On Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27, 1924, a child was born who would have a lasting effect on beekeeping in the state of Maine. Fast-forward to Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27, 2014, and that man, Harold Swan, is celebrating his 90th birthday.
At the age of 19, Harold, who lived on Prospect Street in Brewer, ordered his first beehive from Sears, Roebuck and Co.
While Harold was in the service from 1943 to 1946, his father Reginald looked after the bees. When he returned from service, Harold got more and more involved in bees and R.B. Swan and Son Inc. began to grow. As his numbers of hives grew, he would move them to the best forage areas to collect the most honey whether that was Down East to the blueberries or up to The County for clover and raspberries.
Harold was one of the first beekeepers to take honeybees to the blueberry barrens of Jasper Wyman and Son. In those days, a beekeeper would get $6 to $8 per hive for taking his bees out to the blueberries for the May through June bloom. As the growers saw the impact of bringing in honeybees on their crop — about 1,000 pounds more blueberries per hive, per acre — more and more bees were brought in. This year 83,000 bee colonies were brought into Maine just for blueberries, costing $100 to $140 per hive.
Harold grew his bee and honey business, eventually running more than 1,000 beehives. The honey business grew so much he had to bring honey in from other beekeepers. He kept four employees busy looking after bees or bottling 200,000 pounds of honey per year.
In 2002, Harold sold R.B. Swan and Son to Lincoln Sennet, who moved Swan’s Honey to its present home in Albion. You cannot live in Maine and not have heard of Swan’s Honey or seen it in the supermarket.
Harold has seen a lot of changes in beekeeping since the 1940s. Back then, there were far fewer houses and a lot more forage. Clover grew everywhere, and most hives would make 80 to 100 pounds of surplus honey. In the 1970s, foul brood was the biggest threat to bees. Various treatments to keep that under control have come and gone. In the 1980s, the varroa mite spread across the country, wiping out almost all wild honeybee colonies. Mites remain the biggest problem for beekeepers today. Though colony collapse disorder has been a major concern in the last decade, it’s not something we have seen a lot of in Maine, though it has had a big knock-on effect on prices of bees.
Since selling the honey business, Harold and his wife, Hilda, who still live in the same house in Brewer, have been running just one or two hives and most importantly a beekeeping supply business. This is how I got to know them, as my local bee equipment suppliers. Harold has been my beekeeping mentor since we met in 2003. He takes great pleasure in passing on seven decades of beekeeping experience to new and experienced beekeepers alike. It has been my pleasure and privilege to not just learn from him but also to work more and more closely with him in the bee supply business.
Years of lifting heavy honey supers have taken a toll on Harold’s back, but he still gets out and about. This summer, he and Hilda came to my house when I hosted one of Penobscot County Beekeepers open hive meetings. It is so great for new beekeepers to talk about bees with someone with such a wealth of experience. Harold and Hilda also made it to the Maine State Beekeepers annual meeting, which PCBA hosted at Hampden Academy last month.
Hundreds of local and not so local hobbyist beekeepers spent many happy hours in his store and have learned so much from him enjoying tales of beekeeping in Maine. I am sure they join me in wishing Harold Swan, the grandfather of beekeeping in Maine, a very happy 90th birthday. This Thanksgiving, I will be giving thanks for the effect Harold Swan has had on me and on beekeeping in Maine.
Peter Cowin, aka The Bee Whisperer, is President of the Penobscot County Beekeepers Association. His activities include honey production, pollination services, beekeeping lessons, sales of bees and bee equipment and the removal of feral bee hives from homes and other structures. Check out “The Bee Whisperer” on Facebook, petercowin@tds.net, cell 207 299 6948.