Thursday, March 27, 2008
By LAURA MCVICKER, Columbian staff writer

Before he could walk, Edmund Varney was a beekeeper.

At 6 months old, Varney’s father took him to bee colonies in canyons along the San Fernando Valley in Southern California. There, he was introduced to the hives and told the beekeeper’s trade was his destiny.

The colonies were his father’s life and his father’s father’s life.

Varney, the third in a five-generation family of beekeepers, hasn’t retired. Each spring, the 90-year-old and his grandson, Ryan Lieuallen, work at maintaining several hundred colonies of bees to produce 20,000 pounds of honey. At Varney’s Vancouver home, they house queen bees inside boxes for Lieuallen’s honey-making business, Sweet Bee Honey Co. Their busiest season is approaching later this spring.

Lieuallen’s business is still thriving in the face of a declining market nationwide, mainly because of a “colony collapse disorder.” The disorder, which has struck 24 states, causes adult bees to fly away from their hives and not return. As a result, queens and baby bees die. So far, there aren’t any bee losses linked to the collapse in Clark County, said Dean Spellman, the county’s biggest beekeeper.

The Varneys also haven’t been hit. But the worry lingers.

“The main thing is to keep the bees alive,” Varney said. That means being mindful of varroa, or tracheal mites, and applying organic treatments, such as Apiguard, a pesticide, early enough in the season and in the right dosage. The mites aren’t connected to the collapse, but they are a perennial problem for beekeepers.

“We all are in danger of losing the business,” Spellman said. “All it takes is one year in which you are late in applying mite treatment or apply the wrong dosage.”

Regardless of the collapse, the Varneys still make the hives, move the hives, produce the honey, package it and sell it. And they all have different roles.

Varney has spent 68 years in the bee business, and his grandson, Lieuallen, has spent five years developing his colonies. Varney’s daughter, Leeanne Goetz, although allergic to bees, manufactures honey for her own Brush Prairie business, Honey Ridge Farms. She gets her honey from her son, Lieuallen, a Washington State University student in Pullman.

“It’s kind of like anyone who sticks around this guy (Varney) long enough collects bees,” Lieuallen joked.

Beekeeping shaped family reunions, graduations and weddings. It appears in old family photos. It shows up on coffee mugs, refrigerator magnets and other trinkets in Varney’s home. It offered Lieuallen a glimpse into a career he doesn’t think he’d know if it weren’t for his grandfather.

Beginnings

Varney grew up in north Hollywood, Calif., at a time when beekeepers were just pioneering the idea of moving hives. His father, a retired businessman, purchased a swath of land 30 miles away to keep his hives.

During the summer months, Varney and his brothers helped their dad move 74 colonies to honey crops in land close to Bakersfield, Calif. There, they’d haul the boxes of colonies from the truck and place them along the honey crops.

The early life hobby became Varney’s trade. Over the years, he operated a beekeeping business in California and Wyoming before retiring and moving his family to Clark County in the 1970s.

After his daughter, Goetz, married her husband, George Lieuallen, Varney introduced him to bees. While the couple later divorced, George Lieuallen still colonizes bees on the weekends with son Ryan.

At first, Ryan Lieuallen didn’t like beekeeping. He got stung and swore off the insects. Then, he noticed the perks: He got to be outdoors and got money for it.

In his teen years, Lieuallen went to his grandfather’s house after school to build and maintain bee equipment, such as movable frames and smokers. During his junior year, Lieuallen started the Sweet Bee business. He produces honey wholesale to businesses throughout western United States.

As her son’s trade developed, Goetz launched her own business. She sells jam, vinegar and seven varieties of honey to gourmet food shops throughout the region.

Goetz, Lieuallen and Varney still find time to set aside the work, enjoy each other’s company and tell stories. But they’ll take to the colonies the next day. And the next day.

“That’s how they raised their family,” Lieuallen said.