A new agreement with a local beekeeper has the City of Largo buzzing.

  • Roughly 2 million bees now call Largo home
  • Jimmy Johnson said it's a victory for his company, and the environment
  • His bees could produce as much as 4,000 lbs of honey each year

Jimmy Johnson, who owns Johnson Family Apiaries, now leases an undeveloped portion of Largo Central Park from the city.

“There’s about 70 hives," said Johnson. "If a good hive is somewhere between 30,000 - 50,000 bees, we are looking somewhere in the neighborhood 2 million, 2.5 million bees."

Johnson said Pinellas County beekeepers usually struggle to find a space for their bees.

“This is fantastic for us,” Johnson said. “Situations like this where the land can’t be used for anything else works wonderfully for us because we just have no space to put them.”

Johnson said the bees could potentially produce up to 4,000 pounds of honey a year.

It isn’t just a sweet deal for Johnson, but also the city.

“It’s good for the environment, so all the flowers and native stuff around here gets pollinated,” City of Largo Superintendent of Parks Greg Brown said. “But those bees also go on the road and help pollinate things like melons and other crops throughout Central Florida which is really good.”

The city is getting ready to plant wildflowers on the land for the bees to pollinate. Early next year, the bees will be transported to Pasco, Hernando and Hillsborough County farms to pollinate fruit.