At MABA’s November meeting, we will welcome Jeff Horchoff (AKA Dirt Rooster) as our speaker. Bees have been Jeff’s passion or over 20 years, but that passion was never fully realized until he became the lone bee wrangler for a group of Benedictine monks at Saint Joseph Abbey in Southeast Louisiana, about 50 miles north of New Orleans. It was there that he began seeing bees in a different light, a marvel of God’s creation.
Jeff had every intention of becoming a monk. As the fledgling Abbee Honey Operation at St. Joseph was just beginning (as well as his Youtube channel about the bees at the abbey), the flood of 2016 hit, causing over 33 million dollars in damage to the abbey and washing away 30 hives.
Jeff had to make the decision to call it quits or move forward. He chose the harder route and aggressively began building up colonies by doing removals, making splits, and catching swarms. And God blessed the proceedings. He went from zero hives in 2016 to over 200 last year.