LOUISVILLE, Ky. — According to the Kentucky Department of Agriculture there are around 2,500 beekeepers across the Commonwealth, each one protecting their bees at all costs.

One of those beekeepers is Dave Handsbury, owner of Handsbury Honeybees, who keeps his hives buzzing all year round, even in the cold winter months.

What You Need To Know

  • Kentucky is home to nearly 2,500 beekeepers

  • Dave Handsbury created his own bee hive boxes for the harsh winter months

  • Handsbury has decades of experience with carpentry

  • Handsbury Honeybees has been operating for five years
Honeybees inside Dave Handsbury creation, which helps keep them warm during the winter. (Spectrum News 1/Erin Wilson)

“The beekeeper gets really stressed out in the winter, so everyone wants to know if their bees are alive. That's just the way we are. So instead of really bothering my bees, I just listen to them with my ear,” Handsbury said.

Now in business for five years, Dave and his wife Barbara got their start after taking a beekeeping class in Frankfort.

“One night I'm looking in a magazine and my wife is looking in a magazine and she leans over and says, 'We need to help the pollinators.' And I said I have no idea what you're talking about and she said, 'The honeybees,'" Handsbury said.

From that day on, Handsbury has been providing his nearly two million bees in the summertime a place to call home – but at first, it wasn’t that simple.

“I lost my first colony and I didn't like it, so I started thinking of something else and last year we had this system on 80 hives between me and some friends and we didn't have any of our bees die out,” Handsbury said.

Now Handsbury has nearly 84 hives with 15,000 bees in the winter and 60,000 bees in the summer, and the stress is now a thing of the past.

Dave Handsbury spends the morning checking in on his honeybees. (Spectrum News 1/Erin Wilson)

He put his 25 years of building houses to work to create a shelter to protect his honey bees during the cold winter months.

“I build a shelf that's two inches around. Then I put all of this emergency food, which is really just hard sugar or a winter padding here," he explained. "Then if I need to add extra food I can just pull this piece of plexiglass, add sugar, put it back and I don't lose very much heat from the bees."

It gives him a chance to keep an eye on his bees, while still keeping them warm. That's why Handsbury thrives during the coldest months of the year.

“I would hate to think I'd have to stop. We do it just for the bees. A lot of people do it for honey but for me, it's the challenge of getting your bees to live,” Handsbury said.

Handsbury Honeybees extracted 120 gallons of honey last year.