Stories of Honey Beekeepers from America-Bee Inspired

Living on the land where his grandfather created North America’s first biodynamic farm, Dan O’Leary feels a sense of responsibility. As his grandfather and father before him, O’Leary keeps bees in East Troy. He embraces an organic and pesticide-free approach, harvesting between 2,500 and 3,500 pounds of honey each season. Since 1990, he’s been a beekeeper for Honey Valley Beekeeping on the side while running the family plumbing and heating business. Working with Michael Fields Agriculture in East Troy, he acts as a mentor teaching the art of beekeeping. Read More on jsonline.com

It started with one of the companies I used to buy cheese from called the Cheese Cellar. Dennis and Theresa, who owned the company at the time, said to me, “You know you should keep bees!” I said, “Where?” She said, “I know a guy named Corky in Ballard. I’ll introduce you to him.” They introduced me to him and the next you thing you know we were at an event together and Corky tells me I should put the bees on the roof of the hotel. I thought it sounded great. I agreed to it, the GM was on board with it, and one thing led to another and started the process.Read More on Huffingtonpost.com

The plight moved Williams, a Hollywood film studies major turned heroic firefighter, who has worked as an engineer paramedic for Brentwood Fire since 2009. He knew basically nothing about beekeeping, but he did some reading and imported a queen bee from California for his first colony. Read More on tennessean.com Now, a piece of his land plot boasts stack upon stack of pine boxes-beehives inside which his millions of bees build honeycombs, make honey and reproduce like buzzing rabbits. Read More on Tennessee.com

In North Portland, just a few blocks from the St. Johns’ town center, you will find Asches Urban Honey, a family business that specializes in sweet local honey from our own organically tended honey bees. Proprietors, John and Mary Ann Aschenbrenner, help ensure honey bee health by leaving plenty of hard-earned nectar on the hives after the late summer harvest. We allow our hives to re-queen naturally and occasionally capture swarms to replenish hives that perish. Read More on aschesurbanhoney.com

Today, Virginia and Carl are full-time commercial beekeepers and queen producers. They are charter members of the Russian Queen Breeders Association and are the only certified Russian Queen Breeders in Georgia. For more than forty years, Carl and Virginia have championed the role of the honeybee in helping to sustain global agriculture and have helped to promote its diversified productivity, from nutritional products to health and beauty aids. Read more on mtnhoney.com.

Janet Andrews began keeping bees just over a decade ago. The bees came swooping into a crack of the roof just like a cartoon. It was love at first sight, these honeybees were hers to keep. The bees were relocated into a bee box and placed in her vegetable garden. For Janet, who had already found a passion in cultivating fresh herbs and veggies from her garden, as well as collecting eggs from her beloved chickens, keeping bees to harvest their golden honey seemed like a perfect addition to her sustainable haven. Read more backyardbees.net

Steve McDaniel has been keeping bees since 1979. He took the rigorous Master Beekeeper Exam at the Eastern Apicultural Society’s annual convention in 1994 and became a certified EAS Master Beekeeper of which there are about 120 in North America. He teaches an annual course in beginning beekeeping and gives many entertaining presentations and slide talks to clubs, schools, and nature centers about various aspects of beekeeping and bee biology. An award-winning professional nature photographer, he illustrates most of his talks with his stunning images and has provided the pictures for several books. Read More on mcdanielhoneyfarm.com

At Silvermine Apiary, LLC, home of Andrew’s Honey, our family have been keeping bees since the 1800’s. Not exclusively, and not enough to always eke out a living in of itself, but there have always at least been bees buzzing in the background for over 130 years. The bees were there on the dairy farm in northern Canada where Andrew’s great-grandmother cooked snails and skinned rabbits, or between shifts at the firehouse for Andrew’s father, Norm, in Norwalk, Connecticut. Or now, where Andrew maintains beehives not only in Connecticut and New York states, but also in four of the five boroughs of New York City, including atop landmark buildings in Manhattan. Read more andrewshoney.com