[Keith Perry]

25 years ago I bought 40 hives and equipment from the Chaplain who was retiring out of the air station here in Beaufort. He also gave me the location of a tree on the air station and one on the edge of the road at Clarendon Plantation that had active hives. I trapped another 30 hives out of those two trees over the next three years. The Peace Corps trained Beekeepers at Penn Center on St. Helena Island at that time. They needed to know if any trainees were allergic before sending them off to South America and Africa, so, they harvested for me without the benefit of protection other than smoke. All got stung repeatedly by workers arriving back from the field. When a bee is in the hive and smoke puffs in, they think the place is on fire and gorge with honey before leaving the box. They can't bend themselves to sting when their belly is full of honey. The fellow I bought my Queens from (each time I started a new hive) specialized in Tupelo honey which he harvested by barging his hives around in Bahama swamp when the Tupelo's were in bloom. A water clear honey with fantastic flavor.