Page 8 - Spring 2021

s| ARCH∂IVES Vinnie’s Vault
Editor’s note: The following is a story about 15-year-old beekeeper Jimmy Cash written by The Oconee Enterprise Publisher Vinnie Williams and published on April 14, 1983. Today, Cash still resides in Oconee County in Bogart. And he did achieve his goals of owning 1,000 hives when he was a teenager.
Beekeeper Jimmy goes where the honey flows
Like the old song, Jimmy Cash is “shooting high. Got my eye on a star in the sky.”
The 15-year-old Oconee County High School student hopes his beekeeping hobby will carry him to a 4-H Club scholarship, presidency of the Georgia Beekeepers Association and ownership of 1,000 hives.
Honeybees are in Jimmy’s blood. The name “Cash,” in fact, is synonymous in the state of Georgia with bees. Jimmy is a fourth generation Cash beekeeper, all based near Bogart. The best known beekeeper, of course, is Jimmy’s grandfather, W.C. “Buck” Cash, who was employed as an inspector of hives by the state of Georgia.
Tongue in cheek, Jimmy says, “Bees can give you a swell time.”
Jimmy is considered the youngest professional beekeeper in Georgia. He grew up with bees but didn’t get his own hives until the past year when his grandfather gave him 100 hives.
Jimmy Cash and the family dog take a break from bee-keeping. “Bees give you a swell time,” quips the 15-year-old Oconee boy.
By Vinnie Williams
“We do winter bees in Bogart, around three or four months, then swap the hives around Georgia, from the coast to the mountains,” he said. In June, he will pick up the coast hives and carry them to Rabun County.
“Not many folks can carry hives to the mountains for sourwood because the people don’t like strange bees there,” says Jimmy.
Large beekeepers, like the Cash family, must go where the honey-flow is. During the cold weather, bees diminish and the hives must be built back up. Another way of building up hives, of course, is catching wild swarms—queens that have left hives and taken drones with them and settled in a tree or on a pole.
“Last summer, I collected six wild hives,” said Jimmy, who wears a white jumpsuit and screens over his head and face. He still gets an occasional sting, though. He confesses, “It’s bad when they crawl up the leg of your pants.”
The family not only produces honey but also sells it. With the wax, they make cakes and return to bee-supply houses that use it as foundations for new bee operations.
“Jimmy can spot a queen immediately and is good around them,” says his grandfather, Buck. “He doesn’t make them mad or upset.”
Jimmy went to Sapelo and Skidaway Islands, with UGA teams during his spring break and learned even more about bees from experts.
He is considered expert enough that the Athens Area Beekeeper Association has asked him to speak at its May meeting. He will discuss “life in the hive” to members from Ocone, Oglethorpe, Jackson, Madison and Clarke Counties.
In addition to buzzing about with his bees, Jimmy is a member of the all-state chorus, a member of student council and a member of the Bogart Methodist Church Men’s Club, for which he often cooks.
Plus, he has the lead in the OCHS play, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”
“I am serious bout my bees, though,” he adds. “I’d really like to become the best and biggest beekeeper in Georgia. Before leaving OCHS, I hope to have those 1,000 hives.”
sVinnie Williams was the owner and publisher of The Oconee Enterprise newspaper in Watkinsville, Ga., and OCONEE THE MAGAZINE. PAGE 6 | OCONEE THE MAGAZINE | SPRING 2021