Potomac Resident Enjoys a Sweet Hobby as Beekeeper

For the past eight years, one Potomac resident has been turning honey into some money as a beekeeper.

“Bees are the only insect that provide food for humans,” said David Moynihan, who keeps his bees at a farm in Poolesville.

Moynihan currently has six beehives and said he hopes to have 10 by June. His bees should be able to produce 100 gallons of honey, but he said he will likely gather about 25 gallon of honey in an attempt to maintain the fragile hives.

He sells some honey at the Montgomery County Fair, but mainly gives most of it away. 

“It’s purely a hobby,” he said. “By the time I buy the bees, their food, jars, and labels – I don’t make a thing.  I just find it extremely interesting and satisfying.”

Moynihan is not the only one who gets the sweet end of job — he reimburses the farmer who owns the land the bee hives are on with one gallon of honey per hive, per year.

Moynihan was 8 years old when his curiosity about bees sparked an interest — mainly because his father was deathly afraid of them and kept telling him to “stay away from them,” he said. 

When Moynihan was 30 years old, he met a grizzled old beekeeper in North Carolina who taught Moynihan how to raise bees and take care of them.

Eight years ago, Moynihan acquired his first bee hives and was shocked at how much more difficult it was to keep them alive and producing honey, he said.

“There are a host of man-made and natural enemies to the bee,” he said. “Pesticides, herbicides, viral and bacterial predators, mice and mites all cause honeybees to die. Some beekeepers medicate them constantly, but I try the holistic approach.”

Moynihan said Maryland is not the best place for bees because of the harsh winters. Bees usually survive much better in the South, he added.

Moynihan usually purchases new bees from a bee breeder in Georgia.  He pays about $75 to $100 for a 3-pound box of bees, which come with a queen bee. 

When they arrive in Poolesville, the bees are installed into the hive, which is a movable frame rectangular box. Once they are placed in the hive, the worker bees are kept separate from the queen until their respective odors mix and they become a part of the same hive.  Since they are originally from different hives, they would kill the Queen if they did not have the opportunity to mix and become part of the same hive.

Beekeeping may be an interesting hobby, but it can also be a painful on, Moynihan said.

“I can’t count the number of times I’ve been stung,” he said. “It’s just part of the beekeeper’s job."