Rural Tyler couple gets deep into bees and honey
Kyle Kuphal | Staff reporter
kkuphal@pipestonestar.com
Richard and Kathy Kallemeyn, of rural Tyler, typically eat around five gallons of honey a year. That might seem like a lot of honey, but it’s a mere drop in the bucket compared to what is produced by the bees in their 50 hives.
They keep most of their hives on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land. The CRP program encourages farmers and landowners to convert highly erodible and other environmentally sensitive acreage to vegetative cover such as native grasses, trees and riparian buffers, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Those characteristics make it a desirable place for pollinators such as bees. The CRP land also tends to provide a buffer from pesticides.
Richard said the population of each hive varies. After winter, there might be as few as 10,000 bees per hive and during the peak of their populations in the middle of summer, each hive might have as many as 60,000 bees. With 50 hives, that would be up to three million bees in all.
Richard said the amount of honey produced also varies. Some hives produce just enough for the bees and others produce up to 100 pounds beyond that. He said the average is around 75 pounds per hive.
“They’re so efficient that they make excess,” he said. “They’re hard working little bugs.”
In 2024, the Kallemeyns said, their bees produced around 1,200 to 1,500 pounds of honey.
The Kallemeyns harvest the honey in July or August. Richard said they use an extractor that uses centrifugal force to remove the honey from the comb. The honey is then poured through a strainer to remove any wax chunks. The Kallemeyns then bottle it and put labels on the bottles that say “R K Honey.”
The Kallemeyns sell their honey at the Pipestone Farmers Market, Water Tower Festival in Pipestone and events in Tracy. They also sell it to repeat customers and by word of mouth. They offer bottles ranging from 8 ounces to quarts at varying prices.
Kathy said she helps with the labeling and other aspects of the process, but leaves the beekeeping to Richard due to a couple incidents when working with the hives, including being chased by bees.
“I had a whole swarm chase me down the field,” she said. “I know I had at least 10 stings that day.”
Richard has been stung so many times, that Kathy said he doesn’t even swell up anymore.
“He comes in the house at times and says he got stung and I can’t even tell you where he got stung anymore because he doesn’t swell up or anything anymore,” Kathy said.
Richard said he doesn’t even bother to wear a beekeeping suit most of the time because it gets too warm and the gloves make it difficult to work with the frames in the hives.
He said his beekeeping hobby began about 15 years ago. He’d been interested in bees before that, but that’s when an opportunity presented itself for him to get started. He was helping his brother’s in-laws clean up after a storm and was cutting up an ash tree when he inadvertently cut the top off of a beehive inside part of the tree. He decided to cover the end of the log to keep the bees inside and took it home.
“Then I went online and bought a beehive and “Beekeeping for Dummies” book and progressed from there,” Richard said.
The book said the bees needed about 100 pounds of honey for a winter, Richard said, but they only had about two pounds, so he fed them sugar water. They survived the winter and in the spring he bought more bees and expanded.
kkuphal@pipestonestar.com
Richard and Kathy Kallemeyn, of rural Tyler, typically eat around five gallons of honey a year. That might seem like a lot of honey, but it’s a mere drop in the bucket compared to what is produced by the bees in their 50 hives.
They keep most of their hives on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land. The CRP program encourages farmers and landowners to convert highly erodible and other environmentally sensitive acreage to vegetative cover such as native grasses, trees and riparian buffers, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Those characteristics make it a desirable place for pollinators such as bees. The CRP land also tends to provide a buffer from pesticides.
Richard said the population of each hive varies. After winter, there might be as few as 10,000 bees per hive and during the peak of their populations in the middle of summer, each hive might have as many as 60,000 bees. With 50 hives, that would be up to three million bees in all.
Richard said the amount of honey produced also varies. Some hives produce just enough for the bees and others produce up to 100 pounds beyond that. He said the average is around 75 pounds per hive.
“They’re so efficient that they make excess,” he said. “They’re hard working little bugs.”
In 2024, the Kallemeyns said, their bees produced around 1,200 to 1,500 pounds of honey.
The Kallemeyns harvest the honey in July or August. Richard said they use an extractor that uses centrifugal force to remove the honey from the comb. The honey is then poured through a strainer to remove any wax chunks. The Kallemeyns then bottle it and put labels on the bottles that say “R K Honey.”
The Kallemeyns sell their honey at the Pipestone Farmers Market, Water Tower Festival in Pipestone and events in Tracy. They also sell it to repeat customers and by word of mouth. They offer bottles ranging from 8 ounces to quarts at varying prices.
Kathy said she helps with the labeling and other aspects of the process, but leaves the beekeeping to Richard due to a couple incidents when working with the hives, including being chased by bees.
“I had a whole swarm chase me down the field,” she said. “I know I had at least 10 stings that day.”
Richard has been stung so many times, that Kathy said he doesn’t even swell up anymore.
“He comes in the house at times and says he got stung and I can’t even tell you where he got stung anymore because he doesn’t swell up or anything anymore,” Kathy said.
Richard said he doesn’t even bother to wear a beekeeping suit most of the time because it gets too warm and the gloves make it difficult to work with the frames in the hives.
He said his beekeeping hobby began about 15 years ago. He’d been interested in bees before that, but that’s when an opportunity presented itself for him to get started. He was helping his brother’s in-laws clean up after a storm and was cutting up an ash tree when he inadvertently cut the top off of a beehive inside part of the tree. He decided to cover the end of the log to keep the bees inside and took it home.
“Then I went online and bought a beehive and “Beekeeping for Dummies” book and progressed from there,” Richard said.
The book said the bees needed about 100 pounds of honey for a winter, Richard said, but they only had about two pounds, so he fed them sugar water. They survived the winter and in the spring he bought more bees and expanded.
