Tosa DPW worker also a beekeeper
Jeff Amich nudges a honey bee off his finger as he checks how much honey has been produced at his Vernon farm. Photo By Mary Catanese
In his 15 years with the Wauwatosa Department of Public Works, Jeff Amich has operated front-end loaders, steered garbage trucks and plowed snow.
"I'm kind of a jack of all trades," Amich said. "I do whatever it takes to get the job done."
But when the workday is done, the 51-year-old's life is a hive of activity of a different sort. He often can be found tending to a 75-colony honey bee farm in the backyard of the Vernon home he shares with his wife and two teenage children.
Amich sells his honey at the Wauwatosa Farmers Market on Saturdays and at the East Towne Market in Milwaukee.
What draws people to keep the company of honey bees? For Amich, it all began in 2004 when he visited a pumpkin farm in East Troy. While there, he began talking with a beekeeper.
"I've always been interested in bees ... and this beekeeper told me the whole cycle and how bees work," Amich said. "He also offered me the opportunity to come by his farm to see what it was like, so I learned by helping him and other beekeepers."
Shortly after that meeting, he purchased a nucleus colony, and Rolling Meadows Honey Farm was born.
"I went out right away after that and purchased seven more colonies," Amich said. "I thought, 'Gee, this was easy,' but I learned there's more to it than I originally thought."
He now has a goal of having between 100 and 125 colonies.
"This will be my retirement," he said.
The ins and outs of keeping honey bees can be relaxing, he said. It also can be a lucrative business - just look at the price of honey. A pound sells for about $5. Last year, Amich said, his hives produced 2,300 pounds of honey; this year it is closer to 3,000 pounds.
His farm has not experienced a phenomenon called "colony collapse disorder," in which worker bees in a colony disappear abruptly for no known reason.
However, there has been some early springtime swarming, caused by overpopulation of bees inside the colony. The average honey bee colony in the summertime - at the season's peak, between mid-June and mid-July - hosts between 30,000 and 40,000 bees. That number decreases as summer winds down and the queen lays fewer eggs, Amich said.
How many times has he been stung?
"Over 500 times, but that's just the way it is sometimes with honey bees," he said.
If you know of a person you think others should get to know, send us an e-mail at someone@cninow.com.
Just the Facts
NAME: Jeff Amich
AGE: 51
OCCUPATION: equipment operator with the Wauwatosa Department of Public Works; beekeeper, Rolling Meadows Honey Farm
HOME: Vernon
BEEN STUNG?: "Over 500 times, but that's just the way it is sometimes with honey bees."
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