Meet the Lambton County family who's been beekeeping for 5 generations

For 110 years, Munro Honey & Meadery has been making a buzz in Lambton County. 

And now, its owners are being recognized as 2024 inductees into the Lambton Agricultural Hall of Fame.

From pollinating crops to making mead, brothers Davis and John Bryans and their wives Mary and Chris run the operation — with about 2,500 bee colonies. 

"It's a real honour," said John Bryans, whose family has been beekeeping in southern Ontario for five generations. "It definitely was a surprise that we were even on the radar to be nominated into the [Agricultural] Hall of Fame." 

Brothers John and Davis Bryans have headed the business since 1989, when they took it over from their father Howard, who owned it for more than 30 years. The founder of Munro Honey was Warren Munro, of Alvinston, who had started the apiary in 1914, but died in a car crash. 

After the brothers took over the business, they had a fire and had to rebuild, said John. It was then they decided to push forward. "We said to one another then, 'Where do you want to be in this business? Do we want to be leading or following?' And so, we decided to lead and just try different things."

The brothers expanded the business — getting their honey into more grocery chains, starting their own beekeeping supplies to hobbyists — and launched Ontario's first commercial meadery.

Mead, a fermented alcoholic beverage, is made out of honey, water and yeast. 

"It's kind of its own thing," said John. "It can be on the sweeter side, getting fruity flavours, but the taste depends on what the bees are foraging, and that's what makes a difference in the (flavour) profile at the end."

Keeping bees has become increasingly labour intensive and challenging in recent years, John said. From parasites to diseases and environmental stressers, there seems to be more and more issues that are harmful to bees, he said. 

But that doesn't stop the busy-bee brothers. In addition to making honey, the company offers a field-pollinating service to help farmers increase crops and improve crop quality, John said 

"Farmer will call and say, 'Hey, I need bees to pollinate my apples or my cherries or cucumbers, pumpkin, squash, whatever the crop may be,'" John said. "We'll put the bees into the field or the orchard and when that crop is in bloom, the bees will do their thing to help pollinate the crop."

The hall of fame is celebrates contributions of people who made a significant contribution to agriculture in Lambton County, provincially, federally and quite often internationally, said Joanne Sanderson, chair of the Lambton Agricultural Hall of Fame.

"Agriculture is really important," she said. "Farmers feed everyone."