Wes and Kelsey Stein have four children, but care for thousands of lives in the more than 1,000 bee hives that produce Stein’s Honey, 5345 W. Collins Road in Collins, just outside of Norwalk.
After growing up in the business run by his parents, Bill and Bonnie, Wes took over the operation in October.
“In the last few years, many people have begun to see the importance of bees,” Wes Stein said, adding that the greater awareness has allowed the company to expand.
He remembers the honey production occurring almost by accident.
In 1998, Bill Stein had an orchard that wasn’t producing fruit.
Meanwhile, relatives owned Bergman Orchards in Port Clinton and said fruit wasn’t forming due to a lack of pollinators.
So, hives were brought in.
“It basically wasn’t the thought of honey,” Wes Stein said. “We just wanted the pollinators.”
Shortly, two hives became 10, then 25 and then 100.
When Bill Stein sold to his son, the company had 860 hives.
Combined with 200 some hives Wes had been maintaining, the company now has approximately 1,100.
Wes Stein quit his full-time construction job this past April.
More than 70 retail locations carry Stein’s Honey and it has many wholesale customers as well.
Stein also sells bees and offers advice to new beekeepers.
The hives produced 150 barrels in 2023, he said.
Each barrel holds between 620 and 645 pounds of honey.
Beeswax candles and other products also are produced.
The Stein bees are migratory.
Wes explained that bees produce honey for their own food.
It’s excess honey that is harvested and consumed by people.
Beekeepers are critical partners for all sorts of crops across the country since without their pollination activity crops don’t produce.
To keep his hives strong, Wes Stein sends most of them south for the winter.
They move to Georgia in October and are able to feed themselves by gathering natural pollen.
The honey they produce is left in the hives to keep the bees strong.
In January, most of the Stein hives will head for California almond groves — along with a large portion of hives kept throughout the U.S., Wes Stein said.
In March, they will return to Ohio.
From March to May, the bees will feed on the honey they made in California.
Then they will be ready to pollinate Ohio’s apple orchards from May to September.
“It’s very weather dependent,” Wes Stein said. “In Ohio, it’s hard to keep your bees alive in the winter.
“It’s giving the bees a better life than I have. They get to travel more than I do.”
Without the migration, the Steins would have to feed the bees over the winter using sugar water.
That produces inferior honey and less healthy hives, Wes Stein said.
Because of the migration, the bees are well-fed and more of the Ohio honey can be harvested.
During apple pollination season, the Steins have hives in 45 locations in a radius from their farm in Collins.
“We have to strategically place them and space them out as much as we can so they don’t compete for the same food source,” Stein said.
Right now, Wes and Bill perform most of the hive work: checking hives, moving bees around to make sure all hives are equally strong.
Kelsey and the couple’s two oldest children also help with bottling the honey and marketing activities.
Wyatt, 7, and Avery, 5, already have their own bee suits.
Three-year-old Riley and 1-year-old Miles also will grow up with the business.
“I need them to be used to it,” Wes Stein said. “Our kids need to not be afraid of bees because they’re going to be around them.”
People enjoy honey not just for its natural deliciousness, but also for the health benefits they see in it.
“Honey is linked with a lot of great things. A lot of people preach home remedies with honey,” Wes Stein said. “With all the bad stuff that happened to bees, it made people aware and that allowed us to grow our business.”
