His daughter, Joyce Burgeson, who now lives in Florida, said her father owned over 800 colonies at one time. He started his interest at a young age.

“He saw his first colonies when he was a teenager in high school,” Burgeson said. “I think his neighbor had one when he grew up in Brockway, Pennsylvania. He had his first colony at 16 or 17 years old.”

VanHorn was an independent beekeeper, selling honey in 55 gallon drums or five gallon cans, both locally and to a co-op outside of Rochester. He also transported his colonies down to Haines City, Florida during World War II, and would later sell to a co-op there as well.

“During my second grade to sixth grade is when we would go back and forth to Florida,” Burgeson said. “The government asked him to produce more and he had to get a special permit from Albany. He took two or three round trip loads and had 30 days to get what he wanted in Florida.”

Walter VanHorn and his wife Marion.

Burgeson said her three sisters and her went with him on the last round trip. Her brother-in-law Dale Griffith did a lot of the “bullwork” for VanHorn, helping load the trucks each year.

“He took three loads of 175 hives every year,” Griffith said. “We would load the truck, which was complicated but worked fine. When he first started the kids would ride in the back and he would section off the bees so they could.”

Griffith said every hive had a screen on top and a board on the bottom when transporting to Florida. He added that VanHorn’s wife Marion was in charge of the extraction.

VanHorn operated under the name Golden Glo Apiary and stayed in business until 1974. He would also sell his honey to Wholesome Bread to add to their Roman Meal bread. Burgeson said in Florida the bees would be set in the orange groves to help make orange flavored honey. Griffith was in the Navy and would come to Florida to help, saying they would load eight 600-pound barrels of honey on the truck.

Burgeson said VanHorn’s main way to earn income was through the bees. He was also a state inspector in New York and would go to different bee yards, looking for disease. If he found disease he would have to burn the colonies.

Burgeson said it was an interesting way of living.

“People would come to the house to buy honey and sometimes he would have the bees sting them,” Burgeson said. “People don’t know this but bee stings actually help with arthritis and honey is also the only food that cancer can’t live in. I think the average person doesn’t realize the importance of the honey bee.”

Overall, Burgeson said her father was a great father.

“To me he was the most wonderful father in the world,” Burgeson said. “He was a quiet man who loved his family and took care of them to the best of his ability.”