We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Justin Scott a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Justin, appreciate you joining us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

In the beekeeping world its a lot about large apiaries. Beehives on pallets moved across the US pollinating and chasing the honey flows. This is the commercial side of beekeeping. Another side of beekeeping is backyard beekeeping. A person who keeps a few to a dozen or two colonies. Maybe all in one spot or maybe on an outyard. Then there is the sideliners. They keep a a good amount 50 to a few hundred colonies. They are usually spread out in one area over a few outyards. They do pollination and operate like commercial just on a smaller scale. When we started Sweet Stingers we had our sights set on palletizing our colonies and going the pollination route. I was never a fan of doing that though and wanted something different something unique. Something that helped bees, native pollinators and people. Over the first few years we were building to start the commercial route and people would call me and ask about the bees. Conversations went similar to I have some land and you could use it if it would be suitable for you and your bees. Then the conversations turned to I have a backyard and would like to have bees around but I don’t know how or have the time. What do think of placing bees in out backyard. I took down the names and numbers and that was it. Putting bees on people’s properties who I do not know inside of neighborhoods with kids I do not know didn’t seem all that great. After all honey bees are still bees and while they don’t want to sting it doesn’t mean they won’t. They do sting and sometimes you get a bee having a bad day and they sting for no reason. Having bees in my backyard with my kids was one thing. They grew up with bees. I grew up with bees. Placing 2 hives on a friend’s property in their backyard sure no big deal but strangers in a backyard it’s different. There’s more to it than just placing hives in the middle of an open field. I thought about it but nothing came about it till covid hit. When cobid hit I lost access to one of our largest yards where we were building to start commercial beekeeping the next year. When I was asked to leave the property the bees had to find new homes. I looked at the list of growing backyards who wanted to have bees placed and started sending out texts to place hives. By the end of the day a few hundred hives went into backyards. Backyards with families and kids. Dogs and players. The rest is history as they say. We went from looking to travel the US chasing the nectar flows to becoming a large scale backyard beekeeper. We started in Edmond OK and surrounding areas as that’s where we live. Over the course of a few months word was spreading we keep bees for those who need or want bees but don’t want to bee beekeepers themselves. We spread over into the Tulsa area and then over the next year we were traveling across Oklahoma. Boarder to boarder professionally managing hives for those who want the bees around. Something not done in the beeworld and as far as we know the first and only beekeeper in Oklahoma with active honey bee colonies in all 6 regions of the state. Over the next couple of years we have spread from the backyards to rooftops of businesses and corporations. Chefs using hyper local honey from their roof top on their seasonal menus. Hotels now with bees where guests can see us work and watch the bees. We work with all types of people all over state and have some amazing property owners. We teach veterans for free for those wanting to become beekeepers. Bees help with PTSD. We are hoping to add more programs and work alongside more veterans, prisoners, rehabs and abuse facilities in the future. We didn’t travel the normal route. We took the road less traveled. Created a unique niche and we get to bring people the taste of Oklahoma through honey. With our colonies spread out we are not creating a mono culture of honey bees but seeing honey bees and native bees working together. The best thing we have continued to due this all free of charge thanks to donors, sponsors and the support of Oklahomans. We work alongside cities like Edmodn to bring an education about gardens, plants and pollinators to the community. We offer education lessons across our social media accounts to help teach beekeeping to beekeepers and to help educate the general public about the bees, pollinators and the world of honey. We have fun the whole family is involved. Enjoying Farmer’s Markets and special events and engagements across the state. We took a risk to travel a road not traveled with bees and continue to build, grow and place hives around. Lots of trail and error going this route. It has not been easy but what’s easy that’s worth doing.

Justin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

We are Sweet Stingers Honey and Apiary. We are an Oklahoma based family run honey bee operation. I learned beekeeping as a kid with my grandfather and have been in and out of hives ever since. We started Sweet Stingers arounf 8 years ago We offer professionally managed honey bee colonies to those who want or need bees around without wanting to be beekeepers. We keep across Oklahoma and as far as we know are the only operation in all 6 regions of the state. We are looking at expanding to neighboring states also. We offer honey, beeswax, beeswax candles, kids with bees classes, beekeeping programs and more. Education is a big part of Sweet Stingers. We have our lessons from the Beehive across our social media accounts and videos on our YouTube account. We enjoy sharing our world of bees with others just as much as we enjoy keeping them

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

We offer what we call lessons from the Beehive. A educational posts to help other beekeepers and educate people on bees, beekeeping, pollinators and honey. I’m not one that is a social media type. I don’t mess with it and honestly I started the lessons as a joke. When I started the social media part of Sweet Stingers we had hardly any followers. Maybe 20 or less. Those people wanted to continue to learn about our world of bees though. I keep up with the lessons. I didn’t focus on pretty pictures, or building a following through massive giveaways. I didn’t focus on the trending stuff or the sexulized content. The focus was on education for free. We give back constantly and within 2 years we were over 30 thousand followers on a platform IG that is not known for lengthy posts bit more for pretty pictures and now reels. I never veered from the goal of education or getting fake followers. We continue to grow as we continue to offer quality education for the world of bees. To those who want to grow stick to what you like and what you know. Stay with it and the followers will come. Just because someone has x amount of followers doesn’t mean they are what I call true followers those who participate and are involved. True followers pay dividends in the long run. Don’t get stuck on what some else is doing do your thing you enjoy and the rest will fall in to place when it’s time

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Our reputation is from what we offer. We show people the true side. We are not afraid to show the uncomfortable truths. People respect it. People enjoy the way we keep bees. The way we involve the kids. The information we share about a world that many don’t know about. The way we get involved with the local communities we are a part of. We give back we take very little. We focus on others, we focus on other pollinators, we focus on education. We put the bees first, the education, sharing and having fun over honey. People are enjoying it and the community and state are definitely supporting it

Contact Info:

• Website: Sweetstingers.com
• Instagram: Sweetstingersok
• Facebook: Sweet Stingers Honey and Apiary
• Youtube: Sweetstingers