleanout the carcasses. He found that some

bees delayed the work and did it poorly,whereas others did the work sometimestoo well. Taber selected for the “cleangene,” or those bees that did the best jobin cleaning and removing the dead fromthe hive. Given the name “HygienicBees,” they were distributed to beekeep-ers.

Inspired by Taber’s work, Crowder be-gan selecting bees from healthy hives, andfound that disease resistance was quicklyand easily attained. He also realized thathis use of antibiotics had created depend-encies on these chemicals and also thatthe resistance he was searching for wasbeing cloaked by the antibiotic. He alsofound that antibiotics worked against the“clean gene,” making bees lazy and vul-nerable to diseases and mite infestations.Since the inception of his breeding pro-grams, Crowder has completely discon-tinued the use of antibiotics in his hives.

One of the biggest challenges SparrowHawk Farm faced was with the introduc-tion to the United States of the Varroamite from China. Sparrow Hawk Farmsaw their first Varroa mite in 1995. By thetime 1998 rolled around, their hives weredevastated by this imported pest, and thewriting was on the wall for the end of theirbusiness.

The most common practice to combatthese mites was the use of miticide-satu-rated Apistan pest strips within the hive.Although Apistan or fluvalinate workedwith varying degrees of success, they cre-

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June 2004 • Vol. 34, No. 6

Les Crowder standing by a group of top-bar hives. Crowder hasabout 100 of these trouble-free hives, each of which yieldsbetween one and five pounds of honey per year. Although thistype produces more wax than a conventional hive, the wax hasbecome an advantage and an integral part of the Crowders’business.

A top-bar hive made from a 55-gallon drum cut lengthways.Across the top are wooden bars on which the bees produce theirhoneycombs.

ated serious problems, including contami-nation of the beeswax. Another concernwas the growing resistance of mites toApistan, leading to the emergency ap-proval of a more powerful organophos-phate. The mites subsequently became re-sistant to the organophosphate, as well.

Searching for alternatives, Crowderdiscovered that apiculturalists in northernMexico were using smoke from the Chap-arral or Creosote bush to clear their hivesof mites. He decided that it was worth atry and went into the desert to gathersome.

As a control for the experiment, hepuffed smoke from burning cow manureinto the hive, the result beingthat he caught 10 dead miteson paper saturated with veg-etable oil. Next he blew increosote smoke. On the veg-etable soaked paper, hecounted about 300 deadmites. Almost crying tears ofjoy, the Crowders recognizedthey had a silver bullet to themite problem and that theirfarm would survive. Sincethis initial experiment, theyhave used creosote bush on aconsistent basis to keep mitesat bay. They have also foundthat juniper bark and leaveswhen burned are an evenmore effective solution onmites.

The use of creosote or juniper as amiticide was quickly discredited by theproducers of Apistan, who claimed thesmoke contained chemicals that couldcause harm to the bees and the consumer.There were members of the scientificcommunity who thought otherwise, how-ever, finding the practice to be not only aneffective way to kill mites, but one thatwas safe for bees.

The Varroa mite has also been con-trolled through the breeding of resistantbees. Although hygienic bees had someresistance to mites due to their cleaningbehavior, it wasn’t enough, and the Varroamite was more difficult to breed againstthan were brood diseases. Crowder andother beekeepers had to turn to othersources.

The search for Varroa-resistant beeswent overseas, and Crowder has bees thatwere bred in Russia for resistance tomites. Because they reached the goal of

mite resistance when American breederscouldn’t do it, Crowder believes that thesecreative and intelligent people should beknown as Russian Master Beekeepers.

A strain of bees resistant to mites wasalso developed by the Baton Rouge BeeLaboratory, the result of a call that wentout to beekeepers asking for the queens ofall hives that survived mite problems. Theresistant strain of bees was developed andgiven the name “Suppressed Mite Repro-duction Trait” (SMaRT) bees, then dis-tributed to beekeepers nationwide.

Sparrow Hawk Farm has also facedchallenges with a much larger pest. Dri-ven out of the mountains by starvation

and an extended drought, bears havesometimes come to visit the farm with de-structive consequences. In one particular-ly hair-raising experience, Crowder wait-ed, shotgun in hand, for a bear that hadbeen destroying his hives. When he final-ly came face to face with this powerfulanimal, he managed to coax it away fromhis hives and into a huge live trap. Thebear was then taken far away to be re-leased.

Since this unnerving incident, SparrowHawk Farm has taken the lead from theCanadians, who have successfully usedsolar-charged electric fences to keep thesebig animals out. They have had no morebear problems since the fences went up.

HONEY & PESTICIDESIt is said that bees need to visit 1,600

florets of clover to make one drop of hon-ey. To accomplish this monumental task,bees such as those at Sparrow Hawk Farmneed to work hard and cover great dis-tances. For maximum honey production,bees need a long flowering season. Aseach kind of flower comes into bloom andthe bees carry their pollen back to thehive, a different, unique-flavored honey isproduced.

The bees at Sparrow Hawk Farm begintheir honey production by visiting desertsumac in March and early April. Theymove on to Phacelia in late April,

mesquite in May, salt cedarin June, alfalfa and clover inJuly, purple sage in August,and finally Cenizio in Octo-ber.

The work of gathering thepollen and nectar makes beesvulnerable to many dangers,not the least of which arepesticides. Often Crowderand other beekeepers havehad to face this problem in aproactive manner to keeptheir hives productive. In oneinstance, Crowder workedout an arrangement with anearby corn grower wherebyhe would be given advancewarning before sprayingtakes place. With this warn-

ing, the bees can be moved away and pro-tected while the pesticide is being applied.

A more difficult problem was faced bybeekeepers with the chemical Furadan,which is sprayed on alfalfa fields to controlthe alfalfa weevil. When aerially sprayed,it can kill bees for a seven-mile radius. Be-cause they were losing so many bees to thischemical, the New Mexico Beekeepers As-sociation went to the alfalfa growers towork out a solution.

At first, the two sides were confronta-tional. To help the alfalfa growers to un-derstand the plight of the beekeepers,Crowder asked them what they wouldthink if, when beekeepers sprayed forsomething, all the alfalfa was wiped out ina seven-mile radius. The alfalfa growersunderstood this scenario perfectly andhave since worked in a positive fashionwith beekeepers.

One adjustment they have made is anearly shut-off date, to prevent spraying

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June 2004 • Vol. 34, No. 6

Top-bar hives in an orchard, where the bees fill a crucial role as pol-linators and increase the orchard owner’s harvest.

while the willows are in bloom and thebees are visiting them. The alfalfa farmershave also opted for ground spraying to de-crease the drift and area of impact inher-ent in aerial spraying. Finally, they havemade the change from Furadan to themuch-less-toxic Lorsban.

Crowder does not foresee his farmhaving problems with Africanized bees.He believes that these bees, originatingfrom the lowlands of Africa, will not beable to tolerate the cold. He also suspectsthat because of their background in thewarmer climates, they will not develop agenetic tolerance for the cold.

The Crowders readily admit that theirfarm survived because of diversity. Theyreminisce on the difficulty of making endsmeet when their concentration was just onhoney. Beth Crowder describes how in thebeginning they would go from one buyerto the next carrying a bucket of honey to

sell. This hand-to-mouth existence endedwhen they started to look at beeswax as anasset.

The beeswax is made into a large vari-ety of products. Candles and ornamentsare made with molds. Often the resultingdesigns are reminiscent of different na-tionalities and cultures.

To create their candles, the Crowdersexperimented with wick size and the waxto get the most clean-burning product.Beth Crowder said that these beeswaxcandles consume the wax completelywithout leaving the petroleum residue ofparafin candles. They also have the bonusof smelling like honey when lit

The Crowders started their beeswaxbusiness with these candles, which weresold locally and at festivals. After theysaw braided Havdallah candles in the mu-sical Fiddler on the Roof, they decided tocreate them, as well. They found that

these candles were very popular with Jew-ish people and were bought for use intheir religion. It was not long until theywere asked to produce other kinds of can-dles for other Jewish celebrations. Theynow produce Shabot, Minora, as well asthe braided Havdallah candles.

By going to festivals, the Crowdersmet people who were interested in theirproducts and wanted to wanted access tothem after the festival closed. A mail-or-der business was set up, and, encouragedby its success, the Crowders decided tomake a brochure and catalogue of theirbusiness and the products they offered.They now have a brisk mail-order busi-ness that peaks around Christmas.

People often drive great distances tobuy the Crowders’ honey. Customers rec-ognize that this honey is special and arewilling to pay the appropriate price for thework that was put into it.

Although the Crowders’ operation isorganic in its practices, they have not be-come certified. Interest in their products isalready so strong that they can’t meet cus-tomer demand. In fact, they encourageothers in their area, hoping in the future toform a honey cooperative.

The Crowders promote their art bymaintaining an open-door policy forgroups and people interested in beekeep-ing. At Sparrow Hawk Farm, they have

Beeswax candles such as this one con-sume wax completely and don’t leave thepetroleum residue in the air that parafincandles do. They also have the addedbonus of smelling like honey when lit.

Gathering a wild swarm. When gathered, these bees will be introduced into a hive,where their honey can be harvested by the beekeeper.

greeted people from places as far away asChili, Tanzania and Denmark. They havealso welcomed many different groups,from the Hochitl Indians of Mexico, toschools, to antique car and book clubs.They also try to extend information onbeekeeping through their biannual work-shops.

With the income from both honey andbeeswax products, the Crowders havebuilt their home and bought more land.Even with their success, they readily ad-mit that beekeeping is a humble thoughgood life that requires a certain kind ofperson. Crowder says the requirements ofbeing a beekeeper are enjoying the out-doors, tolerating stings, and willingness tostay close to home, especially in the sum-mer. “Beekeeping is not a way to make a

lot of money, but it is a way to have a verygood life,” he declares.

Robert Gerard is a market gardener inChaparral, New Mexico, and frequentlywrites on agricultural topics. He is theauthor of Gardening the Arid Land, atechnical manual on dryland gardening.It is available from the author for $8.95postpaid at 441 Paseo Real, Chaparral,New Mexico 88021.

Les and Beth Crowder can be contact-ed at Sparrow Hawk Farm, P.O. Box 88,Bosque, New Mexico 87006, phone (505)864-0520.

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