GEM Services
At GEM, we wish to provide services of benefit to the community as much as we wish to share our delicious honey. The following are some of the services we currently offer.
Uniquely Qualified:
15+ years of beekeeping experience that started as a work diversion and grew into an obsession and small business.
In the Master Beekeeping program at the University of Florida
Pollinator Stewardship Certified from Pollinator Partnership
The Honey Bee Experience
We start with a talk about pollinators and why we should care. Followed by a discussion of life in the hive for drones, workers & queen bees. I then perform a hive inspection, stimulating questions while you’re safe inside a pool cage. The experience is uniquely yours and the more questions the better the experience. A physically safe experience with no time limit. It typically lasts 90 minutes, depending on questions.
$10.00 per person with a $30 minimum.
Gift certificates are available.
* Larger groups are supported, please contact John for details *
Remote options available
** I can also come to your group with about 3K of my friends in an observation hive**
*** Recommended for, but not limited to, ages 8 and above ***
Beekeeper Startup
Interested in finding out more about honey bees, not sure where or how to begin? Start your journey here with a completely customizable program. We will cover the basics of honey bee biology, life in the hive, pests and diseases to name just a few. We start with a honey bee experience which is a “near hands on” experience. The typical startup program has four hours of one-on-one hive inspection/mentorship. I am always available for questions or follow up visits.
Includes:
Honey Bee Experience - Spend an afternoon discovering the mysteries of life in a beehive for the worker, drone and queen bee. $30.00
Optional turnkey hive - 10 frame deep and shallow super, with foundation, bottom board and roof - $300.00 (All the infrastructure you need to support your bees and harvest honey)
Optional four frames of bees and one laying queen (between 8 to 10 thousand bees delivered and installed) $275.00 ** Queen will be marked
Four hours of one-on-one beekeeper mentorship time. $50 x 4 = $200
My Background:
15+ years of beekeeping experience that started as a work diversion and grew into an obsession and small business.
In the Master Beekeeping program at the University of Florida
Pollinator Stewardship Certified from Pollinator Partnership
“This experience gave us a great introduction to bees and beekeeping. We started out exploring a variety of flowers and the connection between plants and pollinators. Who knew that bees can see yellow, blue, and green. John is extremely knowledgeable and patient and a truly passionate beekeeper. He explained what a bee experiences over a course of its lifetime. We were able to get up close and personal to the bees in the safety of a covered lanai while John inspected the beehive and pointed out the queen bee, the larva, and even the pollen on the tiny bee legs. My four year old loved it too. It’s a great experience and I highly recommend it.”
- Egle, on the GEM Honey Bee Experience