Tapping Into Bees' Bounty

Kola le Roux has loved bees ever since seeing his grandfather’s hives in the eastern Free State more than 60 years ago. Today he manages more than 2 000 hives, from the Karoo to the Transkei, that produce an assortment of honey, including an organic variety derived from the cat-thorn or drogie bush. Mike Burgess reports.

Jacobus ‘Kola’ le Roux (65) is stung regularly, but insists on handling bees without protective gloves. “It keeps the immunity going and it’s apparently good for arthritis,’’ he says.

Kola started his beekeeping career with one hive in the garden of his East London home back in 1985. More than 30 years later, his hives produce up to 60t of honey a year, and he sells honey across the Eastern Cape and as far afield as Cape Town.

“We never pushed the marketing side; we supplied as we grew,’’ he says. “The problem isn’t the selling, it’s production.’’

Transforming a passion into a full-time job can be life-changing. Kola managed it twice.

His early work career was conventional enough. Born in Zimbabwe, he went on to complete a BSc degree in chemistry at the University of the Free State before finding a job as a quality controller on a pineapple farm near East London in 1975. While at the coast, he discovered waveskiing, and the sport soon dominated his life. Kola went on to become South African waveski champion five times and world champion twice.

For 10 years until 1992, he ran the Kolaski factory. This specialised in producing waveskis, which were distributed countrywide.

His wife, Trudi, still sells watersport equipment from the Kolaski shop in East London.

Then there are the bees. His father, Japie, had some hives in Zimbabwe, and his grandfather, Jacob, kept bees in stands of eucalyptus trees on his farm in Fouriesburg in the Free State. Kola recalls being mesmerised by the insects as a small boy.

“I watched them flying in and out of their hives for hours,’’ he recalls. “It fascinated me.’’