Claudia Randolph: Old Town Honey

By Kasey Jones

For Claudia Randolph, bees are more than just a source of honey. Over the six years that she has been working with bees and gathering their honey, Randolph has found that bees have more personality than most people realize, uniquely interacting with one another in ways that highlight their ability to work together.

“If they’ve gone out in the field and they’ve found a new place to gather their honey, they come back and on the front of the hive they make a little dance,” Randolph says. “That little dance tells everybody where to go.”

Although she grew up in a residential area in Newport News, Va., Randolph always had an interest in animals and country life and thought that she should have been born in an earlier, more agrarian, time.

Randolph moved to Erwin, Tenn., where she lived until 1981 before moving to Dry Creek, where she had about 15 acres of land. Missing the convenience of a town, Randolph moved to Jonesborough, where she now lives in a historic house on Main Street.

“I’ve enjoyed this area better,” she says. “I like it a lot more. It’s gorgeous. I like the climate and the weather. A couple of weeks ago my daughter got married and that was in Williamsburg. I went back and there was so much humidity. I said, ‘I can’t live here. I can’t get my hair to do right.’ It’s just everywhere. It was just so hot compared to here. I like the mountains.”

One day, Randolph “just got interested in bees.” Her interest came to full bloom when she met someone who mentored her and helped her to get started. She has kept bees ever since.

In addition to selling honey, Randolph has a garden in which she grows cucumbers, corn, beets, green beans, onions, tomatoes and cantaloupe. She also keeps about 15 free-range chickens and sells their eggs. The chickens wander around her yard and garden, and finding their nests and eggs is like Easter all year-round.

“I’m always searching for [the nests],” she says, “trying to find them. My mother found a nest under her porch a couple of days ago. We’d been looking everywhere for it. I would have never thought to look there. One of my friends was over, and she has two young boys. They were keeping the chickens while we were out of town. They were doing Easter egg hunts looking for the eggs. It was so much fun for them. They look everywhere every time they come over.”

When Randolph has free-range eggs and honey, she places a little sign outside her house, but honey comes in just once a year, and after her stock has sold out, she is out until the following year.

She keeps her hives in a field behind her house. “You’ll probably see me out there in my bee suit if you ever ride by,” says Randolph. “I have a lot of people comment on it, ‘I saw you out there the other day.’ I just rob the hives. Actually, we did this yesterday. We’ve done pretty well.”

Like all beekeepers, Randolph occasionally has to deal with swarms of bees. When the bees swarm in an area, like a tree branch, Randolph will place either a box or a bucket under the swarm and shake the branch so that the bees fall into the container. If the queen bee falls into the container, then all of the other bees will follow and stay with her.

In addition to capturing the swarms near her own hives, Randolph has also caught swarms in more public places. “Joel Conger that has Mauk’s over here, he had a swarm last year up in the tree in front of his store,” she says. “He called me and asked me to come and down and get it. We went after it after hours. It was quite interesting for everybody around. Some people sat across the street on the benches and stuff and watched.”

While she only harvests the honey once a year, Randolph cares for the bees year-round, feeding them sugar water, ensuring that the hives don’t have moisture in them so that the bees won’t get diseases and making sure that the hives are closed up during the winter time so the bees won’t get cold.

“This is about what I do most of the time, just mess with my bees and my chickens,” she says. “Actually, the bees do it full time. I just go in and rob them, and make sure that they’re fed and they’re healthy.”

Find Randolph and her honey, eggs and produce on Saturdays at the Jonesborough Farmers Market, or stop by 703 W. Main Street when the sign is out.

Recipe from Southern Living magazine: Zesty honey-lemon dressing

Serve this salad dressing over fresh garden greens or drizzle over steamed green beans, asparagus, or broccoli.

Makes about ¾ cup (serving size 1 Tbsp.)

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

3 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon lemon zest

4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 garlic clove, pressed

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/3 cup olive oil 

Preparation:  Whisk together chopped fresh parsley and next 7 ingredients in a small bowl. Add oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly until smooth. Use immediately, or store in an airtight container in refrigerator up to 5 days. If chilled, let stand at room temperature 15 minutes. Whisk before serving.