Chris Ersbo at his home hives. Chris doesn’t usually wear protective gear around his bees, but he did put some on for a recent photo shoot for a coffee table book about residents/business in the Lake Country area that will come out next year.
Chris Ersbo, an Investment Consultant at the Grafton branch since January, has an unexpected hobby outside of the financial world—beekeeping. For over 15 years, Chris has cultivated this pursuit, managing 30 hives across five locations, including his home in the village of Chenequa, where he lives with his wife, Jenny. The couple lives on six acres, which is where most of the hives are located, along with two acres of flowers. Jenny, a teacher, also grows flowers professionally, a great complement to beekeeping.
This summer, Chris expanded his beekeeping operations by offering backyard beekeeping services to a few individuals in the community. He also manages hives at local spots such as Stone Bank Farm Market, which buys almost all of his honey, and a restaurant in Delafield. Even though he does sell honey, Chris said he considers himself primarily a hobbyist.
“I do it just for pure enjoyment,” he said.
A self-taught beekeeper, Chris first developed his interest in high school, making beeswax candles for a business owned by the parents of Olympic gymnasts Morgan and Paul Hamm. The Hamm family business, based in Waukesha, got wax from beekeepers around the country to make their candles, which sparked his curiosity.
Photo from UW-Madison Wisconsin Pollinators
When it came time for Chris to dive into beekeeping himself, he gained the necessary skills through YouTube videos and online resources, learning the intricacies of managing hives and producing honey. His current production yields about 3,000 pounds of honey annually. Aside from what he sells to the Stone Bank Farm Market, he shares honey with his lucky coworkers at the Grafton branch, friends, and family.
The team in Grafton is grateful for the honey Chris shares! Lead Teller Aradonis Nusberger and her family use it in smoothies. She also likes it in the occasional cup of tea. “It’s good! Light and sweet,” she said.
As far as hobbies go, Chris says beekeeping is fun and rewarding. It’s mostly just checking in and ensuring all is well with the hives in spring and summer. Right now, in the fall, Chris is extracting the honey, and that’s the part that takes some time. “At the end of the day, it’s a really easy hobby,” he said, adding that he likes to keep his hives very natural and doesn’t interfere much with their honey production. “Let them do their thing.”
While Chris doesn’t wear protective gear, the occasional sting comes with the territory. “You smoke them, and they just go about their business,” he said. Of course, situations can arise, but fortunately for Chris, those are rare. Once when Chris was lifting one of the boxes, it was so heavy that it fell, and he got 80 bee stings—at once!—on his arm.
Overall, Chris is passionate about his hobby, especially given the critical role honeybees play in pollinating the food we eat. Beekeeping is not just a profitable hobby for Chris but a way to contribute to the preservation of this essential species, which is under threat from parasites and pesticides.
Want to learn more about bees? The University of Wisconsin-Madison has a Bee ID guide that will help you correctly identify what you’re seeing in your yard.