The idea of migratory beekeeping was born on a bright, sunny winter day in Southern California in the year 1907.
It is the practice of moving colonies of honeybees out of snowy, freezing mountain climates and into warm valley areas where the bees can continue gathering nectar during the winter months.
To a beekeeper it means no dead colonies of bees from cold, snowbound winters. It means double production of honey and beeswax. It means the number of colonies increase or sometimes double each year.
Such a wonderful idea! But how could it be done?
In the past, small numbers of colonies had been transported by water up and down the Nile River in Egypt. This had also been done on the rivers in the eastern part of the United States -- but in a very limited way.
Nephi E. Miller was the great pioneer of modern migratory beekeeping. This young farmer, turned beekeeper, had a vision that would change the production of honey from a cottage industry to big business. His was the energy and the determination that would be the beginning of large commercial honey and beeswax production in the United States.
Great quantities of honey would replace sugar in wartime and then remain on the tables of new generations of health-conscious families.
Old and new industries would utilize and demand more and more highly refined beeswax.
Perhaps most important of all, honeybees would become the great pollinators when so many other essential pollinating insects would be killed in the years to come by deadly chemical pesticides.
Nephi didn't know all this in 1907. His greatest concern then was that he had a beeswax problem. He determined to go to California in search of a solution. And find it he did -- and more -- an idea that was not only a new way of producing larger amounts of honey and beeswax, but a way to increase the supply of other foods through controlled pollination -- traveling bees.
Nephi Ephraim Miller, founder of Miller's Honey Company and father of
migratory beekeeping, was loved, respected, and today remembered by many. Born in
November, 1873, in a little log cabin in Cache Valley, Utah, Nephi was not expected to
live a long life. He did, however, live a very long and successful life in which he
introduced a new way of keeping bees and producing honey that began large-scale modern
beekeeping in the United States. He was known as the "Henry Ford" of the
beekeeping industry. His abundant energy and optimistic nature propelled him through life,
along with his willingness to work hard, which led him to success.
Nephi had had an interest in bees and their miraculous production of honey ever since he was a child and had ventured into the woods with some friends. There they found a hollowed-out log swarming with bees. As he and his friends chewed the sweet honeycomb, Nephi got a taste of what would someday bring him great rewards.
Farming became Nephi's way of life as he followed in his father's footsteps, although his curiosity for beekeeping never ebbed. Several of his farming friends in the Cache Valley had colonies of bees and he would watch as they worked with their hives. In the fall of 1894, Nephi convinced his father to let him trade five bags of leftover oats for seven colonies of bees. From these seven colonies grew a large-scale business that has passed on through the Miller family for three generations.
Nephi inadvertently invented a new method of beekeeping in an attempt to avoid the heavy loss of bees from the freezing winter weather. While on a trip to Southern California, initially to gather more information on processing beeswax, he noticed bees still gathering nectar even though it was December. He realized the increased production of honey that could be had if he were to transport his bees to sunny California during the Utah winters. This he did. In the winter of 1908, the first trainload of bees was sent north on a "test flight." This is how he became known for his "traveling bees."
Nephi E. Miller was a great pioneer in the beekeeping industry. He was the first beekeeper to produce a million-pound crop of honey, yet he did not hoard his trade secrets and knowledge; he shared it all with anyone interested. It was his desire for everyone to be successful and prosperous. He was a smart businessman, a good example for all to follow.
[From Sweet Journey: Biography of Nephi E. Miller, Father of Migratory Beekeeping by Rita Skousen Miller. Copyright © 1994 by The Miller Family Trust. Reprinted here with permission.]
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