Judith Stanton wishes humans could be more like bees.
“They’re all doing everything for the good of the hive, the good of the community,” Stanton said. “It’s a perfect model that nature created. … Why can’t we do that same thing?”
Stanton, owner of Harpswell Honey, is in her 20th season of beekeeping. With five hives and an estimated 60,000 bees per hive, she has about 300,000 bees. As the Maine State Beekeepers Association’s 2024 Beekeeper of the Year and a former president of the organization, Stanton oozes with beekeeping knowledge.
When Stanton visits her hives, she dons tall, black, rubber boots, a white beekeeping jacket and a beekeeping veil. To the distant eye, she looks otherworldly, her protective gear giving her the appearance of a misplaced astronaut.
Before she approaches the hives, she lights a smoker — a small metal can with a nozzle and bellows used to pump air onto the fire inside and produce smoke. The smoke calms the bees and alerts them to her presence by masking their alarm pheromone. The bees fly around her and some land gently on her jacket as she inspects their hard work in the hives.
Stanton began beekeeping when she lived in New Jersey and worked in marketing and advertising in New York City. She had seen beehives on farms in South Dakota while visiting family as a child, but the experience left her thinking beekeeping could only be done in rural areas.
One day, she took her daughter to a playdate in New Jersey, where the parents offered her honey from their two hives. She then realized beekeeping was something she could do in her backyard.
She found a beekeeping couple to mentor her and enrolled in a beekeeping program at Rutgers University. She read extensively, subscribed to beekeeping magazines, and attended meetings with county beekeeping groups. In her fourth year of beekeeping, she moved her hives to Bailey Island, where she and her family owned a small property on West Shore Road.
Because of the close proximity of houses and strong winds coming off the ocean in the winter, Stanton put an ad in the Harpswell Anchor asking if anyone would host her hives on their land in exchange for honey. She received more than 40 responses.
The ideal environment for hives is sunny, with a source of fresh water and protection from wind. After filtering through responses, Stanton initially chose two locations: Two Coves Farm, in North Harpswell, run by Joe and Laura Grady; and Eartheart Gardens, a South Harpswell flower farm owned by Sharon Whitney.
Through the years, Stanton has kept hives on different local properties. At the height of her beekeeping, she had 20 hives spread across five properties.
“It was just too much work,” she said. “It was like I had a job. Every nice day of the summer, I was out inspecting hives.”
Stanton considers herself a hobbyist or recreational beekeeper, as opposed to what beekeepers call a “sideliner,” or someone who supplements their income through beekeeping. She now has five hives that she keeps on one property owned by Helen Norton, which is conveniently located near Stanton’s home on Hawthorne Lane in North Harpswell. She hopes to downsize to four hives in the future. Last year, she harvested more than 400 pounds of honey from her hives.
Bees use the honey they produce throughout the summer to feed themselves during the winter. Stanton is careful to leave enough honey in the hives to last the bees through the colder months.
Stanton started selling her honey at the former Vegetable Corner in the summer of 2011. Under the name Harpswell Honey, she primarily sells 1-pound jars of her honey at Corner Market and Two Coves Farm. Her labels feature a lobster boat logo designed by her husband and read “Made by the hardworking honey bees of Harpswell Neck.”
Stanton also sells both plain and bourbon-flavored creamed honey seeded with fine crystals to produce a different texture, color and taste. She sells jars of it at Iris Provisions, located under Iris Eats on Harpswell Islands Road.
She sells her honeycomb honey, which includes the wax honeycomb, to the Harpswell Schoolhouse restaurant, and small, bear-shaped bottles of honey to Hatch on Maine in Brunswick. Stanton only sells her honey products wholesale within the community.
Stanton makes a few other products from her hives, including beeswax candles and food wrap, which she gives as gifts or donates to local auctions. She also makes propolis, an antimicrobial substance, from the resins her bees collect. Propolis was used as a dental anesthetic before modern dentistry practices were developed.
Every year, Stanton uses the profits from her honey to fund a trip to the Eastern Apiculture Society conference, where she learns from speakers and “beekeeping rock stars.”
“I don’t have to sell it, but I really enjoy that because so many people want local honey,” Stanton said. “I just love supplying that little need.”
Stanton recently taught a four-week course about bees to students at Harpswell Community School. She has put on educational demonstrations for Harpswell Nature School and the Harpswell Neck Physical Education Association summer camp.
While many people are scared of bees, male honeybees, also called drones, do not have stingers. Stanton often lets children hold them, helping them overcome their fear.
“The kids are all fascinated by bees,” Stanton said. “My whole thing is … get them to not be afraid of bees. And the more they understand, they stop screaming at the sight of a bee.”
Education is the most essential component of successful beekeeping, according to Stanton. As she downsizes her hives, she hopes to focus more on mentoring other beekeepers.
“There’s the three things — there’s education, the meetings, and having a mentor,” Stanton said. “If you listen at those meetings and listen to your mentor, you’ll probably be successful keeping your bees alive.”
When Stanton came to Harpswell, she started attending meetings of the Sagadahoc County Beekeepers Association because they were closer than the meetings of the Cumberland chapter. After holding various positions within the county organization, she became the Sagadahoc representative to the Maine State Beekeepers Association before serving a three-year term as its president, ending in 2023.
She continues to serve as president of the Sagadahoc chapter, as well as the “mentor matching and swarm team coordinator.” The swarm team collects bee swarms in the wild upon request.
Every month, the Sagadahoc chapter has “bee breakfasts,” gathering at Fairground Cafe in Topsham to talk exclusively about bees and beekeeping.
“It’s something that is so fascinating, and you get deeper and deeper into the biology and all of the facts and things like that that are so interesting, and you want to share it with other people,” Stanton said.
While gently inspecting the hives, Stanton remarked that sometimes she will just sit and watch her bees go in and out. She particularly likes watching the color of the pollen because it changes constantly.
“I love my bees. They’re such interesting creatures,” Stanton said. “They’re working so hard for us.”
