Beekeeper

Job description

Crops/Commodities:
honey, bees.
This job requires a minimum of 3 months of agricultural experience working on a honeybee farm handling both manual and mechanized tasks associated with production of bees and honey. Applicants must be able to furnish verbal or written statement establishing relevant prior work experience. Assist with farm building/field maintenance and repairs. Repair fences. Mow, cut, and weed fields. Dig ditches, levees. Bending, stooping and kneeling required.Work on production line. Grade and pack product. Fill containers with product and prepare product for shipment to market or storage. Perform quality control on inbound/outbound loads. Follow quality control standards and production procedures. Handle product carefully to prevent damage. Lift, carry, and load/unload products or supplies. Palletize and stack boxes/containers. Use power equipment including, but not limited, to: fork lifts, conveyor belts, and cooling equipment/refrigeration units. Operate equipment safely, with or without direction. Assist with regular maintenance on equipment. Clean/sanitize work station and equipment.

Raise bees to produce honey and queen bees. Assemble hives using hand tools. Inserts honeycombs into hive. Induct wild swarming bees into prepared honeycomb frames. Place screen plug in hive entrance to confine bees. Set hive in orchard, clover field, or near other source of nectar and pollen. Force bees from hive using smoke pot or carbolic acid soaked pad. Inspect hive and to harvest honeycomb. Remove parasites and vermin. Collect royal jelly. Destroy superfluous queen bee cells to prevent colony division. Burn diseased hive or bee colony. Sterilize hive using caustic soda solution. Uncap harvested honeycombs and extracts honey. Find and remove old queens from hives and replace with new queen. Remove frames covered with bees and shake into cages. Must be familiar with mechanized extraction equipment. Cap and handle combs. Mechanically separate wax from honey. Maintenance of all mechanical equipment. Assist with refining wax and processing honey. Prepare honey by filtration and/or moisture reduction before final packaging. Blend and filter wax before final packaging for sale. Must have no fear of bees and be non-allergic to bee stings, pollen, honey or other products of the hive. Must have field-based honey bee experience. Must assess colonies to determine if colonies require additional storage capacity, more time for honey to be finished, or whether honey is ready for removal. Carefully remove honey from colony to prevent loss of queen. Take careful consideration of procedures to prevent hazardous conditions.

Work is done in the field for long periods of time. Workers may assist in handling product weighing up to 80 pounds and lifting to a height of 5 feet. Workers must work on their feet in bent positions for long periods of time. Work requires repetitive movements and extensive walking. Work required in fields when plants are wet with dew and rain, and may be required during light rain, snow, moderate winds, direct sun, high humidity and extreme temperatures. Temperatures in fields during working hours can range from 10 to over 110 degrees F. Workers may be required to work during occasional showers not severe enough to stop field operations. Allergies to ragweed, goldenrod, honey bees, insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, or related chemicals may affect a worker's ability to perform the job. Workers should be able to do the work required with or without reasonable accommodations.

Employer-paid post-hire random drug testing required. Workers required to follow common sanitary practices at all times, particularly when hand harvesting crops for human consumption. Workers required to wash hands thoroughly with soap and water after using the bathroom and before entering fields for harvest activities.

Special Requirements

This job requires a minimum of 3 months of agricultural experience working on a honeybee farm handling both manual and mechanized tasks associated with production of bees and honey. Applicants must be able to furnish verbal or written statement establishing relevant prior work experience. Saturday work required. Must be able to lift/carry 80 lbs. Employer-paid post-hire drug testing required.