{"id":739101,"date":"2026-04-19T17:11:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T17:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/739101\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T17:11:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T17:11:23","slug":"made-in-tarrant-fort-worth-man-ok-with-buzzing-honeybee-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/739101\/","title":{"rendered":"Made in Tarrant: Fort Worth man OK with buzzing honeybee business"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Scott Nishimura, Fort Worth Report
April 19, 2026<\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: Made in Tarrant is an occasional Q&A series on small businesses started in Tarrant County. Submit your business here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Louis Felty certainly knows a thing or two about starting and growing a business. A licensed fire alarm planner, he worked for three companies before founding his own firm in 2006. He ran that company for 18 years before selling it in 2024. \u201cI\u2019m now really working as staff\u201d to the new owner, Felty, 72, says.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Felty inadvertently fell into bees, so to speak, when he discovered a swarm had built a hive in a recycling container he was using to store kindling. Felty looked into the matter further, and what resulted \u2014 a little bee business \u2014 is buzzing today. He maintains 15 hives whose bees produce enough honey for Felty to about break even when he sells his Bee A Ok Bees honey at a farmer\u2019s market.<\/p>\n

For area residents who have found bees a little too up-close and personal around their property, Felty offers his services \u2014 for a fee \u2014 to trap, remove and relocate bees and hives. He\u2019s also an active volunteer in the Metro Beekeepers Association<\/a>, which meets monthly at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden and holds a beginner class in the basics of beekeeping.<\/p>\n

Felty sat down for a Q&A with reporter Scott Nishimura at the Ridglea North home he shares with wife Vicki and their dogs.<\/p>\n

Bee A Ok Bees<\/p>\n

Fort Worth beekeeper Louis Felty is a hobby beekeeper and producer of local honey, maintaining 15 hives and what he estimates are at least 150,000 bees.<\/p>\n

He produces several hundred pounds of honey annually and sells it through the Saginaw Farmers Market from late spring through early fall.<\/p>\n

And if you\u2019ve got a hive you want humanely removed, Felty also offers himself up to relocate bees and their hives.<\/p>\n

Contact:. Metro Beekeepers Association<\/a><\/p>\n

Scott Nishimura: <\/strong>This sounds like beekeeping and honey production is a hobby that you make a little money off of. Is that a correct characterization?<\/p>\n

Louis Felty:<\/strong> Income versus expenses, I think I claimed on my income tax for 2025, $1,015. I bought a lot of equipment and sugar to feed the bees. Year before that, 2024 was probably $650. Think about it. What hobby do you have a chance to either break even on expenses, or even have additional money to reinvest in your hobby.<\/p>\n

Nishimura: <\/strong>You have 15 hives. Are they all in this backyard?<\/p>\n

Felty: <\/strong>I\u2019ve some here at home, another one at a lady\u2019s house across the street, some in Aledo, some in Lake Worth and in Saginaw.<\/p>\n

Nishimura: <\/strong>How many bees do you maintain at any given moment?<\/p>\n

Felty: <\/strong>Gosh. Probably easily 150,000 to 200,000.<\/p>\n

\"\"Louis Felty sells his Bee A Ok Bees honey for $1.25 per ounce. (Scott Nishimura | Fort Worth Report) <\/p>\n

Nishimura: <\/strong>These hives are all in residential settings?<\/p>\n

Felty: <\/strong>They’re all in residential settings except Aledo, which is out in the country. The one in Saginaw, there’s a gentleman that came to the Saginaw Farmers Market the year before last, and he said, I wouldn’t mind having some bees out here.<\/p>\n

Nishimura: <\/strong>Why is it so important to take a beekeeping class if you want to keep bees and make honey?<\/p>\n

Felty: <\/strong>There\u2019s a lot of mistakes you can make. The learning curve is about like that rocket that took off, going to outer space, the other day. For instance, if you have a beehive, you can move it two or three feet from where it’s at, and the bees will find their hive. Any further than that, you either move it less than two or three feet at one time, or you move it two miles away so they know to reorient themselves.<\/p>\n

Nishimura: <\/strong>So there\u2019s a season for your honey production and sales?<\/p>\n

Felty: <\/strong>I bottle it up and I go to the Saginaw Farmers Market. The bee club has a space available for members of Metro Beekeepers. Myself and two other beekeepers, we sell the second Saturday in July, August, September, October and sometimes November. Other beekeepers sell their local honey on every other Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"\"Beekeeper Louis Felty makes his own beehives from wooden boxes. (Scott Nishimura | Fort Worth Report) <\/p>\n

Nishimura: <\/strong>When do you produce honey?<\/p>\n

Felty: <\/strong>The spring flower nectar flow ends in June normally. I normally pull Aledo first in June for the July market. I pull Lake Worth in July for the August market, and then I pull here (at home) in August for the next markets. There can be a fall flower nectar flow, but I always leave this honey for the bees to live on during the winter. This is because each hive needs 30-40 pounds of honey to eat and survive the winter.<\/p>\n

Nishimura: <\/strong>How much volume do you sell?<\/p>\n

Felty: <\/strong>Last year, I had 409 pounds of honey. The year before that I had 325.<\/p>\n

Nishimura: <\/strong>What quantities do you sell it in?<\/p>\n

Felty: <\/strong>It’ll be anywhere from four ounces to eight ounces to a pound, a pound and a half jars of honey, and we’ll have some quarts.<\/p>\n

Nishimura: <\/strong>How much do you sell it for?<\/p>\n

Felty: <\/strong>Normally, raw honey, local produce honey sells for $1.25 an ounce. So a pound jar is 16 ounces, and we usually sell that for $20.<\/p>\n

\"\"One of Louis Felty\u2019s bees forages in the beekeeper\u2019s backyard, a short distance from its hive. (Scott Nishimura | Fort Worth Report)<\/p>\n

Nishimura: <\/strong>What\u2019s the difference between a large-volume honey producer and a hobby beekeeper like yourself?<\/p>\n

Felty: <\/strong>Big beekeepers that keep hundreds of hives, their treatment of them is geared more towards income and not like a hobby beekeeper. We try to pamper the bees, I guess you could say.<\/p>\n

Nishimura: <\/strong>How do you do that?<\/p>\n

Felty: <\/strong>Keeping an eye on each hive, making sure they’ve got plenty to eat and feed the young if they run low on food stores, adding additional boxes with frames for space for young bee growth, checking for African small hive beetles (that infest hives), and testing for Varroa mites (that attack bees).<\/p>\n

Nishimura: <\/strong>Your market signs say never put your honey in tea or coffee or heat up in some way. Why?<\/p>\n

Felty: <\/strong>Heating honey up to 104 degrees starts just destroying all of the nutrients that are in the honey that are good for you.<\/p>\n

Nishimura: <\/strong>How do you consume the honey you make?<\/p>\n

Felty: <\/strong>Spoon it. That\u2019s it. You know, if you want honey for a sweetener, I tell people, go to a retailer and buy the biggest jar for the least amount of money. Don\u2019t buy mine. My bees work hard for it.<\/p>\n

Scott Nishimura is a senior editor for local government accountability and a Fort Worth City Hall reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Reach him at scott.nishimura@fortworthreport.org.<\/p>\n

At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/04\/19\/made-in-tarrant-fort-worth-man-ok-with-buzzing-honeybee-business\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Fort Worth Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n

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