FAQ

Are your products organic?

Being certified “organic” is a lot of time and money that I just can’t pursue at this point. I am extremely transparent about the processes we use.

• In the spring, we feed the bees sugar syrup to provide a food source for them before the honey flow starts. The sugar we use is not always organic. We also feed them pollen patties so they have a protein source – which I don’t recall ever seeing labeled as “organic”.
• Varroa mites are a constant threat to all honey bee colonies in North America. We test our hives and treat when needed, using the appropriate method given the time of year, presence of brood and honey in the hive, and ambient temperature. The methods we use are:
  • Based on hops, which is a natural miticide.
  • Formic acid, a compound that is secreted by ants in the wild, which is a miticide
  • Oxilic acid, another miticide.
• As far as the nectar source goes – I have no idea if the bees are visiting organic nectar sources or not! Bees can forage up to four miles from the hive, and I can’t control what goes on the plants outside my backyard 🙂

Do the bees have enough honey?

Each hive has one of two goals for the year: either survive the winter, or put away as much honey as possible for extracting. For our winter hives, we only put on honey supers (the boxes we will take at the end of the year for extracting) once the bees have all the honey they could need over the winter. We also check as soon as the weather allows, and provide supplemental nutrition if they do somehow go through their honey stores.

The honey hives, on the other hand, do not have a winter store. These hives have a queen that has lived through two summers already. At that point, it’s very unlikely that the queen will be able to lay enough eggs in volumes high enough to provide the population the hive will need in the spring, and that her brood will exhibit strong hygienic behaviors that mitigate mite populations and other diseases that impact not only that hive, but can then spread to other hives. Sometimes, a honey hive will survive the winter anyway – when they do, we treat them as a honey hive again the following year, feeding, monitoring, treating for mites as we would with any other hive.

Where do the bees live?

All our hives are in the Twin Cities area. I have hives at my house and at a community garden in Northeast Minneapolis. We also have some hives at my aunt’s house in Mounds View. The bees stay here all winter; we do net send them anywhere to pollinate crops.

Will your honey help me with my allergies?

Raw honey has been touted as a way to improve seasonal allergy symptoms. The idea is that in raw, unprocessed honey (such as ours) there are small amounts of pollen. The theory is that if you eat raw, unprocessed, local honey, you will expose yourself to micro doses of the allergen (pollen) which can help curb your system’s histamine (allergic) response. The idea makes sense to me, but I’m not a doctor and will not tell you this will cure or even help you with your symptoms. I do think there are far more unpleasant things one can do in the name of health than eating a teaspoon of honey per day.

Will you make me a custom product or add a scent to my order?

Feel free to go to the Contact page and send me a message. I’d love to know what you are interested in! The process to develop a brand new product can take months. If it’s something that’s appealing to a decent number of people, and I have the skill, time, and access to ingredients to do it – sure! I make most of my product in batches, so doing a custom scent would have a longer turnaround time and may or may not be feasible. Please reach out using the Contact page, and we can discuss!