Our nominee began beekeeping in 1992 as a means of helping with his allergies. This person had allergies severe enough to warrent three injections, three times a week.

Beekeeping for health issues quickly turned into a rapid growing hobby.

Our nominee approched an aging beekeeper, Basil Gandee, to learn the art of
beekeeping. He asked Mr. Gandee if he could help with the physical side of  beekeeping in exchange for tutelage and knowledge of the art. This began years of mentoring and friendship.

Our nominee wanted to start a couple of his own hives behind his home at first
his wife protested this idea since they had small children and like many she was
frightened and uniformed about beekeeping. Finally, she agreed to two hives  
which by the end of the first year had grown to six.

By the following year, this new beekeeper was no longer taking injections.   
Upon finding his allergy season much easier to bear the beekeeper naturally
increased the number of hives.

The hives became more than just a hobby. They were a lot of work costly to
manage and very time consuming. With young children growing and being involved in school the wife felt that they couldn't handle anymore. When the hives increased to fifteen she said "ENOUGH" and threatened to burn them if he got anymore.

Now fifteen years later our nominee and his wife maintain seventy hives
in southern Jackson County. They produce honey, pollen, beeswax, personal
apitherapy treatments and various other products from the hive. The children
have grown and now have children of their own and now the grandchildren ages four and six love to help with the harvesting. (Most notable the consumption ) Our nominees also harvest process bottle and market their honey and other products from their home and are available for purchase in several local shops.

After years of reading learning and making some mistakes along the way, our
nominee has gained considerable knowledge of the art and science of beekeeping. He is very accomplished in swarm control through hive manipulation as well as swarm recovery and collection. He has been successful with various methods of queen rearing and learned to recognize parasites and diseases in the hives He knows what methods or medications need to be used to correct most hive problems and works with other beekeepers when they encounter a problem He continually researches the advancing apiary technologies, advancing his education and passing the knowledge on the members of his local association continuing education he is working on the final phase of becoming a "West Virginia Master Beekeeper."

On the local level he serves as the president of the local association while she serves as the secretary and treasurer. He works hard to prepare an education program for each of the meetings, often ensuring that the program will include a hands on project. For the past two years, they have worked with members of the local association to develop and instruct a  "Beginning Beekeepers" class that has introduced more than thirty new beekeepers to our state. The class is a six week course and can be very intense at times.   He continues to work and assist the new beekeepers after the classes are completed   Many of the new members have committed on the fact that they are glad he is there to help.

In addition, for the past 13 years our nominee and his wife have been involved in a elementary school called "Outdoor Classroom" .  This two-day program allows children to be exposed to many career opportunities that cannot be brought to the classroom. It allows hands on activities for the children. Our nominee and his wife take an observation hive to the class so the children can see the bees in action. They present the children with information about beekeeping and honey production. It is always a well-attended class.    Because of the Outdoor Classroom success, other schools are beginning to call asking for the observation hive to be brought to their school. This couple has also presented the program to the Farm Bureau's Farm Safety Day and other similar groups. Our nominee also discusses beekeeping on two local radio stations regularly and on a television program several times a year.

On the state level, he has been appointed as the Legislative Chairman,  he serves on several committees and attends all meetings. He and his wife are responsible for the West Virginia Beekeepers Association display for the public. They attend various fairs and festivals, including Agriculture Day at the Capitol and the Honey festival in Parkersburg. They set up the display and spend the day informing the public on the wonderful world of beekeeping.

The Jackson County Beekeepers Association is pleased to nominate David and Jean Rectenwald as the West Virginia Beekeeper's Association 2008 Beekeeper of the Year.

Congratulations David & Jean