When thousands of bees took up residence on the side of Chris Horejsi’s Paso Robles home, he said he was faced with two choices — to either kill them or put them in a box.

Horejsi, who works at the Charles Paddock Zoo as a maintenance worker, said he has studied up on beekeeping and is ready for the number of bees to increase during the warmer summer months. As the bees produce honey, he will learn how to make that into honey he and his family can consume.

When Horejsi started keeping the bees, he said he had about 2,000. Currently, he has about 700 because the bees’ life cycles are shorter due to the colder weather.

“I’m more into it for the honey and the experience of being a beekeeper,” Horejsi said. “I had two options, kill them because I had kids around or put them in a box. I decided to put them in a box.”

Horejsi said his kids are interested in the beekeeping and watching him with the bees.

“Everyone was scared of them at first,” Horejsi said. “Now, they’re in a box and they’re not scared of them at all.”

Growing up, Horejsi said, he wasn’t scared of bees, so it wasn’t a big thing to don a beekeeping suit and smoke the bees out of the hive they created on the side of his house, to move them into the special beekeeping box.

To learn how to bee keep, Horejsi said he has been doing research online, as well as talking with another hobbyist beekeeper in San Luis Obispo.

Until the bees took up residence on his house, Horejsi said he treated them like pests, but when they landed on his house, he saw them in a different light.

Horejsi and his wife, Lynda, both graduated from Paso Robles High School in the early 1990s. Horejsi said they met in high school. The couple has been married 14 years and has a 14-year-old daughter, Samantha, and an 8-year-old son, Chris. They are also raising Horejsi’s nephew, Brandon Albright, 15. Both Samantha and Albright attend Templeton High School. Chris is a third-grader at Pat Butler Elementary School in Paso Robles.

Horejsi said his favorite part of Atascadero is the Lake Park.

“The Lake Park is my favorite part of Atascadero,” Horejsi said. “There are so many things to offer the [people].”

Horejsi said his kids are interested in the beekeeping and watching him with the bees.

“Everyone was scared of them at first,” Horejsi said. “Now, they’re in a box and they’re not scared of them at all.”

Growing up, Horejsi said, he wasn’t scared of bees, so it wasn’t a big thing to don a beekeeping suit and smoke the bees out of the hive they created on the side of his house, to move them into the special beekeeping box.

To learn how to bee keep, Horejsi said he has been doing research online, as well as talking with another hobbyist beekeeper in San Luis Obispo.

Until the bees took up residence on his house, Horejsi said he treated them like pests, but when they landed on his house, he saw them in a different light.

Horejsi and his wife, Lynda, both graduated from Paso Robles High School in the early 1990s. Horejsi said they met in high school. The couple has been married 14 years and has a 14-year-old daughter, Samantha, and an 8-year-old son, Chris. They are also raising Horejsi’s nephew, Brandon Albright, 15. Both Samantha and Albright attend Templeton High School. Chris is a third-grader at Pat Butler Elementary School in Paso Robles.

Horejsi said his favorite part of Atascadero is the Lake Park.

“The Lake Park is my favorite part of Atascadero,” Horejsi said. “There are so many things to offer the [people].”





For the complete article see the 03-12-2010 issue.

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