Couple has a honey of a job

By AMBER DILLEY
Glasgow Daily Times

GLASGOW June 27, 2008 03:51 pm

— There’s quite a buzz around what Joel and Tiffany Gillespie do for a living.
The couple run Gillespie Beekeeping with about 15 beehives.
“We try to keep about 15 beehives consistently,” Joel said. “Right now we have 20, so we’ll sell a few to help other beekeepers out.”
Joel said the bees they keep are mostly two different strains of honeybees.
“All our bees are honeybees, but there’s a lot of different kinds. There are different strains, different races,” he said. “We keep mostly Russian honeybees and a strain called New World Carnolian.”
The Gillespies also help out folks who have problems with swarms finding refuge in and around their homes and vehicles.
“This year, we have responded to three swarms,” Joel said.
Joel said he has yet to be surprised at where he finds bees.
“One of the hives we caught this year was at a little outlet store – Tom’s Teepee in Cave City,” he said. “(The owner) called us and his truck was sitting right out front of the store, with the bees on the front of his truck. He had customers wanting to get in and they couldn’t because of the bees. It’s right across the street from a restaurant and the people in it were staring out the windows, watching us work.”
Joel said the biggest swarm of bees he’s ever had to remove was about five pounds.
“I don’t know how many bees are in a pound, but it was in the thousands,” he said of the swarm.
It was those pounds of bees that brought Joel and Tiffany together. Both were beekeepers when they met at a beekeeping field day in Scottsville.
“You know that veil beekeepers wear? She didn’t wear that during the wedding, but she took pictures at the wedding with it on,” Joel said.
Joel said they sell the honey their bees produce.
“We sell it through a new co-op grocery store in Glasgow,” he said. “We sell through word of mouth, friends, to people who see our sign by the road.”

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