WOOLWICH

For Tim Forrester, beekeeping has gone from a hobby to a way to pay for his kids’ college.

Forrester, whose honey won third place in Maine State Beekeepers Association judging this year, has been beekeeping for seven years. In conjunction with Woolwich Community Recreation, Forrester opened his woodworking garage to the public on Wednesday evening to teach people about beekeeping.

“I just did this as a hobby, but then I started selling honey, and then it became fun,” said Forrester.

Forrester has 12 colonies on his property at varying levels of maturity. A typical colony can grow to 50,000-60,000 bees, he said, although that number drops dramatically in the winter, when the bees retreat into the upper parts of their hive to feast on the honey they’ve collected.

Like any hobby, beekeeping comes with some upfront costs and work to get started. At its simplest, a potential beekeeper needs a couple hive boxes for the colony to live in and grow along with a number of tools and gear for self protection and caring for the colony. In order to process the honey, one will also need a centrifuge to extract the honey, and if you produce enough honey, a bottling tank. Ultimately, it can run about $1,000 to start beekeeping.

But all of that investment and work can lead to substantial rewards. A strong colony can produce approximately 10 gallons of honey in a good year. While it started out as a hobby for Forrester, he now sells his honey in a little red wagon off the side of the road in Woolwich or to The Honey Exchange in Portland to raise money for a college fund for his children — he packages it as Ben and Lilly’s Pure Local Honey. And of course, he eats it.

“We eat a lot of honey,” said Forrester. “My kids eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches every day. I put a little bit in my coffee — I put a teaspoon in my coffee and a teaspoon in my mouth.”

This year, however, the honey has been less bountiful than in past years, largely due to Maine’s ongoing drought conditions.

“This year, I made the least amount of honey that I’ve ever made, which was around 25 gallons,” said Forrester. “What kind of summer did we have? A hot and dry summer. So there’s no rain, no pollen, no nectar and no honey.”

Still, he had more honey than he could use this year, and local honey is sold at a premium.

For those interested in starting beekeeping, Forrester recommends purchasing nucleus colonies, or “nucs.” A nuc is made by splitting a successful colony of bees and putting those bees in a box with a queen. That way, he said, when you put the bees in your new foundation box the colony is already established. Once the bees are deposited in their new home, they’re already familiar with each other and can begin drawing out the honeycomb.

Forrester’s most unexpected advice for new beekeepers?

“Go for it — don’t put any gloves on. I bought packages (of bees), I just went in barehanded. It kind of helps you learn more, establish more, be more confident. There are times when you absolutely have to have them, because you’ll get stung. But it’s a lot easier to do stuff and look at things without gloves on.”

As a local beekeeper, Forrester also responds to calls about swarms in the area. When a colony gets too big for its hive, a group breaks off with the queen to find a new home and forms a swarm. To keep the bees from establishing in an unwanted place, Forrester or another beekeeper will go out to collect the rogues bees in a box. While the beekeepers do this largely as a public service, there’s an upside: free bees. The beekeeper can keep or sell the swarm, which typically will form a very strong colony.

Beekeeping is a growing hobby in Maine, and Forrester encourages people to try it out.

“Look on the MSBA website or call The Honey Exchange — go take a class. All the classes are in the winter, and it’s five days or something like that. You can learn so much,” he said.

nstrout@timesrecord.com