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By Galen C. McBride
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
State bee inspector and expert bee keeper Bob Wellemeyer’s motto could be “Honeybees R Us.” “He’s the Bee Man,” agreed wife Beth Wellemeyer, who manages the administrative end of Windsong Apiaries, the family bee breeding and crop pollination business. “Bees are just his thing.”
At eight, Wellemeyer discovered an old hive smoker in the basement of his New Jersey home. That quickly led to five hives, more equipment, and a long-term friendship with a retired New Jersey state apiarist who nurtured his growing interest.
Past president of the Eastern Apiary Society and secretary-treasurer of the state Plant Pollination Advisory Board, Wellemeyer is recognized as one of the state’s, perhaps the country’s, foremost bee keepers. One of five state agricultural inspectors with the Office of Plant and Pest Services, Consumer Protection Division, Wellemeyer’s job centers on educating hobbyists, school children, and community and professional groups on bee management and the importance of bees in agriculture.
Equally important is enforcing the state “Bee Law” which deals with identifying and controlling the spread of American foulbrood, a spore-forming bacteria that seriously threatens the industry. Highly contagious, it can survive on contaminated equipment for hundreds of years. Wellemeyer also inspects colonies for two bee parasites brought to the U.S.
See BEE, Page A5
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