BBR chef learns to bee a keeper

Dean Ecker, executive chef at Black Butte Ranch, has always had an interest in cooking. From a very young age, Ecker observed his Danish mother in the kitchen of their Key Biscayne, Florida home. Ecker has now taken the skills he learned in the kitchen to the classroom - where he has taken on the task of learning how to be an apprentice master beekeeper.

Looking for opportunities to enhance what the Ranch is doing from a food and beverage perspective - and possibly having the opportunity for the Ranch to have it's own brand of honey - Ecker dove into learning as much as he could about beekeeping, taking classes at Oregon State University in Bend, learning from master beekeeper Stephen Harris. Harris, a Bend resident, has been raising bees in Bend for over 30 years.

"In the beginning I wasn't sure I even wanted to be a beekeeper," said Ecker. "But the more I explored the actual physiology of bees and understood what their roles were, it's pretty captivating to see something develop or grow under your care. Although the bees tell me what to do, sometimes they'll just do what they want to do. So it's not like you're a beekeeper, the bees give you direction with what they need."

In addition to looking for ways to help market the Ranch's food and beverage departments, Ecker believes there are other benefits to having an apiary at the Ranch.

"The benefits are tenfold really. If you think about it, bees are responsible for pollinating 98 percent of the world's crops. Without bees you wouldn't have feed for your livestock, you wouldn't be able to have fruits or nuts," Ecker explained. "It's a prolific insect that more people need to be aware of what it's benefits are for the food chain. More specifically for the Ranch it's an ideal thing for us to continue to tell the story of food and beverage and what we're expanding on."

Due to Central Oregon's unpredictable weather, beekeeping has its challenges. The short growing season and cold winter weather has a huge bearing on the survivability of the bees. This year alone, four false starts to spring affected the colonies. When this happens the queen can start to lay eggs prematurely, and the bees can get chilled. In winter, drastic temperature drops can kill the bees.

"You need the masses of bees to create the warmth in the colony for them to be able to survive the harsh temperatures," said Ecker. "They actually make their own heat, the constant 92 to 95 degrees in the colonies is created by the bees vibrating and creating friction to create the heat, so without the biomass of the bees you get chilling and you start to lose bee population."

In warmer winters, where the bees can get out, they stay busy by doing hive maintenance, fly off dead bees, and clean out debris. Bees nearing the end of their lifecycle will fly out to die so the colony doesn't have to discard

them.

Ecker doesn't believe he'll have time this year to harvest any honey from the hives.

"Given the size of the colonies it's doubtful we'll get anything this fall. Summer is really too late to start. If the bees winter well and don't get messed with by Mother Nature, and I do everything right, we should, theoretically, with four colonies, end up with over 100 pounds of honey."

Ecker, who has been with the Ranch since 2006 is currently the chapter President for the High Desert Chef's Association, and Advisory Committee member to the High Cascade Culinary Institute.

In 2011, Ecker launched a proprietary food line containing a variety of spice blends, a series of jams created from locally sourced berries and sea salts. In addition, Ecker continues to develop a relationship with local growers and is currently sourcing produce, red angus and landraces for use at the Ranch.