Bees swarm around Justin Lee as he approaches their hive. Unfazed, he carefully pulls out a sheet of honeycomb with a bright yellow orange tint and complex hexagons. In a white bee suit that covers him from head to toe, Justin Lee marvels at the work of his buzzing companions, and begins collecting honey. 

Palo Alto High School senior Justin Lee started his beekeeping journey in 2022, between his freshman and sophomore years, when his friend was moving away to England and needed someone to take over their hive.

 Due to the large amount of honey he was producing, he started a honey business called Lo La Honey through which he was able to further his passion for beekeeping.  

“You get to collect honey, and just being outside, doing an activity, it’s a lot of fun,” Justin Lee said.

This interesting hobby sparked his interest during the pandemic, due to the large amount of free time.

“Coming out of COVID, I wasn’t doing much with my time and so I took up beekeeping to spend it,” Justin Lee said.

Since then, Justin Lee grew to love beekeeping. Through online learning, mentorships and family help, he now sustains a bee hive in his backyard.  

“There’s like big batches of bees and trees [at the bee farm] and he [Justin Lee] goes there, grabs them, pulls them down and puts them in a bag and then a box, and then transfers them to our hive,” His brother Nathan Lee said. 

Paly junior Nathan Lee, has been by his side from the beginning of this niche hobby, offering help when needed. 

“It was all new to us,” Nathan Lee said. “At first, it was kind of crazy, and I think that he [Justin Lee] was pretty excited just to try something new.”

Sustaining a hive and collecting honey however was not the hardest part for Justin Lee at the beginning. Instead, it was the bees themselves. 

“A challenge was getting over my fear of being stung,” Justin Lee said. “ But I learned to overcome it just by spending time outside with the bees.”

The main thing they need to look out for (apart from being stung) is the queen bee, which the beehive needs to survive as she is the only one who can control the population by reproducing. 

Each of the beehives follow a specific structure, to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the bees.

“The setup is usually on the ground,” Justin Lee said. “You have two bigger boxes, and that’s where the queen lays all the eggs. That’s where the bees kind of have their larvae, and like new bees will be formed.” 

On top of the box with the queen bee and larvae, Justin Lee puts the bees’ honey supers — a box used to collect honey.

By Justin Lee’s sophomore year in 2022, he had already grown his initial bee hive into two. When he started producing more and more honey, Lee saw a business opportunity. 

“I was able to produce around 30 or 40 pounds of honey per harvest. And then I kind of just turned into business because I just had too much honey,” Justin Lee said. “I mean, you can only eat so much [honey].” 

His business called Lo La Honey, where he sells batches of honey, honeycomb and other things made of wax, for example lipbalm and candles, which you can learn more about on Instagram @lolahoneyco. From all of these products he is able to make a respectable profit.

“He makes about $1500 every harvest,” Nathan Lee said. “So, like, last year, he made around $10,000.”

Despite the large amount of money, he makes sure to donate all of it towards a good cause.

“All of the proceeds go towards a group called the Primrose Pollinator Group, and basically I use the money I get to help fund some of the projects I do, like helping restore some patches of land with native plant mulch [at a national park],” Justin Lee said. 

Although beekeeping requires constant care and attention, Justin Lee is able to give back to the community through Lo La Honey.

“I think the main goals with Lo La Honey are to provide the community with local honey which can help with health problems such as allergies, and also to help give back to the community through something I am passionate about,” Justin Lee said.

However, he has faced some challenges with his beehives in the past, losing two in the process.

“One hive was [lost] from mites, and the other hive was from swarming,” Nathan Lee said. “Those were two really healthy hives, but then they just somehow died.” 

In order to prevent this, a consistent treatment and observation routine is required.

“Someone checks on it every three weeks.” Nathan Lee said. “You just go in there to make sure nothing bad is happening. And then every winter you want to treat it before diseases and stuff [occur]. So you just want to make sure it’s all doing fine and not overfilling, because we’ve had hives that overfilled and then they [the bees] just swarmed away.”

Although difficult to face, these experiences have given Justin Lee the knowledge that translates into taking better care of the hives, to prevent the same mistakes from happening in the future. This leads him to more efficient harvests.

“He just checks up on them more often, and then he’s also running more [beehives] so he knows how to do it,” Nathan Lee said.

For the future, after Justin Lee graduates, he plans on having his brother and parents help out with the business as well as the hives. 

“I think while in college, it will be a little harder to keep and maintain them,” Justin Lee said. “ I think my brother Nathan will help me out and hopefully my parents.”

Overall, beekeeping has been a great outlet for Justin Lee during his free time, and encouraged him to embrace challenges and experiences.

“It’s been an eye opening experience,” Nathan Lee said. “Him taking the opportunity of taking the hive after a friend left was adventurous of him, and it really took him out of his comfort zone.”