Staff photo by EMILY BARNES
Beekeeper Lyle Bradford inspects frames of one of his hive boxes on his property in Bryans Road.
Business with buzz: A Bryans Road resident has turned his interest in honeybees into a sweet business.
Lyle Bradford was into bees and beekeeping for many years, but it wasn’t until he recently was put on disability that he began making beekeeping his career.
A liver transplant in 2004 caused him to be unable to perform his daily tasks as a driver for the Wonder bread company.
With some experience of beekeeping from family members who keep bees, Bradford turned to the hardworking honeybee to help make enough money to get off disability.
A honey of a deal: This past spring, with a grant from the Maryland State Department of Education Division of Rehabilitation Services, Bradford was able to purchase additional equipment and bees to expand his beekeeping business, called Keep’em Buzzin, selling honey and other bee products such as wax candles and lip balm.
Bradford qualified for a grant through a program of DORS called Reach Independence Through Self-Employment. The program gives people with disabilities an opportunity to get grant funding for business plans they have created.
Ben Bryan, vocational rehabilitation specialist supervisor for the Southern Maryland unit of DORS, said business plans are reviewed by a board and applicants can receive up to $15,000 in kind if approved.
Bradford said he was approved for the full $15,000.
Yard work: The beekeeping business allows Bradford the flexibility to work from home as his bees are just outside. He said he can walk outside and check on the bees and perform whatever work needs to be done with them.
“If I can’t work one day, it won’t hurt anyone,” he said.
Bees, he said, work very hard and will keep on working without him if he is not feeling well.
Keep’em Buzzin is buzzing with 12 hives at Bradford’s residence and five hives in Virginia.
A recent trip to his Virgina hives, kept on a friend’s land, produced 300 pounds of honey.
Pointing out of a window at his home to a vast amount of goldenrod, Bradford said the honey produced at his residence has a very gold tint due to the pollen bees get from the goldenrod.
Bradford also provides swarm and insect removal for those who have unwanted bees, yellow jackets or other insects.
The honey, however, is the sweetest part of the job.
Bradford extracts the honey himself and sells it at the Waldorf Farmers Market on Saturdays.
At the market, Bradford said he gets to meet people and talk about all sorts of topics; more often than not, the topic is bees.
“I enjoy being a bee ambassador and talking about the plight of the bumblebee.”
GRETCHEN PHILLIPS
Got an idea for someone to profile in On the job? Send your suggestions to Angela Breck at abreck@somdnews.com or 7 Industrial Park Drive, Waldorf, MD 20602. Call 301-764-2847.