Pure honey can be found Wright here at home

Melissa Hargrave, correspondent

Nestled between the cities of Kaplan and Gueydan, in a small community named Wright, the apiary of Lonnie and Timmie Melancon can be found. The husband and wife team operate the bee farm, and sell the products under the brand of Wright Honey.
Wright Honey began as a hobby of Lonnie Melancon. His exposure to apiculture, the maintenance of honey hives, began at an early age. His grandfather raised bees, and that facilitated Lonnie’s interest.
Upon retiring from the field of education, wife Timmie began to share her husband’s enthusiasm for the black and yellow flying insects, and encouraged him to expand his colony. An endeavor that began with a single bee hive shall grow into 100 hives by this time next year!
Beekeeping is a practice that has origins in the depths of antiquity. As early as 2422 BCE, Egyptian’s have utilized the collection of honey and depicted it in pictorial form.
Although the process has improved since then, today’s modern approach still contains two elemental components: protective clothing and smoke.
The typical apparel of a beekeeper consists of boots, gloves, outer suit, and a hood with veil. Smoke is used as a means to distract the bees and keep them from becoming defensive. The Melancon’s combust pine needles for their smoke fuel.
Although they are traditional beekeepers, Lonnie and Timmie still attend many state and national conferences to further their knowledge. The Melancon’s also remain open to any modern techniques of beekeeping that may suit their future needs.
Of their operation, Timmie says, “Since I retired I am the chief bottle filler, label putter, distributor, and marketer. Lonnie is basically my heavy laborer. But he still knows more about honey bees and beekeeping than I do. He is a wealth of knowledge.”
Initially, Melancon’s apiary found bees the way most people find anything these days – via the internet. Shipping bees through the mail poses its challenges!
Timmie recants, “The first time we ordered, I asked the lady how we would know when the bees arrived. She said, ‘You’ll know.’ So, we get a phone call from the Lafayette post office one afternoon, and the employee asks hysterically, ‘Mr. Melancon, did you order some bees? Well, you need to come get them! They’re here in Lafayette, and they’re flying all over!’ So we get our hoods, our smoker, and our tools and we head to Lafayette to pick them up. It was just six little bees hanging to the outside of the box because they really want to be inside with the queen. It’s only natural, people panic. Bees get a bad rap.”
Now, however, the beekeepers can simply split the hive – a process where half a swarm is moved to a new hive with the current queen, and the remaining half is given a new queen.
The process is a bit more complicated than it appears. Just as some people have trouble adjusting to a newly elected leader, some worker bees do not accept their new queen. When this occurs, the new queen is usually killed, and the hive disbands.
Interestingly enough, the queen bee is not born any different from the other larvae. Instead, she is selected by the worker bees and fed a concentrated form of honey called royal jelly. Eating high doses of this enriched food is what causes the queen bee to grow into her role. Once a new queen has mated, worker bees will remain her loyal subjects, creating honey for their queen and her offspring.
Wright Honey is collected twice a year, once around the fourth of July and then again in the autumn before the first frost. The honey is bottled completely raw, after being collected into a bottling tank which is kept the same temperature as the hive. All this ensures the untouched quality of the final product.
According to their website, Wright Honey is awash in natural antioxidants, exceptional nutritional value, and has the ability to help break down starches.
Since the bees are foraging on local pollinators, especially on Tallow (chicken) trees, the honey is often used regionally as a form of antihistamine.
In addition to raw honey, Wright’s offers a specialty line of creamed honey in plain, cinnamon, or pecan. Creamed honey has been processed to a solid form, and is often referred to as whipped honey. Wright Honey can be found in local grocery stores, such as Larry’s and Simon’s, and can also be ordered from their website www.wrighthoney.com.
The Melancons also provide bee removal services at a cost. For estimates, call 337-412-4752.