Abstract:
Steve and Sandy Forrest began raising bees in the 1970s as a sideline. When thieves stole their 80 hives one year just before the harvest, it proved to be a disaster with the proverbial silver lining. The Forrests decided to make and sell beekeeping equipment. Today the Moravian Falls-based Brushy Mountain Bee Farm, Inc., sends out 50,000 mail order catalogs a year. Sales in 2001 reached $3 million. The company is the biggest beekeeping-equipment company on the East Coast and second largest in the nation.