MIDDLEBURY, Ind. — Norm Lehman didn’t originally have an interest in beekeeping because, as he puts it, he was afraid of bees.

When his family moved to a new home 28 years ago, the previous owner left behind some beehives. After the hives sat untended for a couple of years, Lehman decided he might try his hand at it. He bought beekeeping equipment and opened one of the hives.

“They about ate me alive,” he recalled. “My wife has looked at me for years and asks, ‘are you nuts?’ But then I started talking to other beekeepers. I like it because I love nature and flowers.”

Lehman’s initial steps into beekeeping eventually led to the family opening Dutch Country Market in Elkhart County, between Middlebury and Shipshewana in northern Indiana’s Amish country. He started selling his honey through word-of-mouth and later put up a sign when his family moved to its current location.

“Demand just grew for pure, unprocessed raw honey,” he said. “Store-bought, processed honey is heated to 160 degrees or more. With processed honey, all the vitamins are gone and so is the flavor.”

The market sells raw honey or honey that has been heated gently in a stainless steel tank and then strained through a nylon cloth.

Lehman, his wife, Katie, and their six children – Merle, Lavern, Devon, Marilyn, Wilma and Wanda – all have a hand in the operation. The store has a variety of honey products and the family’s other specialty, Katie’s Homemade Noodles. The market also sells peanut butter, jams, jellybeans and in-season fresh fruits and vegetables.

The family didn’t intend to get into the noodle business, either. Lehman purchased noodle-making equipment from a woman whose doctor told her she needed to get rid of her stress.

“So, I paid her for her stress,” he recalled. “Our noodles are made from egg yolks from Indiana, and flour and water. They’re all-natural.”

Because of the time it takes to operate the store and his increasing interest in the marketing of his products, Lehman has cut back a bit on his beekeeping business. At one time, he had 50 hives. He now has 20, with hopes to drop to 12 by next spring. The 50 hives produced about 5,000 pounds of honey annually.

Bee activity begins in the spring after they have been dormant during the winter months. When the temperature hits about 60 degrees, Lehman starts working with the bees, checking on the queen and making sure the workers and drones are healthy. Worker bees are unfertilized females and drones are males.

In the spring, Lehman tends to the hives every 7-10 days. Hive checks may be extended to every couple of weeks after spring.

The process of bees making the honey starts when they suck the nectar out of flowers and bring that, which has the consistency of water, back to the hives. The nectar is deposited into the cells of the hives, where it’s evaporated down to 18 percent moisture.

At that time, the bees put a wax capping over the cells and the honey is ready to harvest. Each hive holds thousands of bees and the bees may travel up to three miles in a given direction to look for nectar, Lehman said.

He has been selling more of his honey at the wholesale level. “I appreciate that people still want real food,” he stated. “More tourists, including younger people, are interested in raw, real products. It seems like this is a movement.”

The bee industry is still recovering from disappearing disease, or colony collapse disorder, Lehman noted. The disorder is characterized by colony losses of 30-90 percent in a hive, according to the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.

In studying the disease, the agency said scientists have looked into four possible causes – pathogens, parasites, management and environmental stressors.

“That just devastated beekeepers, especially the huge ones,” Lehman said. “It killed thousands of hives. Since then, it’s rebounded. It’s not great, but it’s better than it was.”

Business at the market has been good, he said. “We’ve just been really busy. It takes a lot of time. I don’t know if it’s that we’re 10 years old or if people are seeking out these natural, homemade products.”

Dutch Country Market, at 11401 County Road 16, Middlebury, Ind., is open Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. To contact Lehman, call 574-825-3594.