Cameron Bosnic got stung by the bee bug a few years ago.
The Dracut resident decided to educate himself on bees when he started reading about how the insects were headed to extinction. In 2018, he took action.
“I had been reading about the loss of habitat, and I decided to take the initiative,” says Cameron, who started with two hives and now has six. “I was always interested in nature, in general. I’ve always loved going on hikes and being
close to nature. And I realized I wasn’t seeing many bees.”
Soon, he had several hives, each containing thousands of Italian bees. And, of course, with bees comes honey.
He started his own company, Camco Honey, at his home at 54 Varnum Avenue, selling 16-ounce jars at a roadside stand and online at www.camcohoney.com for $14 (plus shipping if applicable). He also raises chickens and sells eggs.
Cameron works at home as a software engineer for HCL Technologies and keeps the roadside stand open every day from till 8 p.m. He packages the honey in glass jars because plastic is bad for the environment.
Five percent of his honey sales goes to the Oregon-based Xerxes Society for Invertebrate Conservation for bee research, and he can’t stress enough the importance of bees to the ecological system.
“Almost all our food comes from bees pollinating,” he says.
And even with thousands of bees in his care, he says he doesn’t get stung as often as one might think.
“I think I got stung three times this year,” he says. “One year I got stung probably 10 to 15 times.”
In addition to helping the bee population and making a little extra money, the bees (and chickens) give Cameron a chance to step away from his laptop.
“I love my job, but being stuck all day on a computer would make me crazy,” he says. “This is a nice way to get my hands on nature.”