It was only noon, but already the sun was beating down on the garden. That’s where I found Chanel Cordell working when I arrived to interview her. Her enthusiastic daughter Ashley had met me at the driveway. She and her goat, Nela, (who acted just like a large lab puppy) escorted me out to meet the beekeeper, soap maker and grower she refers to as “Mom”.

I started the interview by asking if I might take some pictures of the beehives. Chanel called out to Ashley to cut the electricity to the fence. It wasn’t until then that I realized that the hives were set in an area surrounded by a 4 tier wire electric fence. I was confused. I asked if it was highly charged. Seems there is some chart you use to determine the voltage you want to go through a wire. The highest voltage uses the icon of a cow with its feet in the air. That’s where this voltage was set. Electric fences are not designed to keep the bees imprisoned. They are obviously intended to keep poachers out. But what thief’s efforts wouldn’t be daunted by the attack of thousands of angry bees?

“Bears” she tells me. Of course, bears. Bears love honey. I knew that. Visions of Winnie the Pooh with his hand in the honey jar passed through my imagination.

“Bears don’t eat honey, you know”. She offers this unsolicited bit of information as if it was pretty common knowledge.

“No, I didn’t know that and I’m sure Christopher Robin didn’t know that either”, I wanted to shout.

“They attack the hive for the brood (eggs). It’s for the protein, not the honey” she explains.

Where are you from, originally?

“Oh, I guess you can say I’m from here. I moved her when I was 13 and I felt such a connection. I started to trace my genealogy and found that my ancestors settled in this area after the Civil War… Dahlonega and NC Hills. I decided that I wanted to learn some of the old customs. That’s when I started making soap”

What kind of soap?

My soaps are lye soaps, made the way Granny used to make them. I just use goat’s milk instead of water. The process retains fats from the milk so the soap doesn’t dry out your skin. It is a wonderful facial soap. Half of my customers are men, who work outdoors, that buy the soap because it helps keep their skin from cracking, when exposed to the elements . It’s all natural and very gentle. At the same time it will take any stains out of your clothes.

Do you process the beeswax from the hives?

(She points to a large metal box resting in the direct sunlight). Yes, I use a solar melter to melt all the wax.

Do you feed the bees or are they self sustained?

The bee’s complete diet is pollen, nectar and their own honey. We pull the last of the honey in late summer. We leave them the autumn honey. They eat that until they run out. In January and February we feed them high fructose corn syrup. By early spring the worker bees are back out there collecting.

Worker Bees? Are there bees in the hive that don’t work?

Bees are the most amazing creatures. The Queen Bee does nothing but lay eggs. The nursing bees take care of the brood (eggs). The cleaning bees keep the hive clean. The attending bees attend only to the Queen, bringing her water, food, everything she needs.

You have several hives. Do the bees just go in and out, indiscriminately?

No way. Each bee knows the location of its own hive and it goes only to that hive. If a bee entered the wrong hive, it would be killed instantly by the other bees. Did you notice that all the hives face east? (I hadn’t!) We place the honey hives facing east where the sun rises. This way the working bees get up and start working earlier. And they work until sundown.

What do you like best about the UnionCounty Farmers Market?

It has that old fashioned Saturday “everybody going to town” feeling. It feels like a community. I make new friends every week. Lots of folks visiting from out of town come to the market and love it, too.