The Sweetest Profits | Retirement blossoms into full-time business for Oxford man
PHOTO/AMANDA ROBERGE
BUZZING: David Hebert decided retirement wasn't all that it's cracked up to be and opened his own business, Hebert Honey.
In an enterprise with millions of workers and several dozen high-maintenance queens, there can only be one king. At Hebert Honey, that king goes by the name of David Hebert and his products have been creating quite a buzz.
First by hobby and now by trade, the accomplished beekeeper figures he keeps about three full-time jobs: bee farmer, on-site salesman and product manufacturer. But if you count his hours logged in the world of marketing, housekeeping and office work, there’s got to be at least a dozen more part-time jobs in there as well.
Not too shabby for someone who retired in 2003.
Flying High
“What am I going to do? Sit around and watch television?” he smiles, reflecting on his long career working in parks and recreation and for the Army Corps of Engineers. “I’m just not that kind of guy.”
Well, apparently not. With bee-yards in West Thompson, Conn., plus one in Uxbridge and two in Oxford (all of which need to be checked on every other week), Hebert keeps himself as busy as a, well, bee.
In fact, he is his only employee in a rapidly growing business and yet he waves off the idea of hiring help. His wife, Joanne, does what she can to help out around their Oxford property and she accompanies him to the 20-30 high-end craft shows they attend each year, showing off the wares and enjoying life on the road in their state-of-the-art RV. But Hebert clearly likes to work alone, whether at his desk corresponding with customers, in his studio coaxing the honeycombs to release the glorious honey, or in the kitchen creating all manner of balms, lotions and soaps.
Hebert works seven days a week and hasn’t had a vacation since he retired. There is always a task awaiting him: lip balm to pour, soap to cure and lotion to package. There are invoices to send, e-mails to return and customers to contact. Occasionally, there is a neighbor to placate — the one with a pool filter clogged with bees. As it turns out, from neighborly relations to seasonal allergies, there is little in life that a pound of honey can’t cure.
Tending to the bees is the easy part. It’s a matter of constant observation and attention, according to Hebert.
“I learn something new from the bees every single day,” he said. “It’s amazing.”
Homemade
But there’s a good chance that his secret to his success is the quality of the product, plain and simple. It’s easy to believe Hebert when he hands you a small plastic spoon of his prized tupelo honey (known in some gourmet circles as “liquid gold”) and tells you it’s the finest honey in America. Indeed, the rich, flowery nectar from the tupelo blossom is only available to the bees for two weeks each May, making it a rare gem prized by beekeepers and honey-aficionados alike. The tupelo tree grows exclusively in Florida and Georgia, and Hebert is well connected with a bee-keeping friend down South who helps him to coordinate the deal. The whole process is a divine coup, and one that is hard on the bees but well worth the effort.
As the skilled beekeeper works to extract the honey from the comb, the oft-neglected beeswax becomes available as a by-product. “The old-timers say there’s more goodness in the wax than there is in the honey,” Hebert says, and maybe he’s right. His olive-oil and beeswax soap might convince you.
As he experiments with his latest product — a balm for pets called “Nose n Toes” — Hebert’s honey empire continues to grow. For now, he seems confident he can keep up with the demand for his other products, most notably a lip balm that he hopes will become No. 1 on ski slopes across New England.
“This is what happens when a hobby gets carried away,” he said.
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