TRANSITION GRANT IN ACTION:
STONEWALL APIARY CONSTRUCTS SPACE FOR HONEY PROCESSING, EQUIPMENT STORAGE, AND RETAIL STORE
Stonewall Apiary is a family-owned apiary based in Hanover, Connecticut, keeping about 350 honeybee colonies among 16 beeyards in eastern Connecticut. After purchasing land in 2017, Stuart Woronecki, co-owner of Stonewall Apiary, operated the office out of a 28’ trailer and stored the entirety of the apiary’s retail beekeeping equipment in a 48’ storage trailer. All honey processing and bottling was done in Stuart’s home, miles away from the Stonewall Apiary site.
Stonewall Apiary applied to the 2019 Farm Transition Grant program looking to construct a 5,000 square foot building with
areas for storage of beekeeping equipment, harvesting, bottling/packaging, general business operations, and a retail store. The construction of this project would allow Stonewall Apiary to bring all aspects of the operation to one location, as well as create a permanent storefront.
Construction of the building began in 2020. After the onset of the global coronavirus pandemic, Stuart contacted the Department of Agriculture (DOAG) about reducing the size of the building from 50’ x 100’ to 50’ x 75’due to the steep increase in construction material costs, as well as the corresponding scarcity of the materials. DOAG approved this request and fortunately, the building plan approved by the town of Sprague allows for the future addition of an additional 50’ x 25’ garage bay, which could be added when needed.
Even though the building is one 50’ x 25’ bay smaller than anticipated, the space is able to comfortably house all operations of Stonewall Apiary. The main retail space features various products on display to customers, public restrooms allow classes to be hosted in the facility, the office space allows staff to better coordinate beekeeping classes and manage day-to-day operations, the harvest room allows large quantities of honey to be efficiently extracted, the processing room facilitates honey processing and bottling as well as beeswax candle production, and the remaining space is able to store a tremendous amount of equipment.
Stuart says, “The accomplishment of this project has been transformative; our operation is more streamlined and efficient, with everything in one place. Retail sales have increased with the addition of a storefront and wholesaling has increased as well due to greater production capacity of our honey and beeswax products and also because of gains in efficiency that have allowed Stonewall Apiary, LLC to increase the number of honeybee colonies. The existence of the building has also increased the sales of package bees purchased from a supplier in Georgia, as well as nucleus hives and mated queens produced locally by Stonewall Apiary, LLC. These increases are a direct result the completion of this project, which has augmented our ability to handle larger amounts of customers. The end result is a beekeeping business that is able to hire more employees and financially sustain itself while also leaving financial resources available for continued growth into the future.”
The FTG is a competitive matching reimbursement grant for Connecticut agricultural producers and agricultural cooperatives. The Farm Transition Grant is provided through the State of Connecticut Farm Transition Grant Program, established in 2005 through Public Act 05-228, An Act Concerning Farmland Preservation, Land Protection, Affordable Housing, and Historic Preservation.