Dennis DeVito refers to his bees as "the girls."

"The girls do a good job for us," the West Salem Township man said of his beehive rental business.

When DeVito is not working as a labor foreman at the State Regional Corrections Facility in Findley Township, he is looking after his bees.

DeVito rents beehives to locally owned farms and orchards in northwestern Pennsylvania for pollinating crops. Besides farmers, gardeners also rent beehive for their aesthetics, DeVito said. While renting hives is his primary business, DeVito also sells 1,200 to 1,800 pounds of honey each year.

DeVito has 147 hives on 17 sites in Mercer and Lawrence counties. The bees breed in hives at his 1046 Hilltop Road residence.

This year, DeVito has 15 clients, but in past years all his hives were rented out, he said. Beehive rentals are becoming a big business, he said.

He rents beehives for $40 per hive for as long as they are needed. Bees in each hive can cover two acres. Beehives may be needed for several months for squash, cucumbers and pumpkins, but they may be needed for only a few weeks for blueberries and apple trees, he said.

Along with renting hives, DeVito will manage and look after his bees at the farm or garden.

The 43-year-old DeVito has been working with bees since he was age 9, when his father used bees in his apple orchard. "When you're young, you tinker with it, but when you get older, you really get into it," he said.

He has become accustomed to working with bees and the bees are used to him.

"At first you are afraid of them. You get used to them, and they tolerate you. They are actually quite gentle," DeVito said.

"Part of doing bees is getting stung. After you do this, you get used to doing it without gloves," he said.

Using gloves tends to spread American foulbrooder, an infectious disease that destroys beehives. The state Department of Agriculture inspects beehives at least every two years, primarily for the disease, he said.

The disease "can be rough on these girls," he said.