Reaping fruits of their labor

This month, a Holliston-based honey producer launched its own share program, selling larger quantities of raw local honey and beeswax candles directly to consumers.

The move by Reseska Apiaries Inc. points to the economic pitfalls of honey production, as well as the public’s growing interest in locally cultivated foods and burgeoning curiosity about the somewhat-secret life of bees, according to its founder.

“We get calls all the time. People want to see what we do,’’ said Andy Reseska, whose company is the wholesale producer and distributor behind the Boston Honey Company and Golden Meadow brands sold in stores.

“Honey is at more of a premium than ever. And with all of this information on honeybees and their declines, the public is very interested in how local honeybees are doing. We’re trying to capitalize on that and make them a part of what we’re doing.’’

About 20 people have signed up for $75 shares in the program, which provides 6 pounds of Massachusetts-produced honey and a variety of tapered, pillar, and votive candles made of beeswax, a byproduct of extracting honey from hives. The first distribution was last weekend at the company’s warehouse in Holliston, with another set for Nov. 20

“To be really sustainable, we need to sell not only the honey but the beeswax’’ as well, Reseska said.

Reseska Apiaries has 25 bee yards with about 1,000 colonies on private farms in communities across Eastern Massachusetts, including Concord, Dover, Holliston, Lincoln, Medfield, Sherborn, Sudbury, Wayland, and Weston.

In that respect, Reseska Apiaries has already demonstrated the various benefits that honeybees can bestow on local agricultural operations and food production.

Jim Geoghegan, the owner of Sunshine Farm in Sherborn, began hosting Reseska’s bees several years ago after pumpkin production at his farm plummeted due to a lack of crop pollination.

“There was an astronomical difference between having bees and no bees,’’ said Geoghegan, who also uses bees to pollinate his squash and strawberry crops. “The farm is definitely more productive with bees around.’’

Reseska was on hand at the recent Boston Local Food Festival on the city’s waterfront, and held a workshop earlier this year for aspiring beekeepers.

“Beekeeping is as much art as science,’’ Reseska said. “You have to read the environment and read what the bees are doing and take actions. It’s a little different than traditional agriculture. It’s a wild creature — not like a cow, where a vet can look at it. With beekeeping, it’s a little more vague.’’

Reseska said he plans to e-mail members of his agriculture share program throughout the year, letting them know what his bees are doing each season. But he won’t ask members to pitch in at harvest — a common practice among farm-based share programs — since “honeybees are a stinging object — it’s hazardous work.’’

Chuck Clapham, a Holliston resident and early member of Reseska’s share program, used to raise his own bees to pollinate plants in his gardens.

“Honey’s really complex,’’ Clapham said. “Most brand-name honeys mix a bunch of different people’s honeys and they lose their identity.’’ In Reseska’s case, he said, “it’s his honey.’’

Clapham uses honey for baking bread and pastries and to make mead, or honey wine. By joining the farm share program, he said, “I knew I could get a larger quantity rather than just buy the little jars.’’

Because per capita consumption of honey is fairly small — 1 pound per person per year in the United States, according to Reseska — the move to a community-supported agriculture share program is also part of Reseska’s desire to harvest more retail dollars for his labor. “We’re trying to move away from the wholesale,’’ Reseska said. “If we can take part of the production and move into retail, it will be better for us and becomes more sustainable.’’

This economic reality is due, in part, to reduced honeybee production in recent years, including a drought this summer that dried up flowers that bees would normally pollinate, Reseska said.

Al Carl, the chief apiary inspector for the state’s Department of Agricultural Resources, said there are two main obstacles to beekeeping in Massachusetts.

Varroa mite infestations have been known to cause the collapse of entire colonies by spreading deformed wing virus among honeybees.

The second obstacle is a diminished number of pollen- and nectar-producing plants that nourish bees, a situation that Carl attributes to increased residential and commercial development, and the movement against invasive plants such as the purple loosestrife. “They’re beneficial to not only honeybees but native pollinators,’’ he said.

Carl estimates there are at least 2,000 beekeepers across the state, although most are much smaller than Reseska Apiaries and maintain a dozen or fewer colonies.

“Massachusetts is a difficult place to keep bees,’’ Carl said. “We spend a lot of time with beekeepers helping them with management, and helping them identifying disease problems and varroa mite populations.’’

When everybody’s healthy, Reseska’s bees are trucked to orchards around Massachusetts and up to New Hampshire in early May to pollinate apple blossoms. They are then returned to their home apiaries and go into full-scale honey production.

Apiaries take advantage of what Reseska calls “the hoarding instincts of the honeybee’’ by putting out additional boxes to collect honey during this time.

“They want to hoard as much as possible given the space they have,’’ he said. “We usually start seeing a surplus of nectar coming in May and June.’’

The bees produce throughout the summer; from late August into October, Reseska and his staff harvest the surplus honey, which involves stripping it off the combs that the bees create in the hive boxes.

“If the planets are aligned, the bees will gather as much nectar as possible and store it up in our space. In a perfect season, those boxes will be filled with honey,’’ he said. “But this year, because of the drought, we’re taking off partially empty boxes.’’

That’s what makes the retail dollars from selling community-supported agriculture shares even more important to the continued production of local honey. Reseska said he’s promoting the local honey and candles as distinctive holiday gifts.

“People really appreciate it,’’ he said. “It’s a different kind of gift, and it’s also supporting local beekeeping.’’

For more information on Reseska Apiaries, visit bostonhoneycompany.com.