Week 71: J. M. Herman: The Bee Man

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Chandler has a long history of agricultural production: cotton, alfalfa, and dairy to name a just a few. However, in the first few years of Chandler, many people experimented with other products they could raise from the agricultural paradise that Chandler was becoming as water flowed from Dr. Chandler’s irrigation system. You could say business was buzzing as soon as J.M. Herman came to town.

Our story begins in Casa Grande with James Marian Herman, a well-known beekeeper whose bees specialized in the production of mesquite money. Unfortunately, harvesting of mesquite wood for fuel and cooking wood had cut a “wide swath” across the desert near Casa Grande and greatly reduced the overall number of mesquite. With less mesquite trees, the bees produced less of his specialized mesquite honey and the bottom line of Herman’s business suffered.

By the spring of 1913, Herman had enough and sold a portion of his Casa Grande land and migrated 400 of his beloved beehives to Chandler. His goal was to launch a grand-scale honey operation and expand his product line of liquid gold. He purchased two Chandler parcels, a ten acre plot of alfalfa fields located in Chandler’s Section 15, and twenty more unimproved acres in Section 27. This allowed Mr. Herman’s bees to swarm different fields and produce different types of honey. By the hot July summer of 1913, he had erected three bee sheds, each 200 feet long and covered with sheet iron.  Mr. Herman’s busy bees appeared to thrive in their new surroundings.  By August, his apiary had already produced about 600 cases, or two “carloads,” prompting the need for a permanent warehouse beyond his bee sheds.  Herman soon had plans to build a 20’x50’ fireproof warehouse with concrete floors to store his surplus packaged honey prior to sale. The warehouse was slated to be near the Arizona Eastern railroad for convenient shipping and its construction was estimated to cost $2,000.

Herman’s operation was soon producing “alfalfa honey,” from the Section 15 property.  This flavor proved popular and helped to grow Mr. Herman’s operation into “one of the finest apiaries in the Valley,” according to the Chandler Arizonan. But such an honor did not come without sacrifice. The previous year, prior to moving to Chandler, Gleanings and Bee Culture magazine had awarded Mr. Herman and his operation in Casa Grande the title of “Largest Apiary in the World.” At the time of the record the bees swarmed one large plot of land owned by Herman.  Moving a portion of his hives meant that he would no longer carry the world record.

Financial success undoubtedly made up for his lost title of largest apiary. The price of honey increased aggressively over the next several years and by 1917, had more than doubled. His expanded product of alfalfa and other types of honey earned him $3,660 for a carload.  The increase in profit was in part due to the fact that California honey bees were unable to produce the normal supply of honey because of terrible weather conditions and pesky grasshoppers.  Herman and his Chandler bees were in high demand and their honey made it all the way to Chicago for resale.

Herman seemed to be as busy as his bees. He spent his whole life educating people about bee culture and advocating for the industry. In an interview by the Chandler Arizonan, Mr. Herman gave a lengthy description of the bee’s life and honey production. In his words, the little workers only lived 6 weeks after “literally working themselves to death.” About 30,000 bees created a colony and each colony produced approximately 100 pounds of honey, but the experience of gathering the honey could leave a sting. People who helped Mr. Herman gather his honey recalled it as rather unpleasant.  Herman seemed impervious to bee stings, in his words the sting was “just like the bite of a fly.”