CLARE Retired educators never stop giving pop quizzes, even when they’re only quizzing one another and their subject is the intricate art of beekeeping.

“She will get on the bee forums then holds up pictures, making me guess what’s wrong in each one,” said Craig Stripling. “It’s a fun little game, but it keeps you on your toes.”

Carol Stripling was a physical education teacher with the Fort Dodge Community Schools system, and Craig Stripling was a biology instructor at Iowa Central Community College. In the last four years, however, the couple has gone from challenging students to challenging one another to find ways to improve the health and efficiency of the hives that produce the wildflower honey they sell at the Fort Dodge Farmers Market at the Crossroads Mall and at Market on Central. “Thirty years ago, before we had kids, we had honeybees,” Carol Stripling said. “Then after Craig retired, he said he’d like to get back into beekeeping.”

Craig Stripling was first introduced to bees on the farm where his father raised soybeans, corn and animals. A beekeeper would bring out 50 hives each year, he said, and put them on the property until fall when he would collect the honey. Land use and farming practices have changed since then, though, making beekeeping more time intensive than simply dropping off a hive and walking away.

“It’s a daily thing,” Craig Stripling said. “You have to check on them, see the hives and how the bees are behaving.”

The couple has apiaries, which are groups of hives, in five locations around Clare. They visit each of the sites on a regular basis to ensure the bees are thriving.

“Every hike is like a person,” Craig Stripling said. “They have distinct and different natures. They all know you, and you get to know them.”

One of the things farmers and gardeners know about bees, he said – whether they keep them on their lands or not – is the valuable role bees play in sustaining fruits and vegetables, including soybeans. Bees are efficient and prolific pollinators, even outperforming the self-pollinating species of plants that have been developed in recent years.

The key to the bees’ abilities is the basic social structure of the hive.

“Bees all have a job,” he said, “and it begins the day they are born.”

They are a very specialized society. The queen is often thought of as ruling the hive, Craig Stripling said, but in actuality, she is at the mercy of the worker bees. They feed her and tend to her physical needs because all she can do is lay eggs. That is her sole purpose, and if she doesn’t perform sufficiently, the worker bees will kick her out and get themselves a new queen.

“People don’t understand the worker bees, their trials and tribulations,” he said. “I’ve really come to respect them more.”

Classes among the worker bees include the nurse bees, which are the ones tasked with keeping the hive a sterile environment by cleaning and clearing it. They are also the ones who tend the queen.

Guard bees protect the hive, drones are just for breeding with the queen and there are even bees that spend their lives making wax. Then there are the scout bees that go out into the world, find the flowers and return to share information about their discoveries through specific movements.

“They come back and do a little dance that tells the other bees where the flowers are, how many there are and what kind are there,” he said.

People can help keep hives healthy and running smoothly by paying attention to the pesticides they put on their gardens, fields and lawns, Craig Stripling said. Don’t use dust pesticides. The bees get it on their legs and take it back to the hive, killing the whole hive.

Dust fungicides are also to be avoided. They don’t kill the bees, but they do weaken them, and then they can’t make it through the winter.

If people are going to use pesticides, he said, use the liquid and apply it only after 6 p.m. but before 8 a.m. During that time frame, the bees will be back in their hives.

People interested in beekeeping should partner up with a mentor, Craig Stripling said. This gives the beginner someone to call when he or she has questions. It also provides for a network of experienced individuals who can help filter useful information from faulty theories and keep the newbies from learning some lessons the hard way.

He suggested contacting a county Iowa State University Extension office or a beekeepers association to see who may be listed in the area.

“It’s a fascinating hobby,” Craig Stripling said. “It’s amazing. It’s hard to believe those little things can do what they do.”