A Love of Bees, Business, and Community Education with John Shonyo
Collider is passionate about sharing the stories of Rochester entrepreneurs and small business owners! We recently chatted with John Shonyo, who shares his love for bees through community education and a thriving honey business, The Bee Shed. Here’s his story!
Photo contributed by John Shonyo.
John Shonyo has been beekeeping for thirteen years, both as a hobbyist and professionally through he and his business partner’s honey business, The Bee Shed. He was originally introduced to beekeeping later in life through his uncle, who started tending to bees after returning home from World War 2 and continued to do so into the 90s. For John, beekeeping became an instant love.
At the time, John was working in administration at Mayo Clinic, nearing retirement. John chuckled and said, “Retirement didn’t go very well for me, I really like to keep busy and have something to do.” John soon began keeping his own bees on his property and his small scale hobby quickly became a small business, his solo project, The Bee’s Knees.
“I was lucky to have a neighbor nearby who also kept bees and taught me a lot about the bees and the business.”
This neighbor, Ed Simon, was Chris Schad’s business partner at the time and together they ran the first iteration of The Bee Shed. He introduced John and Chris and sparked the partnership that they have today. Timing was right as Ed was looking to leave the business and John was looking to expand and garner the support of a partner in the business.
John and Chris’ venture has scaled immensely over the years as they grew from a two hive to a two-hundred hive operation.
“Go into business with someone you like and respect, respect being the most important of the two.” John said. “It’s also important that you each have skill sets that compliment one another. For example, Chris is a biologist and has a lot of knowledge about the land and plants that help bees thrive. I really love spending time working directly with the bees and also feel that I am helpful in marketing and promoting our business.”
While getting started, John and Chris grappled with the question of how quickly and aggressively they should scale their business as well as marketing their product. They have always been invested in not accumulating large debt to run their business and always return profits to the business to help scale it.
The Bee Shed has since grown to supply several local businesses with honey, coffee shops such as Cafe Steam and Fiddlehead, SXSE Brewing, and local restaurants. They sell bottled honey at many different grocery stores in the area such as HyVee, local co-ops, Natural Grocers, and others. They can also be found at several local markets like Thursdays Downtown, Art on the Ave, and Farmers Market.
The Bee Shed honey is unique in that they collect honey from their bees four times a year rather than the typical one to two times per year. They do so strategically over different seasons to collect several different flavors of honey from their bees corresponding with seasonal foraging patterns of their bees. Their spring honey tends to be lighter and more delicate in flavor, reflecting the bee’s diet of spring blossoms. The summer honey, the most typical honey harvesting season for most beekeepers, reflects notes of clover, wildflowers, and berry blossoms. Fall honey reflects more interesting flavors like that of goldenrod and other late blooming flowers. They also feature buckwheat honey which is collected from buckwheat fields and has a unique rich flavor and a very dark color.
John and Chris have begun sending their bees to California for the duration of our harsh, Minnesota winters, where they help to pollinate almond trees. As they were raising their bees, they noticed that they were losing up to sixty percent of their bees over the winters. Now, sending them to California, they lose less than thirty percent in transport. Bees, while amazingly resilient creatures, do face frequent danger from weather, infestations of mites, and lowered immunity to diseases, which can make the business of keeping them a challenge.
John has long sought support for this small business through local organizations and peer groups. He has been a member of Collider’s Food Peer Group since 2021.
“Peer groups are really helpful in seeing your business through fresh eyes. There have been some facets of our business or things that we were trying to do that we restructured or changed due to feedback we received from peers. The information sharing is really valuable, there are so many resources you may not be aware of that others can share with you or that you can share with others.”
As a word of advice to aspiring business owners John said, “When considering starting a business make sure that you are utilizing every local resource that you can. There are a lot of organizations that can be of help. You also need to educate yourself. I don’t necessarily believe in ‘naturally gifted’ business owners- I think natural talent can get you started, but there’s a lot of personal education and hard work that needs to go into starting a business.”
John is a longtime community educator in all kinds of areas from biking, marathon running, and now in beekeeping. He and Chris currently offer classes through Community Education in both Rochester and Redwing to help educate early stage beekeepers in the area. John’s favorite teaching opportunities are with children in schools and other educational programs.
Photo contributed by John Shonyo
“Anytime I’ve become really interested in something I’ve taken the time to learn a lot about it. I think it’s important to share that knowledge with others.”
During the small amounts of time John is not a busy bee himself, he enjoys reading, spending time with his grandchildren, and being outdoors with his wife. He also enjoys time spent at Rochester’s local coffee shops.
Still, one of his very favorite pastimes is tending to his bees.
“I’ve always found bees to be so fascinating. Watching them work is like watching a thousand tiny miracles every day. There are so many interesting things that they can do. It’s really magical.”
Thank you for taking the time to read John’s story! If you find value in this content, please consider donating to help Collider continue amplifying the voices of Rochester entrepreneurs. You can also learn more about The Bee Shed and where to find their honey by clicking the link below!
A special thank you to our storytelling sponsor, Fredrikson & Byron, for their support! Their Midwest-based law firm is known as the firm “where law and business meet.” Their attorneys provide practical legal advice and advocacy that help people achieve their business goals. Just as Collider amplifies the voices or Rochester’s business community, Fredrikson & Byron helps new and growing businesses with a full range of services, combining a common-sense approach with decades of experience. to get things done for clients.
Article by Corrie Strommen, Director of Community at Collider.
