Chesterfest
Haley's Honey will be among ChesterFest vendors
By Elyse Reel
Aug 27, 2008 - 9:46:50 AM

Mike Haley tending to their honey bees at one of their sites.

Honey has plenty of benefits. Not only does it taste great, but it’s a healing agent, a multivitamin, and a cure for sore throats, coughs, and diaper rash. Best of all to Virginians, locally harvested honey can knock out allergies, thanks to its high pollen count.

Anyone planning to attend the seventh annual ChesterFest, then, is in luck; a local beekeeping couple will be among its vendors.

“We’ll be selling honey, jams, jellies, beeswax, honeycombs, Virginia peanuts, and honey sticks,” says Tonya Haley. Tonya and her husband Mike have run Haley’s Honey out of their home for over seven years. With 20 hives of European bees across Prince George, Chesterfield, and their home in Colonial Heights, the Haleys are able to visit a number of area events, including the Chesterfield County Fair and the Chester Farmer’s Market, to offer their bee products for sale.

The Haleys were early vendors at the first two ChesterFest celebrations; though they were unable to participate in some of the ensuing festivals, they participated as vendors in 2007, and plan to return again this year. “It’s going to be really good,” says Mike Haley. “We’re looking forward to supporting Chester.”

Tonya Haley came from a beekeeping family. “My dad had over 500 hives at Beeline Apiaries off Willis Rd., and he was the president of the Tri-Cities Beekeeping Association,” she says. “Bees were a family business.” Mike wasn’t as enthusiastic when his wife broached the idea of beekeeping and harvesting honey, but the pair drew up a business plan anyway and bought equipment. “Now, he loves it more than I do!” Tonya says.

The Haleys put in around two hours a night with their hives of bees, and harvest honey two to three times between June and September. “Per hive, we get about 100 pounds of honey. That’s a ballpark figure,” says Tonya. “We use a traditional beekeeping method – all we do is take honey from the hive and put it in a honey extractor to spin the honey from the frames; we drain that into a bucket and put it into jars. We don’t add anything to it. No extra flavors, no preservatives.” (Of course, Mike Haley notes, no preservatives are necessary: “Honey never goes bad. Whether it’s from a thousand years ago or two minutes ago, it’s still good.”) The resulting honey can then be purchased in half-, one-, and two-pound jars, as well as in 12-ounce bear bottles.

Beeswax is also harvested from the hives, melted in a solar melter, and poured into one-ounce bar molds before being sold. “Beeswax can be used to make a lot of things, like cosmetics, lotions, soaps, and furniture polish,” says Mike. “People buy beeswax and make their own products with it.”

“Truthfully, it’s a lot of work, the upkeep and the packaging,” Tonya Haley admits. “But we really enjoy doing it, and we like being out and about.”

The seventh annual ChesterFest is scheduled for September 13 from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on the Chester Village Green.

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