Edward Morgan - BeeKeeper

[00:00:00]  

[00:00:00] Hey, welcome to the show. Welcome to the show today on the show, I have the pleasure of speaking to a modern day Renaissance man. This native Virginian and graduate from Virginia state university has found himself with an unusual change in the Twilight of a 33 year career in the food and restaurant industry. 

[00:00:21] With the love and support that can only come from a 26 year marriage that can produce a medical student at Emory university and a fourth year engineering student at Kennesaw state, Edward and Esther became beekeepers. I'd like to introduce you to Edward Morgan. How are you, sir? 

[00:00:38] I'm doing great. Thank you for asking. 

[00:00:40] Awesome. Awesome, man, when I met you, that was just serendipity to be quite honest with you. I just, you know, I happened to be nice enough to, you know, see that you needed a hand and, uh, every, or I just happened to be nice enough to, you know, be cool with you and, you know, and everything seemed to work out. 

[00:00:56] Yeah. Yeah. So but yeah. Yeah. Tell [00:01:00] us about yourself, man. I hope I did your stories a little bit of justice with that intro  

[00:01:04] Yeah, it was great. Thank you. And the only difference is my wife is beekeeper on paper. She doesn't go out she doesn't go into the bee hive 

[00:01:17] yeah, yeah, I dig it. I dig 

[00:01:18] but  

[00:01:18] it  

[00:01:19] but she likes to call herself a beekeeper on paper. 

[00:01:22] Well, she's a beekeeper on this podcast. How's that? 

[00:01:25] Yeah, that'll work. 

[00:01:26] Awesome. Awesome. So tell me, some more about yourself. You did a food and beverage for 33 years. Tell me about what made you change from point a to point B you know, pun intended. 

[00:01:38] Well, actually, I am still in the food service business. The only thing is I'm not in restaurants. I'm a food service director at a retirement community. So one of my plans is to supplement my retirement projecting within the next five to six years that I'm gonna retire. So when I decide to. [00:02:00] Full of retire. 

[00:02:02] My hobby slash business will be beekeeping slash, chickens and goats. Cause I have chickens and goats too. 

[00:02:10] okay. Yeah. Look at you, man. Look at you, you know, before you were. Yeah. Awesome. So you're basically supplying the honey barbecue chicken industry all by yourself is what I'm here. 

[00:02:26] hearing  

[00:02:26] Yes. So I'm busy every day. That would be nice. 

[00:02:29] awesome. So what was this, catalyst for change? What was the thing that got you into beekeeping specifically? 

[00:02:36] Well, it's kind of a long story. I'll try to shorten it as much as possible, 

[00:02:39] Don't short it, man. We, we love your time. Tell your story. 

[00:02:43] so we, um, 

[00:02:48] we lived on 12 acres for, uh, or 10 acres for 12 years. And then my wife got a promotion and we moved to California in the bay area for four. And if you've ever been to California, you know, how, how tight the [00:03:00] homes are closely built. After being on 10 acres, I was like, man, if I ever get back to I'm. 

[00:03:07] So after four years, we moved to Delaware for four years, and then we finally came back in 2000. I think it was 2000 S. Then I was like, okay, I'm back. Let me start doing the research for this garden that I wanted to do. So one of the first things that I read is if you wanna have a successful garden, you should have bees. 

[00:03:27] So I went on Craig's list, and there was a guy selling bees out of his backyard and the bees are to pollinate the garden. That's what makes it successful. So I was like, okay. So I went over to the guy's house. And this guy went into the beehives with no veil, pulls out the frames and puts it in my hand and I'm looking at him like, are you crazy? And so I, um, I was blown away by it. Right. And, uh, so I actually [00:04:00] bought the beehives right back home and put 'em in the backyard. That's all I was gonna do with them was have bees for pollination for the garden at that I hadn't even started. So, um, while we were gone to California and Delaware, the house that we were in was an Airbnb house. 

[00:04:18] And when it came back to Atlanta, there's a lady that had started an Airbnb network group in Atlanta. So I joined it and, you know, over a period of time, I taught, I said, Hey, I just bought some. She was like, well, great. You can do this new thing called Airbnb experiences. Now I was not interested in doing anything similar to that. 

[00:04:41] I just wanted to put bees in the backyard so for entire month, this lady harassed me about starting this new thing called Airbnb experiences. So the last day of the application process, she called me up on a Sunday. I was like, Hey, [00:05:00] do you need to fill out this application? So I told her, I said, Hey, I've been married 20. 

[00:05:08] I think at that time I was married like 24 years. I was like, I don't need another woman telling me what to do. I'm gonna fill this application out to shut your mouth. So you'll leave me alone. And that's what I told her and I was serious about it. So I filled the application. On a Sunday night and I woke up Monday morning that I was approved and I was like, Hmm. 

[00:05:31] Okay. So now I'm on a worldwide platform and don't know anything about bees. So what I did, I went to the local library, checked out some books. I went to, YouTube and started studying about bees And about two weeks later, somebody actually booked the experience. Now, at that time it was $25 person and it would last about an hour and a half. 

[00:05:59] So I [00:06:00] take people. What I would do is I would explain the relationship between humans and bees  

[00:06:05] Okay  

[00:06:05] that at that time, I didn't even have the Bee suit. So what I did is I went on Amazon, you know, you could buy anything on Amazon. And I bought, I bought a couple of Bee suits and I actually got through it. Now, the name of the business on the Airbnb platform is called beekeeper 1 0 1 in the beginning. 

[00:06:26] It was very basic. I mean, very basic, but I did it and it kind of took off. Right. And a lot of, and then people started booking more and more. And so for the first seven or eight months, I was self taught cuz nobody taught me how to, work the bees. I just learned on YouTube and reading the books that I was at reading at the time. 

[00:06:51] And so then somehow some way I ran across that there was a Bee club in Metro Atlanta that Bee club opened [00:07:00] my eyes. I went to my first. And I was blown away because it was old. It was a, there were a lot of older people. But they were in there making money on bees. And I  

[00:07:11] Oh I  

[00:07:12] knew? 

[00:07:13] I, didn't know until I talked to you that day, so 

[00:07:15] I? So I didn't know. So for the first six, seven months, I didn't say a word I was in there. Every meeting, absorbing it, getting all the information I needed to get. So during that period of time, I went to, the first, regional conference. I went to that and I'm meeting people that got 500 beehives and I'm what do you do with that? 

[00:07:40] So then I ended up going to a national meeting and I'm meeting people that have 10,000 bee hives Now, now here's the difference though, because most of these people are older than me. I was already ahead of the game somewhat because I was on the Airbnb platform, which they knew [00:08:00] nothing about. Right, 

[00:08:02] okay. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:08:04] Okay  

[00:08:04] I'm on a, national platform doing Bee experiences and they have no clue what Airbnb is. 

[00:08:12] So I'm going to them to learn as much as I can so I can make this Airbnb experience even better. So four years later, Let me tell you what I do. So I went from $25. Now I'm at $50 per person. It's it's still called beekeeper 1 0 1, but it's more of a college level experience now. I mean, I, I go over some things that most people are like, I did not know that  

[00:08:41] Uh 

[00:08:42] okay. Yeah. 

[00:08:43] go, I go into how bees were introduced into north America. How we use, how, what the uses of the pollen that the, wax, you know, just think about it from this standpoint we use, we've been using wax for [00:09:00] thousands of years. What do you think we've been using it? 

[00:09:04] I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is like mustache. 

[00:09:09] Stuff 

[00:09:10] know, mustache, wax, that's the first thing that comes to mind, you know? But, uh, I don't know, man. I'm sure there's a million things we could use 'em for. 

[00:09:18] candles 

[00:09:20] Oh, why didn't I think of that? Why? Yeah, why 

[00:09:25] didn't okay  

[00:09:26] been using can bees wax before electricity, the source of light came from a candle. 

[00:09:35] okay. 

[00:09:36] All right. It's. I need a breath here. My mind is blown. I gotta go pick it up off the floor. So stay with me, got a little cleaning up to do. It's kind of a mess, but why? I don't know why. I didn't think of that. I straight went to, to beard wax for some reason that candles I don't, my son just had a birthday last week. 

[00:09:56] I don't know why I didn't take your candles. Okay. But keep going. Yeah. Tell [00:10:00] us. 

[00:10:00] So, those are the things that I explain to people. And I, so what I do is I, I have about 40, 45 minutes of explaining the relationship between humans and bees and what they do and this, that, the other. And then we take probably another 30 minutes and we actually go into the bee hive I put them in a suit and I pull some frames out. 

[00:10:21] Everybody wants to take pictures in this day and age. They take pictures. And then we come back and we do a taste test of different types of honey. And I explain to the different types of honey, the taste, the texture, what to look for in, in different types of honey. There's some fake honey out there. 

[00:10:41] And by the time you're done, it's it lasts anywhere from about an hour and a half to two hours.  

[00:10:46] Oh okay  

[00:10:48] they are blown. 

[00:10:49] Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:10:51] all this started because that lady pushed me into something I did not see. 

[00:10:56] We'll see what happens when you listen to women?[00:11:00]  

[00:11:01] so the crazy thing is, here's the crazy thing. So we, in that Airbnb, network group, we had a Christmas party that first year that I started to. And I gave her a $200 gift card to Houston's. Cause that was her favorite restaurant. And I was like, let me give you your money now, before you think you're gonna get a portion of this money. 

[00:11:22] right 

[00:11:24] So everybody loved it cuz they knew she's the one that pushed me into the Bee business. Now since then, I think in 2020 she passed away.  

[00:11:35] Oh  

[00:11:37] That lady, her name is Deborah Deborah Santos. 

[00:11:41] okay. Shout 

[00:11:42] the reason.  

[00:11:43] to her  

[00:11:43] Yep. That's my shout out to her. She's the reason I'm in the bee business, because I had no, because it had, I not told her those bees will still be in the backyard. 

[00:11:54] Wow. It's amazing. People can see value in you before you see it in yourself. 

[00:11:59] [00:12:00] Exactly. And, and, and so since then, since, since that, and, Since I've been going to the bee club. Let me tell you, so let me tell you how it spurned into other things. So I started off doing the Bee experience. So as you have, as you make more bees, you start making honey. So then you start selling honey. So I sell honey then. 

[00:12:24] So that's two bites at the apple, 

[00:12:26] Okay. Yeah. 

[00:12:27] So then, you know, you're going to the bee club and you see this guy, his full time job. Extracting bees from people's homes and business. And one day he does a seminar on just regular beekeepers getting into the extraction from business. I'm what extract from your house now that's 

[00:12:52] Oh, 

[00:12:52] okay  

[00:12:52] three streams of income from the bees So then. Because I'm on all the Facebook [00:13:00] groups in Metro, Atlanta with beekeepers, and I'm sitting there looking one day, a couple years ago, I was like, somebody said, why do we have to drive two hours to get bees Now I'm sitting on 10 acres. And I'm like, yeah, why do we have to drive two hours when I'm sitting on 10 acres and I can sell bees Right. 

[00:13:22] Yeah, I don't see why not. 

[00:13:24] I, don't see why not. So guess what sell bees. 

[00:13:29] Okay. All 

[00:13:30] right  

[00:13:31] streams of income from the bees, and then I sell so you can sell the bees. And then, and there various, um, ranges from $175 to 350 to buy bees.  

[00:13:45] Okay  

[00:13:45] queen for $45 for one bee So I'll  

[00:13:49] Oh wow 

[00:13:51] Oh, 

[00:13:52] wow  

[00:13:53] and there, check this out. Now, now keep in mind, keep in mind the bees do all the work. [00:14:00] There are times when you, somebody call you up and say, Hey, I want 10 bees. No, I want 10 Queens, times $45.  

[00:14:10] Oh  

[00:14:11] You know, how long it takes to go in there and get that queen. It might take, it might take five minutes. 

[00:14:17] If you find it, it might take 20 minutes. The bottom line is you made $45 in less than 30 minutes, 

[00:14:26] Oh, wow. 

[00:14:27] a  

[00:14:28] Yeah  

[00:14:28] finding the queen.  

[00:14:30] Uh  

[00:14:31] they will re the colony will replace her within 16 days. You 

[00:14:37] oh, wow. All right. I gotta follow up with this for the bees that you extract from people's homes, not to digress to that part of the conversation. But I wanted to ask this for the bees that you extract from people's homes, you get to keep those, do they turn into honey bees or are they just a different type of bee? 

[00:14:58] they're still, they're still [00:15:00] honeybees. 

[00:15:00] Oh, they are. 

[00:15:01] Okay  

[00:15:02] me, you're gonna pay me top dollar to remove them from your. I'm gonna bring 'em back and put 'em in my bee yard and make more money with 

[00:15:11] I knew it. Oh, I it. Oh 

[00:15:15] so what, so here's the key. When I, the first time somebody told me that I looked at them like, what you mean to tell me you going, somebody's gonna pay me to remove the bees and I get to take 'em home and I get to make more money with 

[00:15:31] yeah. Yeah. I'm just gonna shorten that down. People are paying you to make money.  

[00:15:36] So I come. And I make money with it. And then from there, you know, just continuing to go down the line of things that I do. So then I realize when I sell people, the bees, cuz when the guy sold me the bees, he didn't give me any instructions. And so as time goes and people come to the Airbnb experience and they're like, I wanna get into beekeeping. 

[00:15:59] I'm like, well [00:16:00] I can sell you the bees. Okay. And then they're like, well I don't know anything about the bees. Well guess what? I can teach you how to do. So I teach people how to maintain bees. Now, what I do is I break it up as $50 a class. The class may last anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours and you need five classes 

[00:16:22] Okay. Yeah. 

[00:16:23] and that that'll give you the basics and then you can take it from there, depending on how far you wanna go into it. But you got enough to, you got enough knowledge that you can maintain bees. 

[00:16:35] Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, so let me for everybody that's out there listening. I'm gonna break down this cycle for you. Okay. My man here has an Airbnb experience to where you come and you pay him to learn about bees. Or to experience bees, then he can come to your house to where you pay him to come to [00:17:00] your house. 

[00:17:00] He takes a, bee he brings it home. He puts said bee to work, said bee can either be sold off to someone else or cultivated to make more honey. Now he's bringing you back into the fold to teach you how to do what he's doing. If I've missed any part of this conversation, or if I've missed any part of this to where people don't understand, feel free to listen to the show again, because the information is worth it that much. 

[00:17:30] So, Edward, 

[00:17:33] Yes. 

[00:17:34] what are you gonna do with a million dollars that you make in honey? 

[00:17:38] I wish So keep in mind. I still have a full time job, so. 

[00:17:45] Yeah. Okay. 

[00:17:46] I work every day. Either, you know, either I'm on my government job or I don't have to go into bee hives every day, but I do about three or four experiences a week. 

[00:17:58] Okay. 

[00:17:58] in between that, I [00:18:00] still gotta cut the grass. I gotta feed the goats every day and gotta let the chickens out. 

[00:18:05] But I'm busy every day. 

[00:18:07] Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:18:08] Right. So I'm working, I'm working it, you know, keep in mind, I got a son that's getting ready to start medical school. That's not cheap. 

[00:18:15] No, no, it's 

[00:18:16] You know, my, my wife likes to drive a nice car, although she pays for her own car. 

[00:18:21] Yeah. 

[00:18:22] But no, we, I mean, we got aspirations to do different things. 

[00:18:25] I haven't made a million dollars yet, but there is money in bees and the thing, here's the thing I never knew any of this existed. And most of the people I meet, they're my age. Most of the people I know they're my age and we talk about it, right? Like I got a video of me sticking my hand in some bees Right. And initially all my friends is like, oh man, you crazy, you shouldn't be doing that. My wife was not happy. The first time I did that. And what I try to explain to them is I have some bee knowledge that you don't have. [00:19:00] And be the reason I stuck my hand in, in the beehive is because it was a swarm and when bees swarm they're less aggressive, they didn't know that. 

[00:19:10] Oh, okay. 

[00:19:12] So the other thing is what I've learned since I've been doing the bees. There are so many jobs just like beekeeping that we know nothing. My dad, my dad, we have a family farm in my family. That's been, it's been, we've owned it for over a hundred years. I consider myself now a fourth generation farmer, cuz bees are considered livestock. 

[00:19:41] Of 

[00:19:41] So, so I have bees. I have goats, I have chickens. I consider myself a fourth generation, farmer, but check this out. This is what I told my dad last year. I said, you. All those years that you guys were farming in this black community in [00:20:00] North Carolina. I said, you know what, somebody set up some beehives in that area and you guys didn't know about it and they were making money or they were getting honey off of all the crops that you guys planted for over a hundred years, somebody was making honey off of that. 

[00:20:20] And you never knew. He just kind of looked at me. I said, because he was like, yeah, you're probably right. Cuz there were no black beekeepers. I said I don't because most of the people that I talk to they're my age or they may be older and I point this out to them, I say, okay, so you're, let's say you're 55. 

[00:20:38] So you're 55 years old. You've never met a beekeeper and you know what I say? You'll never meet another black. 

[00:20:46] Wow. 

[00:20:47] That's how many black beekeepers are out there. It's that? It's the it's less than 1%. 

[00:20:53] Wow. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. 

[00:20:56] Right? So, and, and so I'm in, I'm in a lot of [00:21:00] different Facebook groups. I'm in two black farmer groups. One of 'em is worldwide. One of 'em is nationwide and they, and there's some black farmers doing some amazing things out there. And I post periodically, Hey, On all the things that you guys are doing, you still need bees to pollinate and I'm trying to encourage them. 

[00:21:21] They can possibly double their yield if they had bees to pollinate. But you know what the fear is. I don't mess with bees. I don't mess with bees, you know, and sometimes it's hard to get people to do different things. 

[00:21:43] mindset. Yeah. 

[00:21:44] You gotta get out the mindset. And so once I, I mean, I get stung all the time. Do I like it? 

[00:21:49] No, I don't like to get stung, but it's a mental thing. It's, it's it all it is. It's a mental thing because somebody told you beware that bee [00:22:00] Don't touch that bee And if sometimes when I'm doing an experience, I'll actually pull this stinger out and say, look, here's this stinger right here. Watch me pull this out. 

[00:22:10] I said, you see that? And I mean, it. The stinger is like the, the, the point on like a bobbypin 

[00:22:19] Yeah. 

[00:22:20] this is all you're scared of this is it. There's nothing to, and that's all it is. 

[00:22:30] Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that kinda segued into my next question. How many times have you been stung 

[00:22:39] Oh, probably over 200 times. Maybe more 

[00:22:44] and just, it's just a Thursday. That's no big deal. and 

[00:22:48] there's no, you pull this thing out. You keep moving. I've been stung three times a day. No big deal. 

[00:22:56] I just 

[00:22:56] look, look, listen, check this out. 

[00:22:58] uh, 

[00:22:59] So [00:23:00] I had an experience today at 1:30 right. I had 10 people in the class at 10 o'clock. I had to go teach this lady. She wanted individual classes. 

[00:23:15] Uhhuh 

[00:23:16] pays me for, uh, hundred dollars. It lasts about an hour, 

[00:23:20] oh, wow. She's 

[00:23:22] right. 

[00:23:22] at that point. Yeah. Oh, 

[00:23:24] So I've already made my money for 

[00:23:28] okay. 

[00:23:29] day and I'm still, I'm sure, by the end of the day, I'll probably sell about four or five more bottles on. So I made some good money and I've been, you know, no stress. 

[00:23:38] yeah. Yeah. That's the, that's kind of, the key part is like it's pretty low stress is what I'm hearing. 

[00:23:44] it's pretty low stress. I don't have to deal with any employees that don't show up for work. They want to, they want to cuss you out. I don't have to deal with any of that. 

[00:23:55] I mean, you're on 10 acres, you got all that fresh air. You probably got some [00:24:00] plants, couple chickens, some goats, 

[00:24:03] Yeah. 

[00:24:04] just living that life, man. 

[00:24:06] So, but they', but there. There are many jobs like that. And I've, you know, cause I, a couple friends I talked to on a regular basis and I said, man, if I could done this 30 years ago, and guess what they say, you weren't ready. And I wouldn't have, and when I think back about it, I, I didn't see myself doing it. 

[00:24:26] Now somebody pushed me into this. Right. So who, who, who was gonna push me into beekeeping 30 years? 

[00:24:36] Yeah. shout, shout out. Yes. But shout out to Ms. Santos again, though. 

[00:24:39] Exactly. 

[00:24:40] Yeah. That's what it takes. It's again, mindset, mindset. You know, you were talking about mindset earlier. Uh, go 

[00:24:50] I think it's, I think it's mindset. You gotta be open to different things. Uh, you know, like my dad, I didn't, you know, I, I've always known that we [00:25:00] had that farm land. I didn't want any parts of it. 

[00:25:04] Yeah. 

[00:25:05] Right because farming is hard work. No, let me, let me back up for one second. So I bought the bees to do the farming and so the second year I planted a garden and I was like, there's no way I'm trying to keep that grass out of that garden. 

[00:25:23] Uh, 

[00:25:23] I was like, this is hard work compared to the money that I was making with the bees. I was just like, oh no, we're done. So my we're done with the garden, but my part of the farm, cuz you can farm different ways will be bees, chickens and goats. 

[00:25:44] Okay. Yeah. Keep it, manageable. Yeah, 

[00:25:47] Right. I, the garden thing that was too much work, that was that's a, now when you see a farmer that's planting stuff and they got that that's work. 

[00:25:56] yeah. Yeah. That's seven days a week too. 

[00:25:58] That's seven days a week. [00:26:00] That's 

[00:26:01] Yeah. I'm I'm good on that, man. I'll stick with podcast, bro. that is, that is um, wow. Wow. So I'm assuming you're selling honey on these experiences as well, right? 

[00:26:18] Oh, yeah. So then, you know, when we finish the experience today, after we do the honey tasting, then I say, okay, I have my, my one pound bottle is $15. And my two pound bottle is 25. And, uh, you know, I always, if I got 10 people there, I always project it out, get a 50% pop at that. Most of the time I do. So, 

[00:26:39] Yeah, 

[00:26:39] you know, it works. 

[00:26:41] Yeah. It sounds like it does but how long does it take for them to make the honey though? I mean, if you were to get, let's say, a quart of honey, you know, like, or a pint, 

[00:26:53] So, so they, so the bees, so the bees, so right now, so the bees have been [00:27:00] making honey since Fe let's say February. So they're getting ready to enter a period called the di where basically all the flowers have blown down. So. There's no more honey to be made in Georgia right now, unless you're in the mountains. 

[00:27:16] Cause there's another tree that blooms out called Sourwood. 

[00:27:21] Okay. 

[00:27:21] There's a Sourwood and a basswood tree that grows in the mountains. But for the most part, all, all flowers have bloomed out in Metro Atlanta. So excuse me. So, um, the bees have. Depending on which hive you might get about, you can get anywhere from 50 to 60 pounds of honey per soup. 

[00:27:44] And it just depends on a soup is a box that you put on top of the nest. So it, it just depends each one varies, but I made some honey this year. 

[00:27:55] okay. 

[00:27:56] I face it. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:27:57] I, I don't remember getting any on my birthday, [00:28:00] just, you know, I'm just putting that out there for everybody to know. Y'all can come to my man. He's got great honey and all I've seen it and stuff, but, I just, you know, my birthday, I don't remember getting anything. Just 

[00:28:10] Yeah, well, we 

[00:28:11] what you will. 

[00:28:13] we'll make, we have to make that happen. 

[00:28:15] All right. Well, I, and it's funny, cuz I was, uh, I was thinking when I was doing research on beekeeping to come up with some of the questions I wanted to ask you, one thing that really kind of hit me in the head that I, I just didn't really think about is things like vet bills and weather. How much do they affect what you do? 

[00:28:37] So there are no vet bills for beekeeping 

[00:28:42] Oh, there 

[00:28:42] now. No, but the be, but bees do have parasites, so you don't actually take bees to a vet, but you do have to treat them for parasites and you can buy that from a, a bee vending house or you can buy it from something like Amazon, [00:29:00] if you know what you're looking. That could be costly depending on how many hives you have. Right. And if you don't treat the bees, they'll be here one day and they'll be gone. The next, they got two, they got two prominent, parasites right there that are really causing problems for the bees. So I treat 'em, probably quarterly. 

[00:29:20] And then, The weather is a everyday thing. So when the weather's cold bees don't come out when it's below 55 degrees. 

[00:29:28] Okay. Yeah, that makes 

[00:29:29] between February, between February and now. The bees are doing all the work they can to get as much nectar as they can to convert to honey, because that is a food source in the winter time. 

[00:29:42] Okay. And so for everybody listening, that's between February and right now, this is June. So, so that's your window of opportunity for making all the honey for 

[00:29:51] Right. Exactly. 

[00:29:53] or, and that is that. So I'm assuming that's also your window of opportunity for, for getting your, your [00:30:00] B experiences on 

[00:30:01] Well, I do it. I do the experience year round, but I also put on there it's it's based on weather. If the weather allows me. To, to do it, I will do the experience, but if it rains, I can't do anything. Right. If it's below 50, I can't do anything. And sometimes I wait up until like the last two before I, if it's gonna, then I can't do. 

[00:30:28] And people understand that, 

[00:30:29] Okay. Yeah, of 

[00:30:31] I let 'em know cause you're gonna harm the bees. Well, not just harm the bees, the bees don't like it in the rain. So if you open a beehive, when it's. You're gonna be in trouble. you're going put it this way. You're gonna pay the price is what you're gonna do. 

[00:30:48] yeah. More than your regular Tuesday stings then. Huh? 

[00:30:52] Yeah. They, they don't like that. 

[00:30:56] That is, um, that's pretty crazy, man. That is pretty [00:31:00] crazy. So, you know, you're pretty close to retiring. How, what other things can you incorporate with this, that you, I mean, cuz you mentioned wax at the very beginning. Are you doing anything with 

[00:31:12] Not yet because you gotta have. So remember I was telling you that I met people that have 10,000 BES. Those are the people. When you got 10,000 BES, you're producing a lot of wax. I, I, I have some wax, but not enough to sell, but there's so many other things that you can do with beekeeping. Like. One of the other things I wanna start doing. 

[00:31:33] And I'm gonna, when I, when I, when I finally start making it, uh, I'm gonna give it out as a taste test during my experience. And that is called me, you know, what mead is. 

[00:31:46] Yeah. Yeah. I know mead. I, I did a lot of 

[00:31:49] Oh, 

[00:31:50] so yeah. I know what mead is. 

[00:31:51] so well, I, I didn't, I've never heard of me prior to me getting into beekeeping, so I'm gonna start making my own mead. And that's just [00:32:00] another thing that I'm gonna show people like, Hey, mead comes is beer made outta wine. I'm sorry, not beer, but honey made from. Or wine made from honey. That's what I, right. 

[00:32:13] Yeah. That's what  

[00:32:14] go.  

[00:32:14] to say. 

[00:32:15] Mead is 

[00:32:16] Yeah. mead wine made from honey. So I'm gonna start making 

[00:32:20] Yeah. 

[00:32:20] Right. Um, so I can, you can do that and I'm gonna start looking into how you, you can become licensed to do that. Cuz who knows, there's nothing stopping me from doing it full time. I think the only thing stopping you is just getting a license, right? 

[00:32:39] Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, I, I, I don't know what the capital situation is for something like that, but, I'm gonna save you on capital expenses. I'm gonna be your tester for, you know, your first couple batches. I'm gonna do that for you as an extension, as a courtesy of who I am. I will taste, test all the mead make. 

[00:32:57] Now, lemme, lemme tell you the other thing that I've run [00:33:00] into when I first started. This is when you, sometimes you don't know what you don't know. When I first started, somebody stopped by the house was like, Hey, can you give me some bees? I'm like, what do you mean give you some bees? Like, give me a Ziploc full of bees. 

[00:33:17] I'm like, okay. So the first time I did it right. And that's, I didn't know. So this person comes back a second time. It's like, can I get some more bees? I'm like, wait a minute. I can't just give you bees. What are you doing with it? And guess what they were doing. They were taking the bees and stinging themselves with it. 

[00:33:41] You know what that practice is called 

[00:33:45] Uh, insanity. 

[00:33:46] is called apitherapy. There's 

[00:33:50] oh, 

[00:33:50] there's a whole science behind taking a bee and stinging yourself with the bee in certain places to repair your body. [00:34:00] There's a whole thing behind it. So I've just started to look into it right. As the pandemic hit. So once things start opening up, I'm going, I'm gonna go to one of those conferences and learn how to do therapy. 

[00:34:18] Let me tell you, so I'm, that's one of the who knew, right? Who knew? But, so I stopped that person. I was like, Hey, I'm not gonna keep giving you these. But then since. This one person is like, Hey, I got a family member to sit and I wanna start, giving them some apitherapy. Can, can I buy some bees from you? 

[00:34:38] And I'm like, well, how often do he was like, I just wanna get him like every couple weeks I'm like, okay, it's a hundred dollars. Right. He gave me a hundred dollars. For some bees that I put in a Ziploc bag [00:35:00] and I gave him, I gave him three rounds of bees and then he came to me, or he called me when he was coming for the fourth one and said that his friend had passed away, but he appreciated me doing it. And I was like, okay, sorry to hear that. But there's a whole science, there's a whole science behind it. 

[00:35:22] See, the, the one thing I did know about honey is, you know, if you have, you know, particular allergies, it's good to take local honey and put it in your tea. And I guess it acclimate the body to whatever the pollen is in the area. Yeah. Yeah. That I, you know, I got that from my mom, you know, she, she, she knows a couple things, so I'm gonna take her word for 

[00:35:45] Yeah. So, so, so there's so many things that you can do with honey with bees, but guess what? We as African Americans dunno anything about?[00:36:00]  

[00:36:00] but if they wanted to know, I think I might know somebody who who'd be 

[00:36:03] Well, I, so I have, I have, bees at the H uh, Herman J Russell academy in Atlanta. So I teach beekeeping to that particular school. I'll go there once a month. I try to introduce these two groups of African Americans and people, you know, most people look at me like, I'm crazy until I tell 'em no, this is, this is what we should be doing. 

[00:36:26] And, 

[00:36:28] Yeah, that makes sense, 

[00:36:30] but the thing is there's nobody. Let me tell you why I like this because it's an ancient practice. And you just think about how long we've been doing it since we've been using candles. Right? I mean, that's a long time. 

[00:36:48] time, man. That's 

[00:36:50] That's a long 

[00:36:51] That's probably before time was recorded. 

[00:36:53] Exactly. And I love the fact that I'm doing something that people were doing thousands of years [00:37:00] ago. 

[00:37:00] Now I'm, I'm able to be a protected cuz I always look at it. One of the things I tell people, when I'm doing experiences, you gotta think back some, there were no PPEs and somebody was sacrifice to harvest that honey, because during that period of time, they had to actually destroy the entire bee. To get the honey. 

[00:37:21] Whereas today you don't have to destroy the entire bee hive somebody sustained. Somebody was attacked by those bees 

[00:37:31] Yeah, 

[00:37:32] that's a lot of. 

[00:37:33] That is true. Yeah. Yeah. Send in the other guy. That is . Yeah, man, this is, this is an incredible conversation, man. This. I mean, I did my little bit of research so I can ask the right questions and things like that. But man, you've given me just, just a [00:38:00] dearth of information, 

[00:38:01] that's, that's kind of like why I like it. And then, you know, it's something different and when I'm out there, nobody's coming out there to bother me. My wife is not coming out to ask me questions. Nobody I'm out there by myself and I, and I like that. 

[00:38:19] Yeah. 

[00:38:19] the piece of mind. 

[00:38:20] So do you have to, do you have to carry insurance or any sort of allergy medicine in case somebody gets, stung and 

[00:38:27] So on, on, yes. When yes. So I have I'm insured. I'm also insured on the Airbnb platform. Um, and then I have EpiPens and I have, so, you know, like there was one time, like if I get stung maybe four or five times. Within a couple minutes. I will take some Benadryl. There was one time where I got like 15 stings in a couple minutes. 

[00:38:52] I went in the house and hit myself with a epipen. Right. 

[00:38:56] okay. Yeah. 

[00:38:59] but that doesn't happen [00:39:00] that often I've only done it one time. Right. 

[00:39:04] Okay. Yeah. 

[00:39:05] but other than that, yeah, but I have all that for the, uh, for the people when they come for the experience. So I put their mind at ease, cuz I tell 'em I say, Hey. They have to sign the waiver. 

[00:39:16] And I tell 'em now I've probably had about 700 people here. Only four people have been stung. You can do the math. You most likely, most likely you will not be stung, but there are no guarantees. There's a strong possibility you will be stung, but you need to understand there is a risk we're dealing with bees. 

[00:39:37] So everybody signs a waiver and if they refuse to sign a waiver, it's fine with me. Alright. The money's already in the bank. right. Cause they've already, they've already paid for the experience, right? 

[00:39:51] Yeah. Yeah, 

[00:39:52] if you wanna go home, feel free, the money is in the bank. 

[00:39:56] Yeah. There's always that you [00:40:00] can get you a bottle 

[00:40:00] You can get you a. 

[00:40:02] It'll cost you 

[00:40:03] You can get you a bottle of honey on the way out. We'll see you. 

[00:40:07] Yeah. 

[00:40:08] But I, I have to protect myself. Right. Cause you never know what's gonna 

[00:40:11] Of course. 

[00:40:12] And that's why I say there are no guarantees. I can't guarantee that you 

[00:40:20] But you can guarantee people will have a sweet time pun intended. pun 

[00:40:26] exactly. 

[00:40:30] Man. This has been, this has been a pretty good conversation, man. I'm do you, uh, do you find yourself selling like extra bottles to like local restaurants 

[00:40:38] No 

[00:40:39] uh, farmers markets or anything like 

[00:40:41] I haven't 

[00:40:41] you just don't have that volume yet? 

[00:40:44] actually, I wanted to get in some farmer markets, farmer's markets. I sell more honey sitting in my house. Right. 

[00:40:53] Oh, okay. Oh yeah, you don't have to pay that, uh, 

[00:40:59] I don't have to pay the [00:41:00] table fee. Of course, you know, one day I might venture into that, but if I gotta actually leave my house to go to a farmer's market to sell 20 bottles, I could have done that at home. Right. So, hopefully I'm gonna get to a point where I can put it in some, some stores where I don't have to be there. 

[00:41:17] Right. Cause the, what I'm realizing is you want to be able to sell. And not be there. Like when I'm at work, people can pick up honey from my house and I don't have to be here. I have a shed that they can, after they pay me through cash Vemo, um, they can go in the shed and get now, you know, I don't put 25 bottles out there. 

[00:41:42] I'll put about three or four bottles out there every day. So you don't want to risk your life for going in there to get a bottle of honey. 

[00:41:50] Yeah. No, of 

[00:41:50] So I just put a couple bottles off there every day and sometimes I'm home and sometimes I'm not and people will call me and say, Hey, I wanna get a bottle of honey. 

[00:41:58] And I'm like, hell, do you wanna pay for [00:42:00] it? Tell, but I also recently within the last week, now I have a website. So, the name of the website or the is https://www.beansbeesandhoney.com/ so people can actually order it on the website. 

[00:42:25] Awesome. Awesome. Well, I will go ahead and post that information in the show notes as well. Can you say it one more time? Beans. Go ahead. Do com awesome. Awesome, man. And, you said your, your Airbnb experiences, beekeeping 

[00:42:46] Yeah. Bee Keeping 101. So if you go to be keep, if you go to Airbnb experiences, not Airbnb, but Airbnb experiences and you put in Atlanta, I would come up [00:43:00] on the first page, cuz I'm the top Airbnb experience in Metro Atlanta. So, so all you have to do is then click on me and then select a date that you want come, and then you pay your fee and the rest is history. 

[00:43:19] Yeah, don't forget to sign that 

[00:43:23] I've never forgotten that. 

[00:43:27] waiver. all right. Oh, of course, of course. So, uh, tell me about, uh, do you have your social medias and stuff? Go ahead and give us that information. All your 

[00:43:33] So on Facebook, I'm Edward Bean, Morgan. I still need to set up a, a separate, beans bees and honey Facebook page. And then on Instagram it's, beans, bees, and honey.com. I mean, bees beans, bees, and honey. Oh, you're. Thank 

[00:43:54] Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, this has been. An incredibly eye [00:44:00] opening conversation with you today. I can't thank you enough for coming onto this show. I really appreciate it for everyone listening. I will have all this information available in these show notes. And again, to my amazing guests, tell your wife. 

[00:44:13] I said thank you for letting me have you for this little bit of time on this beautiful Sunday. And thanks for coming on the show, man. I really appreciate it. 

[00:44:20] you. I appreciate you. Thank you. 

[00:44:24] All right. I'll you have yourself a great day. 

[00:44:30] And that was my interview with Edward Morgan of beans, bees, and honey. If you know, someone who is looking for a new venture. Share the podcast with them. If you are a business owner and would like to be featured on the show, reach out to me on Facebook at DX at, in the black. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Information is always in the show notes