DuPage volunteer's 'beeswax' nets state honor

What goes on inside 15 hives at Kline Creek Farm near West Chicago is, in fact, Lawrence DuBose's beeswax.

It's been that way for the past 26 years when he first approached DuPage County Forest Preserve officials about the necessity of the beehives for the district's living-history farm. The 89-year-old Carol Stream man has been volunteering his time tending to the insects ever since.

"When they first opened the farm I told them they were going to need bees," DuBose said. "Back in the 1890s farmers needed bees."

Foremost, the bees were needed to pollinate vegetation. But farmers also used the honey as sweetener and beeswax for a variety of things.

To hear forest preserve officials tell it, DuBose is as vital to the farm as the bees.

"It's been wonderful to have him here," said Keith McClow, the farm's education site supervisor. "Not only because he's training new volunteers and providing honey for us to sell, but he acts almost independently as a staff person at this point."

The Illinois Association of Park Districts also likes DuBose's giving spirit and named him the group's "Citizen Volunteer of the Year."

DuBose was chosen from among 10 other top volunteers throughout the state, said Bobbie Jo Hill, the organization's public relations director. His length of service set him apart from other nominees, she said.

"He's volunteered his time since that forest preserve opened over 25 years ago, and that's a hard thing to find," she said. "It's a unique person who will spend so much of his time and resources getting the message out for so long and over so many years."

DuBose has been involved with beekeeping most of his life. He doesn't keep track of how many times he's been stung. He doesn't name the bees. And he can generally tell what kinds of nectar was used by the bees to produce the honey by both taste and sight.

Black locusts and honeysuckle are the flowers of choice for the bees at Kline Creek Farm, which create a lighter and smoother product. Darker honey comes from plants like alfalfa, he said.

"I like it very light," he said.

The bees at the farm produce around 1,000 pounds of honey each year. The visitors center sells one-pound containers for $5.95 and half-pound bottles for $4.25.

In addition to his beekeeping duties, DuBose also teaches visitors about bees and honey processing and trains other volunteer beekeepers. He modestly claims his trainees do all the work these days while he simply supervises, but the ease and quickness with which he dons his protective clothing indicates he still gets his hands sticky at the hives.

Known as Dr. DuBose around the farm - it's not an affectionate nickname because of his bee expertise, but rather because of his doctorate in civil engineering - he is leading the charge for the forest preserve district to upgrade its honey processing facility.

New state regulations are more stringent about processing, and the district is looking to build a new processing center at Kline Creek, next to the visitor's center. DuBose has offered to pay for half or up to $100,000 of the cost of building the facility.

DuBose would like the facility dedicated to his wife, Wanda, who died a few years ago. The two used to work together at the farm teaching visitors about the bees, he said.

Andrea Hoyt, the forest preserve district's planning director, said proposals will be sent to the county for permitting in a few days. When built, visitors will be able to watch as the honey is processed.

"There's a chance we can start building in the fall and if that goes through we'd be ready for processing around June," she said. "Once complete, it will also offer a variety of other uses around the farm."

DuBose said he has no plans to retire from his volunteer work and rest on his laurels.

"I'll keep coming back as long as they let me," he said.

<p class="factboxheadblack">What's the big deal about bees?</p> <p class="News">• Honey bees pollinate a third of the nation's food supply each year.</p> <p class="News">• The pollination work done by bees is estimated to be worth $3 billion annually.</p> <p class="News">• A phenomenon called colony collapse disorder is plaguing bee populations in the U.S. Recent research at the University of Illinois indicates a mite accidentally introduced to America in 1986 may be sickening some honey bees.</p> <p class="News">• Bees are squat and round with hair, unlike hornets and wasps that have elongated abdomens and no hair.</p> <p class="News">• The yellowjacket wasp is commonly mistaken for a bee, but it is more aggressive and can sting multiple times because its stinger isn't barbed like the honey bee.</p> <p class="News">• Honey, bumble and carpenter are the most common variety of bees in Illinois; none of which are on the state's endangered or threatened species lists.</p> <p class="News"><i>Sources: Illinois Department of Public Health and National Academy of Sciences</i></p>