Consumers looking for bee-related products can find homemade jelly, jars of honey, and dozens of other offerings at Bee-Commerce, a beekeeping business recently relocated to a small storefront at 160A Sugar Street (Route 302, across from a service station) from Weston.

Owner and resident Leslie Huston and fellow beekeeper Dean Haines are making a fresh start of the business previously owned and run by beekeepers Ed Weiss and Howland Blackiston, who launched Bee-Commerce in 1998 as one of the first e-commerce-enabled beekeeping supply stores, according to the business's website.

In 2009 ownership transferred to Ms Huston, with the business remaining based Mr Blackiston's Weston home. Since then she has been "carrying on and growing" the business. Relocating to Newtown brings a new chapter for the business. Bee-Commerce arrived in Newtown during the summer, which is the "height of busy season for bees," she said.

This winter has provided a chance to get settled in. Alongside the store space where the women prepare the many online orders and sell a collection of items, is a side yard.

"I'm excited," Ms Huston said. "We're going to install bees there."

She also anticipates running workshops onsite and is now assembling a schedule of dates for beginning beekeepers this spring and summer. Those new to the hobby can "learn and get started," through Bee-Commerce and also buy the needed supplies.

For those who want to start beekeeping this year, Ms Huston urges them to contact her now in order to reserve their bees. She can get several kinds of bees: Italian, Carniolan, and Russian. The bees' genetics are from the various locations, although the bees are from Georgia and northern California.

"Those are warmer climates and their colonies build up before our season," Ms Huston said. Locally, bee colonies build a little too late to get new beekeepers started easily. "I find that bees are endlessly fascinating, so smart, clever, and resilient. It's a joy to get to know them."

She started keeping bees in 1999, and has observed much since then.

Bees can sense changes in the air pressure and head home when a storm is coming, for example. They make their honey supply in the summer, but the bees that make the honey will die, she said. "New bees come along and eat it. It keeps the hive going; it's interesting."

The bees' lives are about the hive, not necessarily about the queen, Ms Huston said.

"The workers call the shots, [the queen] lays the eggs," but is not the bee in charge, she said.

Beekeeping could easily evolve into other interests.

"People get involved for whatever reason, and it often leads them into passions they otherwise might not have found," she said. Gardening, conservation, writing, mead making, "all of these are adjacent activities," Ms Huston said.

Beekeeping can act as a springboard to other things, and she encourages bee-minded residents to visit the shop, which is open year-round.

A sprawling estate is not required to keep bees. People don't even need a yard, she said.

"You can keep bees on a balcony or deck. They'll visit your garden and easily fly two to three miles." Ms Huston said. Once they are established, she said, "you can go out and have coffee and watch them come and go. I find beekeeping meditative. Everyone should have an activity that makes time fall away. Beekeeping does it for me," she said.

Call or visit the enterprise (203-222-2268) Monday, Thursday or Friday between 2 and 6 pm.

Tuesday and Wednesday hours vary, Ms Huston said, "so please make an appointment before you stop in. All of us here are experienced beekeepers and would love to hear from you. We'll do whatever we can to help you overcome any challenges you might encounter as a beekeeper."

Find more information at bee-commerce.com.

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