Connelly turned his beekeeping hobby into liquid gold, offering a taste of Lowcountry fields and flowers
Longtime apiarist Mark Connelly started his certified South Carolina grown company in 2019, bottling raw, unfiltered honey while helping local farmers pollinate their crops.
CM: How did you get into beekeeping?
MC: When I was growing up in the foothills of North Carolina, my mother was given four hives by a retiring beekeeper. She knew nothing about bees so she started reading books and asking questions. She did well with those hives, and they began to multiply. At around 16 years old, at her request, I carried boxes of honey from the bee yard to the kitchen, where my family would spend the day spinning out the honey with our little extracting machine and putting it into jars. My mother sent my younger brother and me to the monthly beekeeping classes hosted by our county extension office. That’s where we met the old-timers and learned so much more about beekeeping. I bought my first pickup truck at around 17 and started hauling hives to the apple orchards for pollination and selling my honey at the local general store.
CM: When did you begin keeping bees here?
MC: After graduating with a degree in civil engineering from The Citadel, I pursued different career paths, but beekeeping was, more or less, a hobby that I enjoyed. After several years of providing honey through pollination services, I discussed starting a business with David Anderson, the owner of Black Pearl organic blueberry farm on the Edisto River, and we became partners. That’s how Edisto Gold Honey was born. We still have hives at that farm, which now grows several other types of berries and plants, including lavender.
CM: These days, your hives are on many farms. Tell us about that.
MC: We have hundreds of hives spread throughout the area—St. George, Bowman, Ravenel, and John’s Island. We provide pollination services to several farms, so at any given time our hives are either building up, pollinating, or making honey. We move them around regularly and try to put them in the best spots possible for their health and for honey production.
CM: Edisto Gold Honey is raw and flavorful. Do you combine honeys from all of the locations for a consistent flavor?
MC: Yes, our honey is a blended source of wildflower, blueberries, blackberries, and whatever nectar is flowering at the time. Its taste can vary slightly during different times of the year. We also offer infused varieties, which are created by warming the honey just enough to stir in the infused ingredients and letting the flavors merge together.
CM: You’re also a firefighter. How do you balance it all?
MC: My firefighter schedule is 48 hours on and 96 hours off at Dorchester County Fire and Rescue. When I get off shift, it’s full speed ahead catching up in the bee yards and anything else that needs to be done. Thankfully, I have a crew that helps keep things going while I’m at the station. Also, a few years ago, I handed off the majority of my deliveries to two local distributors and that has helped a lot. Basically, I pretty much work all the time.
CM: What are your goals?
MC: The more hives we have, the better. We need honey to keep our customers happy, so that’s the main focus, but pollination is definitely something that I want to continue to do more of. I also hope to offer beekeeping classes in the future.
