7/21/2009 9:30:01 AM

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By Dawn Schuett

Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN 

RUSHFORD -- In establishing a family business around honey, John and Debra Bruihler have worked at it like bees. Through a division of labor, they slowly and successfully made their brand of the sweet-tasting product available to more consumers.

	Hives for honey Honey from the Bruihler apiary is sold at 25 locations, including Hy-Vee North, Hy-Vee Barlow Plaza, Good Food Store, Silver Lake Foods, International Spice and Grocery and Sekapp Orchards in Rochester. More information about the products offered by the Bruihler apiary is available at www.beeswaxfrombeekeepers.com. Other larger producers or packers of honey in southeast Minnesota include Johnston Honey of Rochester and Mel-O Honey, Inc., of Cannon Falls. They are on the Web at www.johnstonhoney.com and www.mel-o.com.

A beekeeper for nearly 45 years, John Bruihler tended to his first two hives while in fifth grade. He now has about 400 hives in locations from Rushford and Preston to Winona and Rochester. On average, each hive produces 60 to 80 pounds of honey annually.

The honey is stored in 55-gallon barrels after it's extracted in the fall. Every two weeks, Debra heats some of it, filters it, bottles it and delivers it to retail locations through southeast Minnesota, including at least six sites in Rochester. They also sell comb honey -- honey that is not extracted from the comb -- and raw honey that has not been filtered or heated.

"It's a good quality honey," Debra Bruihler said. "People have it, they like it and they keep coming back to it."

Although theirs is a small operation, the Bruihlers and other beekeepers in Minnesota help to make it one of the top honey-producing states in the country.

Minnesota ranked fifth in honey production last year with more than nine million pounds valued at $13.2 million, according to the National Honey Board. North Dakota ranked first with 35.1 million pounds of honey valued at $47.4 million followed by South Dakota, California and Florida.

The Bruihler apiary produces mostly clover and basswood honey, a combination of flavors that come from the source of the nectar gathered by the honeybees. The bees give the Bruihlers a second valuable product in the form 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of beeswax a year, which is sold via the Internet for use in candles, lotions, archery wax and other purposes. The couple farms near Rushford, too.

The fact that their honey is produced locally is an advantage in marketing it, Debra Bruihler said.

"If people are looking at honey labels, they're generally going to look at something local first," she said.

Another selling point is honey as an all-natural sweetener.

"There are a lot of people who use it as an alternative to sugar," Debra Bruihler said.

As with any crop, the production of honey is susceptible to parasites. Mites pose serious threats to bee colonies. Since the presence of mites can make it difficult to overwinter a bee colony, the Bruihlers sell their bees once the honey is removed from the hives for almond pollination in California. In the spring, the Bruihlers buy new bees.

A different threat for beekeepers has emerged in recent years with what's known as colony collapse disorder. It results in no or few adult honey bees remaining in a hive. The cause is still unknown, but it is being researched.

Dawn Schuett is a Farmington freelance writer.

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