The bee whisperer
Ex f ighter’s fearless work with insects is latest social media buzz
A FORMER fighter who had ambitions of turning professional is now focusing on a completely different battle: nurturing and protecting the native Irish honeybee.
Anthony Broxson, 43, a honey-maker from Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary, has been attracting a social media buzz for his amazing bee-handling skills.
The former builder and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fighter rescues bee colonies from places other beekeepers can’t reach – often without protective clothing.
Mr Broxson has become the go-to man when bees are found in inaccessible places such as roofs, chimneys, wall cavities and, strangely, post office boxes.
Videos of him rescuing swarms of bees have received thousands of hits on his Facebook page, Mill River Apiaries.
He can be found anywhere from 15 metres high on town centre roofs to farmhouse barns, or delicately unpicking stones from ancient walls, to rescue the insects.
But the buzz about Mr Broxson’s impressive apiculture skills is how he remains so calm and assured while unprotected as thousands of bees swarm around him.
‘Experience,’ Mr Broxson said, was the key to staying cool.
He added: ‘90% of the time you would have a suit on but a lot of the job of beekeeping is understanding the bees.
‘You have to be able to tell if a colony is aggressive or not, and you have to be able to remain calm’
Mr Broxson recalled the first time he removed his protective clothing, when he was struggling to reach two bee colonies on a rooftop.
‘I could barely get into one [colony] and I certainly couldn’t get at it with a suit on. I decided to take it off. I managed to reach in as far as I could and cut the hive out with a knife.’
Mr Broxson warned: ‘Don’t be fooled, bee stings can be fatal if people have allergic reactions.’
One video shows him placing his hand into a colony on a roof.
Calling it ‘one of the biggest cutouts I have ever done,’ he said: ‘I saw the queen bee running down my arm. I brought her into the house, clipped her and marked her straight away. I then cut out the brood comb, put that in the box with the queen.”
Mill River Apiaries, Mr Broxson’s honey-making business, has come a long way since he started after the recession hit. He was hooked after joining a bee-keeping course.
‘I’m at it full-time now. Next year, if all the breeding goes well there will be about 7,500,000 bees across roughly 150 colonies – 7,500,000 employees you could say!’