From hive to business: Florida beekeepers get a boost on World Honey Bee Day

What we know:

The University of Florida is helping beekeepers across the state transform their passion into a profession. Backed by a $626,000 USDA Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program grant, UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) selected 30 beekeepers to join a two-year program aimed at building small businesses from honey and beeswax. https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/honey-bee/>

The backstory:

Florida is home to 5,000 beekeepers who manage about 700,000 colonies, according to UF’s Apiculture Program. While bees are essential pollinators — responsible for nearly one-third of the world’s food sources — many hobbyists have lacked guidance on turning their work into income.

Local perspective:

One graduate of the program, Gayle Goodfriend of Bradenton, launched Goodfriend Honey Company https://goodfriendhoney.com/> after years of beekeeping on the side of her mortgage business. With eight hives and thousands of bees in her yard, she was producing more honey and beeswax than she could use. The program helped her create products like candles, glazed nuts, and skincare, while also teaching her how to market them online and at farmers’ markets. She said, “It taught us how to make various hive products with beeswax, it taught us business plans, how to cost our products. It really made a huge difference to me and kind of propelled me into my own business.”

What they’re saying:

“I don’t know if I would have been able to do [this] had I not had the support of this group because it was just an amazing opportunity,” Goodfriend said. She also hopes people will be mindful of pesticides, which can harm native pollinators.

Why you should care:

Honeybees are more than producers of honey, they’re vital to agriculture and the environment. Programs like UF’s not only sustain local economies but also help protect the pollinators our food supply depends on.

Bradenton