Dennis Stocum, North Branch Bee Ranch, holding queen bee cells.

Hives at the North Branch Bee Ranch.

Bee products from North Branch Bee Ranch.

Dennis Stocum, North Branch Bee Ranch

Creamed honey from Dennis Stocum, North Branch Bee Ranch.

Raw honey from North Branch Bee Ranch.

Dennis Stocum, North Branch Bee Ranch, holding queen bee cells.

Thousands of tiny “ranch hands” work at North Branch Bee Ranch in Friendship, New York. Farm owners Amber Stocum and husband, Dennis Stocum, keep 100 colonies of honeybees among their 49.4 acres and other bee yards in Cayuga and Cattaraugus, New York.

The couple give several pounds of honey to the rural landowners who provide summertime forage to their bees.

In 2021, their little striped worker bees made approximately 7,000-8,000 pounds of honey. Considering that one honeybee can make only a teaspoon of honey in its 45-day lifespan, that’s a lot of buzzing about.

Hives at the North Branch Bee Ranch.

The Stocums sell wholesale honey to vendors at smaller farmers markets, and directly sell honey and products to customers at novelty stores and at festivals. Although the COVID-19 pandemic, which started in March 2020, halted festivals and their associated sales, the couple said some customers drove out to the farm to stay in stock of North Branch honey products.

Unlike many people who sell honey as another farm revenue stream, the Stocums have no farming background. The couple got into the beekeeping business by accident after they bought an old farmhouse in 2003. No one had lived there in 15 years — except for the three colonies of bees that had made themselves at home in the walls. The Stocums called a beekeeper to remove them, but by the time he could come, the bees had swarmed into a nearby lilac bush. Dennis removed them from the bush and into a box and the couple began keeping bees as a hobby.

Bee products from North Branch Bee Ranch.

Neither knew about bees. However, the couple chanced to meet beekeeper Paul Dumont of Maine, who provided pollination services to other states (Dumont has since retired). Dumont mentored the Stocums so they could improve their beekeeping skills. More than anything else, this helped them grow their hobby into a business.

Sustaining bee stings is the least of the Stocums’ worries.

“There’s the death of colonies of bees from Colony Collapse Syndrome, the diseases, weather, mites,” Amber Stocum said. “Mites are a huge issue. There’s expense getting into it.”

Bee equipment costs can add up. An empty box with frames and maybe a couple boxes to add as the hive body gets full can cost $400. Plus, there’s bee suits, other handling equipment and processing equipment. Receiving some things for free helped the Stocums get the ball rolling. A family friend gave the Stocums beekeeping equipment he had inherited, but did not want.

In the beginning, the new beekeepers primarily sold bulk honey. They plowed the profits back into improving their equipment and buying more bees.

Some of the couple’s 19 grandchildren help them occasionally.

Dennis Stocum, North Branch Bee Ranch

Eventually, the Stocums began selling from the farm and at festivals.

“We’ve gotten pretty good response,” Stocum said. “Now people look for us. We do mail order more than we used to, because of the pandemic. We have a pretty good following on Facebook, but no website.”

The Stocums sometimes sell bee colonies, now that Dennis knows how to make bee queens. That has also saved them money on purchasing queens, which can cost $30 to $45.

When they do buy queens, they shop for northern bees, from states such as Vermont.

“They’re used to this weather,” Amber Stocum said about the region. “We’ve taught backyard beekeepers to get them from the same region (they live in) — not Georgia, if you live in New York.”

They have also learned that certain breeds do better than others, such as Russians and Carniolans, which do better for them than Italians.

“We’re always trying to teach people about mites,” Stocum said. “A lot of people have one or two hives and we see them at festivals. They lose a colony and we ask, ‘Did you treat them for mites?’ And they said they didn’t see any, but you always have to treat for mites.”

Creamed honey from Dennis Stocum, North Branch Bee Ranch.

The parasites are tiny enough that most beekeepers miss them. Treating for mites represents the safer strategy. It can cost the Stocums $300 to $500 a couple of times a year.

Preparing honey for sale to consumers is simple in New York, as this falls under “cottage law” and does not require a commercial kitchen to process and bottle.

“We have a hefty insurance policy, because we’re doing festivals,” Stocum said. “We process (our honey) as little as possible. It’s not pasteurized, so we pass along a warning to pregnant women and children under 2. We put it through a coarse screen. We put it in barrels and have bottling equipment.”

The couple lost about 50% of their bees through the last winter because of colony collapse.

The Stocums also must contend with pilfering bears and skunks, wildlife that, like humans, enjoy sweet tastes. Fencing in their bee yards has helped keep unwanted guests out.

Many honey producers contend with neighbors using pesticides. Fortunately for the Stocums, they have been able to move their bees away from areas where pesticide spray is used. Going about 5 to 7 miles away typically suffices.

Stocum encourages anyone interested in keeping bees to invest in their own apiary knowledge.

“Education, education, education: that is the key,” she said. “I can’t tell you (how many) people who come to us and say, ‘We lost this colony or that colony.’ They don’t know what to look for and that they have to treat them. You will have problems with bears eventually. I can’t stress that enough. Talk with other beekeepers. “American Bee Journal” is fantastic for information and pretty inexpensive. Most beekeepers are more than willing to mentor and tutor people. My husband has always welcomed phone calls. Everyone will tell you something different, but see what works best for you.”

Raw honey from North Branch Bee Ranch.

The number of wild bees is dwindling, according to a recent study.

A beekeeper from Carlisle, Pa., was named the 2022 American Honey Queen at the American Beekeeping Federation Conference and Tradeshow.

After the loss of her husband, Brenda Aucker is carrying on Aucker's Apiary's tradition of producing high-quality local honey.

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