Plainfield
“That’s all I ever thought it could be,” said the Plainfield resident.
In the over 10 years since, Hall has grown his initial hobby to a full-time vocation called Hall Apiaries, finding a niche among beekeepers in New England and nationally by raising queen bees and selling unprocessed, preservative free honey to area restaurants and food co-ops.
“I was just intrigued by bees themselves,” Hall said. “What is it that causes someone to open a box of bees?”
Hall was mentored by area beekeepers, some of whom run commercial enterprises.
“From what I saw of these, I could see myself doing the same thing,” he said.
He began crafting a five-year plan to make the business viable, re-evaluating at the end of every year. There were leaner times, but Hall knew that if he could get through those, in the long term the business could be successful.
One part of that process was learning to breed queens, which very few beekeepers do: Usually beekeepers purchase queens from others who breed them.
“There’s a big chunk of the world of bees that I was ignorant about until I started raising queens,” Hall said. “I became a better beekeeper. I knew what I was working with.”
Since 2010, he has been raising, selling and shipping queens to beekeepers throughout the country, his reputation growing “mainly by word of mouth” referrals.
Hall looks for certain characteristics in his bees before breeding queens: the bee family must be winter hardy — be able to survive through winter, when up to 35 percent of Hall’s bee population can die — and produce a sufficient amount of honey.
“If you have something that’s good and worthwhile, word gets out,” Hall said. A lot of his success from breeding queens is from his location. “A lot of people are looking for queens that are winter hardy.”
In addition to breeding queens, another aspect that makes Hall’s business stand out is that he does not use any outside products on his bees, which results in pesticide, chemical-free raw honey.
“Bees have to run through the gauntlet without treatments,” Hall said. “There’s no crutch keeping them up.”
When bees are treated, it can be hard to figure out which are mite-resistent, Hall said. By removing treatment, the bees are forced to bring out recessive traits to help them deal with mites naturally.
“Certain vigor is being utilized,” he said.
The busiest time of year for the business begins in May and extends through the first couple of weeks in July, when Hall harvests the most honey from the hives he has in 116 locations throughout the Upper Valley.
This year, he gathered between 7,500-8,000 pounds, most of which goes to wholesale.
Hall processes the honey at his Plainfield property.
The taste of the honey varies throughout the year, mainly dependent on where the bees pollinate: seasonal flowers, vegetable and other crops.
“The flavor is very much distinct and unique to the nectar source,” Hall said.
Hall runs the business himself and does not have any other employees, though he will occasionally get help moving bees.
“It’s a simple lifestyle,” he said. “I like being connected to nature.”
When he started beekeeping, he was usually the youngest person at various beekeeping gatherings and there is worry that as older beekeepers retire or die, there won’t be others to replace them. In the past five years that has changed, he said, as young adults drawn to back-to-the-land movements have picked it up as a hobby.
“I think the gaps or the voids will be filled,” he said.
And just like Hall was mentored by older beekeepers when he first started, he will pass on his knowledge to generations of beekeepers to come.
“I feel blessed,” he said.
Jennifer Hauck can be reached at jhauck@vnews.com or 603-727-3230. Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
