16 Sep 2017 From Romania to the 501: Family opens a ‘sweet’ business

by Jan Spann

In his native Romania, Elvis Opris’ family kept bees and sold honey. When Elvis came to Conway to study business at Central Baptist College, he also met his wife, Katie, who was a music student from Texas. 

As the family grew to include children Adrielle (6), Elias (5) and Arlon (3), the couple began to consider ways to use their talents to benefit their family and the Central Arkansas community they had grown to love.

Three years ago, Elvis’ brother Adrian was visiting, and the brothers started talking about his honey business in Codlea, a small city nestled near the Carpathian Mountains of Central Romania.

A Conway friend at that time had also mentioned that he had a couple of hives that needed attention. “It was a cold winter,” said Elvis, “and Adrian and I rescued the bees from the iced-over hives.”

Later that spring, the brothers and Katie began to talk about ordering more hives, splitting the existing ones and beginning a family honey business in Conway. 

You may have seen swarms of bees as the temperatures warm in spring, a natural occurrence in an overgrown colony. Beekeepers control their hives from swarming by splitting the strong ones and adding the splits into a new hive box, where a new queen will be added. There can be 20,000 to 50,000 bees in a hive, so it’s important for the beekeeper to guide the swarms.

“A queen has about four years to maintain her hive, after which most stop laying eggs. The colony’s nursery bees select an egg to be her successor and feed it royal jelly,” Elvis explained. “In some cases, the old queen takes one-third of the hive and finds a new home.”  

Beekeeping can be a risky business, with losses from hive beetles, mites and CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder), where a large portion of the worker bees leave the hive. Katie and Elvis have had 20 hives and lost half of those, and are now back up to 17 well-performing hives. Healthy hives can average 60 to 80 pounds each year when the honey is harvested in late July.

“Fall honey is darker and more robust since it includes bitterweed, and other fall blooms after August,” said Elvis, “The summer harvest works best for us.”

The large supply of honey brought another problem and solution for the family. In looking for a place to process and store their honey, they considered taking it one step further to include retail space for themselves and other producers. With a commercial workroom, the burgeoning business is working toward offering a harvesting and bottling service to local beekeepers, complete with all the shiny new equipment that uses centrifugal force and gravity to extract the honey. Brothers Honey doesn’t use filtration or pasteurization in their process, leaving the pollen and enzymes untouched. 

Brothers Honey Company opened in August, with a retail space in the Littleton Park shopping plaza at 1100 Bob Courtway Dr, Suite 11 in Conway. The current store hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays and 10 am. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. There will be extended holiday hours beginning in November, to be announced via their Facebook page.

“The store will focus on education for consumers and apiarists, offering seasonal field trips for students in the homeschool community and public and private schools, and connecting interested consumers with local beekeeping courses and events” said Katie, who heads the company’s marketing. “We have a state map to show the locations of the honeys we sell as well as ancillary items such as Little Rock’s Izard Chocolate Factory products, lip balm, soap, T-shirts, hats and tea towels from local artisans. We also offer beekeeping supplies.” 

Brothers Honey will be featured in the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion Holiday Gift Shop for the 2017 season. 

The brothers behind the name are scattered on different continents, and Elvis and Katie are bringing a taste of home from Romania to Central Arkansas by importing some of the acclaimed EU certified organic Acacia honey. You can learn more about the family`s business on Facebook or at brothershoneyco.com.

A Conway resident, Jan Spann has been gardening for 20-plus years and has been involved with the Faulkner County Master Gardeners for 11 years. She and her husband, Randy, have five children and eight grandchildren.