FALL 2021: 61
A SWEET INCOME
According to Ellis, there is
money to be made with
selling honey and the
start-up costs are low. He
says a typical backyard
operation has two hives
to begin with, and costs
about $1,000 to set up.
This includes buying
the hives and the initial
bee colony. There is little
essential equipment, mainly
protective bee suits.
Brenna Sorensen and her husband, Lew Kontnik, have a
single hive in their West Melbourne backyard.
“We started when we lived in California and picked it up
again when we moved to Florida,” Sorensen says.
They have registered their hive with the state agriculture
department $10 a year and get plenty of honey, which they
share with neighbors and friends. They have somewhere
between 20,000 and 30,000 bees in the hive. Each, according
to Sorensen, produces about a half teaspoon of honey
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
Jamie Ellis, a professor in the University of Florida’s Department of Entomology
and Nematology, c >> onducts a bee college twice a year on the Gainesville campus.
Kontnik and Sorensen
collect plenty of honey
from their single hive
and like to share it with
neighbors and friends.
FRED MAYS