Sweet Story: Nursing Home Bee Hive Yields 42 Pounds Of Honey

EAST HAVEN, CT — Honeybees have been doing their thing for more than 40 million years. Beekeeper Ray Sola has been doing his thing for around 11 years, starting with two hives. He now has 100.

But once he starts talking bees, as he noted his wife says, he can go on “forever.” Hopefully, bees themselves will go on forever, too, because as Sola says, “Where would we be with the honey bee?”

The North Haven beekeeper, of Ray’s Raw Honey, is often asked to talk to schoolkids and civic groups about the importance of the pollinators.

“When I talk to kids, I tell them the most important thing about bees isn’t the honey they produce — they live on it, and we steal it. The most important thing about bees is pollination. It’s what they do and is a huge benefit for ... everything,” Sola said.

“Talk about apples; we’d have only 10 percent of the apples we have now without honey bees. And almonds? There would be none without honey bees. We wouldn’t have a third of the food we consume without them. We love bees for that reason,” he said, adding they are critical to ecosystem.

On the day Patch met with Sola, he’d just delivered 42 pounds of raw honey to Whispering Pines Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in East Haven. He first visited there many years ago to share his bee knowledge with residents. Then, two years ago, when the facility got a new owner, he asked Sola if he’d consider maintaining a hive at the location. Asking Sola if he’d consider working with bees is like asking a bee if it likes honey.

“I keep coming back because once I start talking bees, it’s hard to stop,” he said. So when new nursing home owner Michael Bartolotta asked about bringing a hive in, Sola was thrilled.

“He thought it would be awesome. I came to do talks, now we’ve been keeping bees for almost two years,” he said, pointing to the barrel of honey, the fruit of the bees’ labor. He noted the froth on the top is “extra goodness.”

But Sola doesn’t only talk bees — he rescues them as well. Last summer, he got a call about a honeybee swarm near a popular fast-food restaurant. Sola saved the day, for the bees.

What you didn’t know that you need to know about bee stings

Sola said that many beekeepers give up after a couple of years, and many who don't develop an immunity to bee venom will also retreat from beekeeping. Sola is immune to the venom, but that’s because he allows himself to be stung a couple of hundred times a year to build up a tolerance.

“If you’re stung 10 times or less a year with bee venom, you’re twice as likely to develop severe allergic reactions. So I get stung around 200 times, so I won’t get a severe reaction since I’m building up tolerance.”

By May of this year, he’d been stung around 70 times.

But why do bees sting? Simple, he said: “To defend themselves.”

“If it’s a warm summer day, and they’re buzzing around pollinating,” they are carefree, Sola says. But if it’s under 50 degrees, watch out. He said most stings are caused by bees “bumping into you.” Or, from ones that get caught in hair. And the last thing you want to do when a bee is near is swat at it, he said.

“Fast movement is seen as aggression, so swatting brings attention to you,” he said.

Also, bees apparently like people with dark-colored hair, so redheads and blondes may be less likely to end up with a bee in their bonnet.

Buy honey, help feed the hungry in East Haven

The bucket of honey Ray delivered last week is being put in jars at the nursing home, right after a tea, crumpets and honey party for residents.

Honey “lasts forever,” Ray said. But the jars at Whispering Pines may not.

All proceeds from the sale of the honey produced by the bees that Ray and nursing home residents are keeping will be donated to the East Haven Food Pantry.

UPDATE: Nov. 22:

Whispering Pines donated $500 to the East Haven Food Pantry after sales of its 'Honey Gold'.

Patch has partnered with Feeding America to help raise awareness on behalf of the millions of Americans facing hunger. Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks across the country, estimates that in 2020, more than 54 million Americans will not have enough nutritious food to eat due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. This is a Patch social good project; Feeding America receives 100 percent of donations. Find out how you can donate in your community or find a food pantry near you.