Among many local beekeepers, Nancy Stewart is the queen bee, and her shop, Sacramento Beekeeping Supplies, is the hive.

Stewart has spent a quarter of a century selling bees, local honey and all sorts of equipment needed to raise Apis mellifera ligustica in Sacramento backyards.

And she has dispensed plenty of advice, starting with the fact that Sacramento city regulations allow two hives on any size lot.

Now 72, Stewart gets help at the shop, 2110 X St., from her daughters, Pam Hill and Donna Stewart, and her retired husband Fred — an operation Brian Fishback, president of the Sacramento Area Beekeepers Association, compared to a colony of honeybees.

"The workers all have the same goal in mind, and that is to work together in harmony, revolve around their queen, and affect the world in the sweetest way," he said.

Nancy Stewart sells Italian honeybees, handmade beekeeping suits, hives or bee boxes and other supplies. The full set up to get started could run $350 to $500, which includes a queen and three pounds of bees, which would cost $100 separately. After that, maintaining a healthy hive usually costs about $30 a year, she said.

Stewart opened her business on Jan. 15, 1985, after taking an interest in the bees her husband had been raising in their backyard for a decade. She was between jobs at the time.

The more she learned about bees, the more they fascinated her. All the worker bees are female. The males, or drones, are needed only to inseminate the queen, she said. Stewart became somewhat attached to the bees.

"If you're around them very much, they become cute. They have little triangular heads. If you lift the lid (of the bee box), they are all looking at you," Stewart said. "It sounds strange, but that's the truth. An awful lot of hobby beekeepers feel like they're pets."

The family keeps two hives behind the store and a few more than that in their Sacramento backyard. They use the hives to store bees for sale in the spring and to teach customers.

Bees and beekeeping have become very popular in the last four years, in Sacramento and elsewhere, following reports of a rising number of honeybees leaving hives or colonies, known as colony collapse disorder.

"I think there's a growing recognition that bees are very compatible with urban settings. They do very well in the city," she said.

Stewart doesn't have any plans to stop working at the shop and retire any time soon.

"Not me," she laughed. "We talk about it. But it's more fun than staying home."