A honey bee hive is relocated to a safe location for adoption by a beekeeper. Carmen Mandato/The Penny Hoarder
Adopting a pet? Before you head to the shelter to cuddle an adorable puppy or kitten, consider an alternative animal rescue: the honey bee.
Fifth generation beekeeper Jeffrey “The Bee Guy” Johnston runs a bee rescue in St. Petersburg, Florida, removing and relocating honey bee hives to safe locations so they can be adopted by a forever beekeeper family.
Jeffrey Johnston rescues bees so you can adopt and raise them. Carmen Mandato/The Penny Hoarder
“As a rescue, our thing truly is to save the bees, to be able for us to give back and then help other people to have their own colonies,” says Johnston. “The point is for you to learn how to do this so you can have your own money, but also because you’re doing something that’s good for the environment.”
OK, so you might not get to snuggle up with this buzzworthy gang on the couch, but beauty is in the eye of the bee-holder, especially when you consider these flying friends could save you some cash.
Think: That farmer’s market honey you shelled out $12 for this weekend.
“You can get honey the first year, depending on what they call the nectar flow,” says Johnston, who notes that the nectar flow depends on rain totals each season. “In the second season, you should be able to get two gallons, and you should be able to get four gallons out of an established, working hive.”
Kind of takes the sting out of pet ownership, huh? (OK, I’ll stop.)
How to Become a Beekeeper for Beginners (or Bee-ginners)
Florida allows almost anyone to keep at least two hives on their property. Carmen Mandato/The Penny Hoarder
When Johnston moved to Florida in 1998, he says there was only one other licensed beekeeper in the Tampa Bay area. As of June 2016, there were more than 4,000 registered beekeepers in Florida, according to the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida.
But becoming a apiculturist (the technical name for beekeeper) is not as simple as looking inside the nearest hollow tree.
Rules and regulations vary by state — in Florida, for instance, a license is required (visit your state’s Department of Agriculture website for details). But all states have a minimum registration requirement and inspection process.
Johnston notes that except for restricted developments (like some deeded communities and apartment buildings), Florida allows anyone to keep at least two hives on their property.
“Anyone can be licensed; it’s just a matter of physically being able to take care of them,” Johnston says. “My oldest client who took care of her own hive was a woman in her 80s, and my youngest client ever was a kid who was about 8 who saved his own money to get a hive.”
The first step to getting your license? Buy yourself some bees.
“It seems a little backward, but the inspector is looking to see you take care of the bees properly,” Johnston says. “Is it the right kind of hive, is it located 6 feet off the property line, are they facing away from your neighbors? All those things that are code related.”
Jeffrey Johnston assists Chris Anderson in homing a swarm located on Anderson's property. Carmen Mandato/The Penny Hoarder
Feeling a bit intimidated? That’s where an expert like Johnston comes in to supply the following:
- The nuc (that’s bee-lingo for a bunch of bees) with a starter hive: $175
- A queen bee: $35
- Installation, which includes you getting to wear one of those super cool bee suits: $40
And like any good new pet owner, you’ll want to invest in a few “obedience” courses, which Johnston says he’ll deliver to you.
“Pretty much anybody can be trained in their own backyard,” Johnston says. “It takes about three to four lessons over the course of a year to learn how to manage your own bees.”
The courses involve learning how to rotate and clean the frames in your hives, as well as how to assess the bees’ health and happiness — because happy bees are productive bees.
“You need to go into your bees about every 21 days, so every three weeks, you’re going to spend about 10 minutes dressed out in your bee suit and go through them.”
Johnston says he charges $40 a class but that after a few classes most people get the hang of it and require minimal help from him.
Beekeeping, not Removal
Adopted beehives are coming to a backyard near you. Carmen Mandato/The Penny Hoarder
Where do the bees come from?
Well, we’re not going to get into the birds and the, um, bees, but Johnston collects his hives from homeowners who don’t want bees living in their wall, hanging out in their soffits or simply swarming in huge clumps.
It’s at this point that Johnston emphasizes that being a beekeeper does not make you a qualified bee removal expert. That venture requires proper training, additional licensing and insurance.
If you don’t properly remove and abate, the hive — as well as all those dead bees — can leave behind a distinctive aroma and can irreparably damage a structure.
“I had a lady who had somebody tell her they were going to trap the bees out of her wall, but they ended up trapping them in her wall, and they died and rotted,” Johnston says. “So I had to remove all of the exterior siding and shovel out a 40-foot tall hive with dead, rotting, decaying bee, honey, guts and liquid black goo running down the walls full of dead things — it had a drowned rat in it.
“It was the most horrific, stinking thing.”
Lesson: Stick to beekeeping and leave removal to the experts.
And to ensure your bees have no hard feelings — technically known as being an aggressive or “hot” hive — Johnston “re-queens” them before delivering the bees, which he likens to other pet treatments you may be more familiar with.
“Instead of saying you have to spay and neuter, we’re exchanging your queen out,” Johnston says.
‘Nuf said.
Gimme Some Honey, Sugar
Chris Anderson sits adjacent to his backyard hives, which he credits for enriching all the surrounding agriculture. Carmen Mandato/The Penny Hoarder
Among Johnston’s clients is Chris Anderson, who has raised two hives in his backyard for a year and says these prolific pollinators have personalities and even the ability to bond with you.
“When they’re new, they’re fairly gentle, but as they grow and have something to defend, they may swarm a little,” Anderson says. “They get to know you by smelling and seeing you, so when I approach they’re like, ‘He’s one of us, he’s cool.’”
Anderson says that although his bees produced plenty of honey for him to give to his neighbors, family and friends, he left much of the honey behind for his bees to consume until he gets more comfortable knowing how much they need.
“I could have financially broken even the first year” selling honey the bees produced, Anderson says. “If I was really focused on that.”
And Anderson considers the honey only one benefit. He also likes that helping raise bees is good for the environment, particularly in the wake of massive die-offs over the past few years.
Additionally, the bees cross-pollinate the plants in his garden — “We had great tomatoes this year,” Anderson notes — not to mention the simple joy of working in nature with friends.
Flow Hive on Facebook
How does a beehive — yes, an actual beehive, that’s not the name of yet another San Francisco tech startup (or is it?) — raise $70,000 in 477 seconds? Apparently, all you needed was a tap.
The Indiegogo campaign to bring the Flow Hive to honey enthusiasts around the world raised a whopping $12 million before it closed on April 19.
The concept comes from a family of bee harvesters, Cedar Anderson and his father Stuart. These inventors have been working on the hive for the better part of 10 years.
How the Hive Works
On the company’s campaign page they say, “Flow is the most significant innovation in beekeeping since 1852. Flow is a revolutionary beehive invention, allowing you to harvest honey without opening the hive and with minimal disturbance to the bees.”
Since Flow doesn’t disturb the bees, reports CNN Money, it’s “great for beginners — there's no need to wear protective gear, smoke the bees to sleep or take apart the hive to harvest the honey. It's all done by flipping a switch, which activates a mechanism inside the hive, and fresh honey pours out of the tap.”
Stirring Up Controversy
But as with many big advancements, traditionalists have popped up to argue the case for the old ways. Andrew Cote, founder of the New York City Beekeepers Association, explained that it’s not quite that simple. “One does need to do hive inspections, check for disease, check for virility of the queen, and make sure that things are going well in the hive,” he told CNN. Cote’s family has been beekeeping for generations, and he uses the traditional method that dates back 150 years.
Cedar Anderson responded by recommending that even though the Flow Hive can make the hobby more accessible, buyers should still “link up with local beekeeping groups to learn how to properly care for their bees.” A great place to start is through Bee Culture.