Jelinek Apiaries offers natural liquid sugar
By Rebecca Gearing Carlson
Sun contributor
Nectar, Ambrosia, and Nature’s Liquid Gold are ancillary names for one of nature’s most valuable substances known as honey. Boasting endless health and cosmetic benefits, a spectrum of colors ranging from water-white to dark amber, clarity levels of clear to opaque depending on filtration and pasteurization, and flavor profiles from delicately mild to bold depending on location and type of plant the bees pollinated, honey has earned its treasured reputation. To all this, business owners Andrew Jelinek and Robert Herman have embraced the time-honored vocation of beekeeping for Jelinek Apiaries since 2014.
Honey bees have the crucial task of pollinating crops and providing the world with honey. However, what is honey? It is more than a gooey, golden-colored source of sweetness. “Honey is essentially a natural liquid sugar. It’s made by hardworking honey bees, who collect nectar from flowers and take it back to their hive, where they chew on it until it turns into honey. Then, they deposit the honey into tiny, waxy storage units called honeycombs and fan it with their wings to dry it out, a process that makes it stickier” (health.clevelandclinic.org).
So, how does the honey move from the comb into a container? Extraction. There are two ways of extracting honey from the comb. The traditional method involves smoking the bees to calm them down and then removing the honeycomb which will be squeezed and drained. The negative to this method is that it destroys the honeycomb. The more modern method is to extract the honey using a machine. “Extractors work by centrifugal force. A container holds a frame basket which spins, flinging the honey out. With this method, the wax comb stays intact within the frame and can be reused by the bees” (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Essentially, the mechanical method of extracting honey is less damaging.
Most locals know the Jelinek Apiaries glass honey bottle by sight. They are “a beautiful replica of the old-fashioned square honey jars used by Charles Muth, one of the largest honey sellers in the 1800s” (fillmorecontainer.com). The glass Muth bottles are distinctive by shape and that they have an embossed bee skep on the jar with a cork stopper. Classic. Several bakeries and local stores carry the Jelinek honey bottles. Along with the local farmers markets in the Leelanau Peninsula, direct retail only accounts for about five percent of the Jelinek Apiaries sales. According to Andrew, “95% of sales are through wholesale business.” So, when someone comes across the unique Jelinek Apiaries honey bottle in a local store or one of the many farmer’s markets, it is a special treat.
Beekeeping is in the Jelinek blood and began with Andrew’s grandfather, James Jelinek, who started beekeeping in Missouri before moving to Southern Michigan as a teenager. James began his first hive at five years old and continued beekeeping throughout his life, sharing his devotion of honey bees with his son, Rick. It is Andrew’s father, Rick Jelinek, who brought the beekeeping business to the Suttons Bay area in the early 1990s. Along with Rick’s three sons, Sean, Jeremy, and Andrew, they created the Jelinek beekeeping and honey business. Crossing paths with fellow, local beekeepers Julius Kolarik and Don Gregory, they helped Rick and his sons press their first honey. According to Andrew, it was his older brother Jeremy who enthusiastically embraced beekeeping. Jeremy, like his grandfather James, had his “first hive at five years old.” Moreover, Andrew explained, “Teenage Jeremy [invested] all his savings to buy bees” in pursuing his avocation as a third-generation beekeeper. Andrew’s earliest memories of interacting with bees was like so many people, getting stung. However, this did not deter Andrew from supporting Jeremy’s endeavors with beekeeping. Tragically, Jeremy suffered a fatal automobile accident in 2012 at age 27. Despite the personal devastation and grief, Andrew picked up the mantle of the thriving beekeeping business his brother Jeremy built.
After investing in some previously used beekeeping equipment from Donnie Herman in 2012, about 100 hive boxes, Andrew launched his journey into apiculture along with friend and business partner, Robert Herman. They began with about “500 hives.” In wanting to understand if stepping into the beekeeping business was a natural progression from Andrew’s family background, the question arose: “Is beekeeping a job or a vocation?” Andrew responded that “while it’s very demanding and labor intensive, working with bees” is a passion. In addition, he offered, “I’m good at it,” suggesting it came to him naturally. Building on the collective knowledge, training, and equipment from grandfather James, father Rick, and brother Jeremy, Andrew and Robert were set up for success in continuing to build and expand the beekeeping and honey-making business of Jelinek Apiaries.
Currently, Jelinek Apiaries has three active buildings, one of which is the original honey-house began by Rick Jelinek, to house and grow the beekeeping and honey business through the hard-working efforts of Andrew and Robert. In continuing to build their business, they now have 1,300 hives which can produce up to “80–100lbs” of honey per hive in a good season.
Honey-producing is only one facet of the Jelinek Apiaries business. Andrew’s motto is, “take care of the neighbors.” Meaning Robert and Andrew help the local farms, around 25–30, pollinate their crops each year by placing honey bee boxes throughout the orchards of Leelanau County. “Pollination is a large chuck of the business,” helping local farmers with their various fruit crops such as cherry, blueberry, and apples to name a few. In the spring season, there will be about “40–50 honey yards around Leelanau County.” Andrew stressed the importance of keeping at least a “3-mile buffer between every yard” as optimal. “Three miles give the bees enough room where they will not be fighting over the same plants or each other.” Additionally, Jelinek Apiaries sends their industrious honey bees out of state to Georgia, California, and Wisconsin during the off-season in Michigan.
Another facet of the beekeeping business for Andrew and Robert is maintaining all the hives. Andrew called himself a “migratory beekeeper.” Aside from normal maintenance of the local hives, visiting each one every two weeks, Jelinek Apiaries has a workshop located in Georgia. While the Jelinek bees help pollinate the blueberry crops in Georgia, it also allows the honey bees to winter in a warmer climate which helps with “increasing [the] hive count.” Maintaining healthy hives along with temporary re-location during winter months in warmer climates keeps the bees happy, healthy, and producing. “Healthy bees are friendly bees,” according to Andrew.
Myths, misconceptions, and dangers surrounding bees are numerous. When asked to describe the biggest myth about honey bees, Andrew laughed and explained that “bears do not go after honey when attacking a hive. They are after the bee larvae and the brood with a honey chaser.” So, everyone who believed A.A. Milne’s depiction of bears like Winnie the Pooh always on the hunt for “hunny” was misled.
The biggest misconception is that all bees are angry little insects that want to sting everyone. According to the World Wildlife Fund website, “Ninety percent of the world’s…species of bees…are solitary[.] Most bees you encounter are hardworking, single moms. If these solitary bees die in the act of trying to sting you, there will be no one else to collect pollen and nectar for her young.” Aside from pesticides posing a danger to honey bees, habitat loss is another. According to beloved Leelanau County beekeeper, Julius Kolarik who could teach a master class on the subject, he asks locals to “think twice about mowing down open fields of grasses and weeds that contain ‘honey plants’ that support the pollinators.” Honey plants refer to blooming plants known to produce nectar for the pollinators to feed. Plants such as dandelions, chickweed, star thistle, milkweed and many types of clover are technically considered weeds; however, these plants feed pollinators and thus feed humans.
Lastly, “…bee’s honey is an invaluable natural substance with many diverse usages. It is an effective medicine, a safe home remedy, cosmetic and a nutrient usable by people of all ages” (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). So, when you come across the distinctive glass Jelinek Apiaries honey bottle, know that the customer is purchasing a nutritious product made with devotion, hours of hard work, and most importantly, a love of nature and the local community.
