Born February 10, 1916
Died July 19, 2004
Source: Wikipedia – Ormond Aebi
Ormond Aebi (1916 – July 2004) was an American beekeeper who was reported to have set the world’s record for honey obtained from a single hive in one year, 1974, when 404 pounds of honey were harvested, breaking an unofficial 80-year-old record of 303 pounds held by A. I. Root. Together with his father Harry, the Aebi’s wrote two books on beekeeping: The Art and Adventure of Beekeeping (1975) and Mastering the Art of Beekeeping (1979) (both currently out-of-print).[1][2]
He was known to have enjoyed beekeeping all his life. In 1981, Mr. Aebi told the Santa Cruz Sentinel[6] he knew his bees so well that, when out driving, his father would say, ” “Ormond, isn’t that one of our bees?,” and I’ll say, “No, I don’t think so,” or “Yep, sure is.”
Ormond told me a curious story that day though, which I’ll retell just as he told it to me. Ormond was a character with very strong beliefs, beliefs that I don’t happen to share, but he was earnest and sincere and his beliefs do make for a good story. So here it is.
He said that Jesus came to him in a dream one night and told him that if he wanted to increase the productivity of his hives that he should attach a wire to the queen excluders of his hives. Jesus was very specific about the length of the wire and Ormond carefully complied with Jesus’ instructions.
For those who don’t know, the queen excluder is a series of parallel wires placed closely together in a bee hive. It sits between the lower brood boxes and the upper supers, the boxes where the honey is stored. It functions to keep the queen from laying eggs in the boxes that contain the honey in them. She’s too big to fit between the wires, but the worker bees can still come and go unimpeded.
So Ormond attaches the precisely measured wires to the queen excluders and waits. Sure enough, just as Jesus promised in the dream, the productivity of the hives increases significantly.
Ormond is a religious man, and so he doesn’t think it is too surprising that Jesus’ advice worked. He mentions his experience to his beekeeping friends, and word eventually reaches the biology department of Stanford University.
Stanford University finds it surprising, very surprising. They come to his home in Santa Cruz to investigate.
What the scientists eventually conclude is that somehow the wires that Ormond attached to his hives were acting as antennae, turning the hives into natural radios and piping in the local classical music radio station to the hives. The bees loved it. (KSCO AM 1080, if you’re curious, it is now a right-wing talk radio station. I wonder what effect Rush Limbaugh would have on honey production.)[7]
In his later years he was diagnosed with Diabetes, which did not seem to affect his health, but did contribute to his decision not to continue beekeeping when his swarms were destroyed by varroa mites. He worked as a part-time handyman at a daycare next door to his home for the last several years of his life, and continued to write to friends he made worldwide due to his books.
Source: Wikipedia – Ormond Aebi
Beekeeping365 
Thanks for this piece about Mr Aebi. For a long time I have been disappointed that Aebi has received publicity. He most emphatically should NOT hold any world record in honey production, but he used that claim as a carnival trick to attract attention and sell his books – which are dismally filled with misinformation. It’s even more disappointing to learn that Jesus himself was in on this deception.
Aebi’s couple of hives in his backyard come nowhere near the level of production of Canadian commercial operators on the northern prairies. Homer Park, for example, produced over a million pounds a year from 3,000 hives in the Peace River area – that’s a 330 pound average from 3,000 hives – many of those colonies produced 500 pounds each. In Australia, Rob Smith’s 762-pound average from 460 hives is almost twice Aebi’s production. (See https://badbeekeepingblog.com/2016/04/26/honey-times-in-oz/). Even the Wikipedia link about Aebi explains that he should not have been given the Guinness World Record!
Finally, I’m not sure about the queen excluder classical radio story. I’d guess that it never happened, just as Aebi never earned the world record designation. When I was a kid, I built a crystal radio and was amazed that the earpiece was powered by the very same radio waves that made my speaker vibrate. But it was a fickle device and prone to failure. It also requires a crystal (diode) and capacitor. Without a battery or other power source, it is a ‘passive’ system and has a very, very feeble sound. Certainly not enough to enchant a hive of bees. It would have to vibrate for the bees to ‘hear’ it as bees are deaf to airborne sounds. (Something Aebi didn’t realize.) However, my crystal radio was designed by engineers in California and not by Jesus, so that may have been the problem.
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Ron, I read both of the Aebi books and while I found them to be less than scientific I found them to be so anecdotal they were entertaining nevertheless. I don’t know where I first got the impression that the claim of the Aebi’s for the title of World’s record may have been less than genuine. It didn’t escape me though and after reading the books I felt even less convinced.
But having been involved in other interests involving competitive efforts, this wasn’t my first exposure to such claims among competitors. If one lives long enough one sees these things early on and gives them their due wink and nod and moves on.
Which brings me to my last comment which speaks to the various characters we have in this interest of beekeeping. I have a friend that insists the value of our monthly meetings is fully contained in the fellowship aspect of networking with others. As for me I value the educational component – give me the facts please. Nevertheless, I do stop from time to time to appreciate the colorfulness of our membership and how it frequently contributes to my entertainment.
I gave both copies of his books to the club library but now I am left with deciding if a note should be included in each. You know, something like, “Ormond fudged the numbers and everyone knows it.”
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You have a great attitude. I think I came off sounding like an angry old man! The world is full of exaggerated statements and unmerited hyperbole, so your comment (“wink and nod and move on”) is great.
You have good comments on bee clubs and networking, too. I enjoy seeing old buddies at our club but the venue leaves little time for chit-chat so a few of us get together mid-month for coffee. That’s when the gossip flies. The club meetings tend more towards talks, mentoring, and somewhat formal discussion. This makes a nice mix for me.
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Thank you Ron for your very fair and unbiased piece relating to World Record Honey Production and similarly your comment “sassafrasbeefarm”. More important to me than a World Record itself, is knowing that an honest, hard working individual who devoted the majority of his life for the betterment of beekeepers world wide is indeed Rob Smith from Western Australia who produced 762-pound average from 460 hives while his hives were in the magnificent Karri Forrest in the south west of the State. His beekeeping endeavours were indeed acknowledged by Apimondia in 1971. Just facts, no fiction.
Jennifer (Rob Smith’s daughter)
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hi folks my name is paul and I was a friend of this man you never knew….I saw the hive ..worked on ladders..they were as tall as his eves… he invented many methods to help bees get more honey and was the sweetest most sincere person who loved bees more than anyone I’ve known and has helped thousands all over the world with loving bees…his whole life….the figures he gives are accurate from him…though some may have gotten more honey since doesn’t really matter…he was the real deal and only spoke his truth…while you both actually know nothing about this wonderful person your fantasy about facts is noted and you should speak about something you really know about….being ugly and negative bad examples of male beekeepers and have fallen in the belittling pit of ignorance
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“Some may have gotten more honey since…” Actually, there is no question about it. Many, many people were far better beekeepers and produced much bigger crops than Aebi’s so-called “world record” indicates. And some of those preceded Aebi by decades. The fact that he chose to ignore others’ accomplishments speaks for itself. But those other beekeepers were not into self-promotion while Ormond Aebi excelled at it, becoming something of a cult figure.
I’ve read Aebi’s books, and he was far from a wise beekeeper. He offers much inaccurate, and frankly, counterproductive beekeeping advice so it is doubtful that he “helped thousands all over the world.” His own book jacket describes him as ‘personable’ and with his imagination, I would guess that he was an entertaining character. Self-aggrandizing does draw a certain constituency.
You wrote, “I saw the hive worked on ladders as tall as eves. [sic]” It’s not uncommon to have hives taller than eaves. Come up to western Canada or out to Australia where almost every beekeeper has regularly produced bigger crops than Aebi ever did.
You wrote, “…[you are] bad examples of male beekeepers and have fallen in the belittling pit of ignorance.” Paul, you miss the fact that Jennifer, the daughter of one of the true beekeepers (Rob Smith, who in 1954, had a 762-pound average from 460 hives which was documented by the Australian government and is nearly twice Aebi’s so-called world record), is a female, not a male. She is stating facts. If the facts belittle Mr Aebi, it is not anyone’s fault but his own. Attempts to refute facts with rude defamatory remarks are shallow at best, vicious, at worst,
Without developing critical reasoning skills, some people will suffer by falling for smooth-talkers and believing their achievements without due introspection. Sometimes such people resort to name-calling when they don’t have facts to back their opinions. If you hope to have others see this beekeeper the way you do, please present information in your discussion rather than attacking the personalities of people with whom you disagree.
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I am looking for the exact location of where Ormond had his farm and bees in santa cruz I live on Felt St off of 17th Ave and I am told his farm was here ? I am at the end of Felt where it dead ends into the green belt. I have planted a football size area with all native california wild flowers and they are attracting many bees. YAA So I was told that there was once a bee farm here and I am guessing it was once wish I had exact location.
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