For 45 years, Glenn R. Clayton has been playing with bees.
A retired firefighter from New Jersey, Clayton’s passion for the honey-generating flying insects has evolved from a part-time hobby into a full-time job.
The rest of the family has become enamored with the bees as well and Clayton, along with his wife, Joan, run Hungry Hill Farm in Shipman, a honey producing and packing operation that supplies the Central Virginia area.
Clayton’s love for bees and their honey began in 1964, when he received a colony of bees and their supplies from a fellow firefighter who had grown allergic to them.
“I always wanted to play with honey bees,” Clayton said. “So he gave me all of his stuff and he taught me how to work them and that’s how I got started.”
That one colony has since multiplied. Now, Clayton maintains more than a dozen colonies of honeybees that produce more than 4,000 pounds of honey per year.
Hungry Hill Farm produce has made its way all over the world, too.
“They’ve been east somewhere, somehow, they got some of our honey,” Clayton said. “And they say that’s the most delicious honey they’ve ever had and they want more of it. So I’ll ship it to them.”
Hungry Hill Farm honey can also be purchased at all of the packing sheds and orchards in Nelson and Amherst County, at many of the area farmers markets and at local retail stores near Lynchburg and Charlottesville.
Clayton said it is impossible to produce the amount of honey that is demanded from Hungry Hill by consumers. So when orders come in, Clayton contacts other Virginia beekeepers with excess honey.
“I can’t produce enough and meet the demand,” he said. “I buy from local beekeepers that have extra honey. I’ll go all the way down to Danville, Martinsville and up to Winchester to pick it up.”
Hungry Hill Farm sells more than 14,000 pounds of honey per year.
Clayton is in the bee and honey-making business because he enjoys it, and the full-time work in maintaining the business is worth it, he said.
“This is different,” he said. “Now, I’m going to have to go out now and get a full-time job to get a day off.”
Over time, Clayton has become the “bee man” around Central Virginia. Beekeepers call Clayton with questions and concerns or for advice, he said.
The other calls he gets are for “bee emergencies.”
Last week, Clayton and his son, Glenn R. Clayton Jr., were called to the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport to capture a swarm of bees that had taken up residence near the terminal entrance.
Now, those bees are in a pre-built hive on Clayton’s farm.
“You gotta work with them. Respect them. Do not be afraid of them,” Clayton said.
“We’re trying to put them in a new home. We put them in Motel 6. We left the light on.”
w McGrath can be reached at
emcgrath@nelsoncountytimes.com.
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