Bee

Dec 14, 2023

Golden girls

“Everyone that does anything of value in the beehive is female,” says Michael Roark of Roark Acres Honey Farms. It’s honey-pulling week, and he and his team are out collecting the sweet golden surpluses from around 1,500 hives to kick off the harvesting season.

Honey, which bees utilize as a primary energy source, begins as nectar that female bees have brought back to the hive and deposited into combs, Roark explains. Over time, water evaporates from the nectar and it begins to thicken. When the proper amount of moisture is gone, the bees will “cap” the combs with a thin layer of beeswax, creating tiny storage pockets of sustenance for when nectar isn’t so readily available in the wild.

Busy bees

For Michael Roark, honey harvest season is like Christmas in July. This three-to-four-week timespan will reveal just how much of the sweet stuff Roark Acres Honey Farms has to work with for the full coming year.

“While there’s no guarantees, it’s always exciting,” says Roark, adding that a typical year usually yields between 40,000-50,000 pounds of honey. A self-professed “bee nerd,” Roark first became interested in the industrious insects after purchasing two hives for his garden in 2012. Just two years later, he and his wife, Amy, established Roark Acres, which now maintains 1,500 hives in and around the Tulsa area.

Michael Roark is the co-owner of Roark Acres Honey Farms.

Hive jive

Typically at the beginning of July, Roark and his team — which includes his 15-year-old son, Brady — will spend about five days visiting all of their colonies to find spring and summer honey surpluses. Called “pulling,” this first step in the harvesting process involves removing the hives’ top boxes (or “supers”) for later extraction at the facility site. Roark knows his bees, though, and stresses they never take what might be necessary for the colonies to survive on during winter.

Along with Farm Supervisor Bart Ramsey, Roark and his team begin visiting their hives in early July each year to assess the frames for harvest.

Show me the honey

Each colony contains around 50,000 bees. To safely access the honey inside, a harmless substance called “Bee-Go” is fanned down through the hive. Bees don’t like the smell and will begin to move away from it. The beekeeper will then use a hive tool to crack through an extremely strong sealant of burr comb and propolis to assess the frames inside for harvest.

Sweet suite

Once pulling is complete, all frames that have been removed are run through a six-step extraction and straining process at the Roark production facility nestled into Sapulpa’s lush green countryside. A machine called a spin-float uses centrifugal force to separate the honey from the beeswax — both of which will become part of a sweet suite of Roark Acres products.

Courtney Onderdonk, Roark’s oldest daughter, oversees the local honey producer and packer’s commercial kitchen.

All in the family

“This is where the magic happens,” says Courtney Onderdonk, 33, the oldest Roark daughter who manages the production facility’s on-site kitchen. Here, she and staff member Lacey Mauldin package and create all kinds of golden goodness — from honey-soaked pecans, to honey infusions such as lavender or savory black garlic, to spreadable creamed honeys in flavors like elderberry, habanero and pumpkin spice.

Find Roark Acres Honey Farms Sept. 28-Oct. 8 at the Tulsa State Fair in the Expo and Exchange buildings.

And for the beeswax, Amy and daughter Arwen, 21, alchemize it into retail items such as candles, lip balms, lotion bars, soaps and more. To shop the full product lineup, make a stop at the Roark Acres Honey House at 17 E. Main St. in Jenks or visit roarkacres.com. Bottled, creamed and infused honeys also are available at Reasor’s and the Tulsa Farmers’ Market.

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