EAST LANSING, Mich. — Producing honey is a way of life for Tim Bennett and his family at Turtlebee and Honeytree farms.

They are returning to this year’s Ag Expo to share their tips for basic beekeeping management during sessions at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. each day of the Expo, July 17-19, on the Michigan State University campus.

“Anybody is capable of managing a honeybee colony,” Bennett said. “If they live on the 50th floor of a high-rise apartment building and have a little terrace, they can keep a hive there.”

During each Ag Expo session, he will discuss the role of honeybees, the benefits of honey and how to get started with a honeybee hive. “One of three to four spoonfuls of food we eat is from a pollinating insect, and the honeybee does 80 percent of that,” Bennett said.

He will also cover the equipment needed for beekeeping or honeybee management, and how and where to purchase bees.

“We will briefly touch on how to set up the beehive, how to manage the bees and how to take care of them,” he said.

Bennett said more than 70 percent of the honey consumed in the United States comes from other countries. While he said the quality is good, during inspections it is most common to find contamination by antibiotics.

“If people have their own beehive, they know exactly what they have,” he said. This may be a factor for increased interest in domestic beekeeping.

“Beekeeping has been growing about 25 percent per year in Michigan at the hobbyist level, where someone has from one to about 25 hives on their property,” Bennett said. “In the United States, that is what originally comprised the majority of our beehives.”

According to Bennett, commercial beekeepers currently maintain the majority of beehives, but he believes that number is reversing itself as more hobbyists enter the business. Bennett said the Ag Expo sessions are perfect for people who have an interest in learning about beekeeping and whether it’s the right hobby for them.

“We will have an observation hive of a honeybee colony there in a glass case,” Bennett said. “For anybody who is a ‘wannabe’ beekeeper, it’s a good icebreaker. It’s quite admittedly an appetite-whetter for what we do at Turtlebee with our larger beekeeping classes.”

In addition to their Ag Expo presentations, Turtlebee and Honeytree farms have a booth at the Expo where they offer a variety of products including honey, poured beeswax candles, bulk beeswax, honey sticks, honey soap and other related products. Children can make and take a beeswax candle for a small fee. They also have beekeeping supplies and encourage people to pre-order specific items to be picked up at the Expo.

The Bennetts have two locations. The main site – Honeytree Farm – is located in Howell, and their homestead, Turtlebee Farm, is in Byron. In addition to beekeeping, the Bennetts offer bee pollination contracts and the removal of unwanted bees.

They also grow and sell beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, eggs and more. Three years ago, they launched their renewable farm shares (RFS) business, in which people enjoy a significant savings on products for their investment. Bennett said the RFS helped them “turn around” their farm and “operate in the black.

“Our mission statement is not to feed the masses, but a local population of real food. Everything that we produce and sell in the name of food, we actually produce on the farm,” he said. “We take things to the final product line and put it into the hands of the consumer.”