About Neighborhood Beekeeping

In the beginning...

About seven years ago Brent’s wife told him that he needed to get some bees.  Their garden was not being pollinated as it should.  Brent, being the dutiful husband he was bought a book, got a hive and was hooked.  It was love at first site – at least for him towards the bees.  They still don’t love him!  But the bee bug had him.  A year or so later he walked next door and asked Mark if he would like a hive in his yard.  Mark’s wife DeAnn said “Absolutely Not!”  And that was the end of that discussion.  Larry, down the street however was easier to convince and two hives were installed. 

Those first years the honey crop was good and everyone was happy… except Mark who still didn’t have any hives.  It was still a no go at home.  But time and persistence finally paid off and permission was granted to have ONE hive in the back yard.  Although, DeAnn was absolutely convinced that they would have bees in their back yard BBQ, bees all over the lawn so no one would be able to walk with bare feet and the grandkids would not be able to play in the back yard.

 Well, as bees and hives go just one hive wouldn’t work so Mark installed two hives.  But then, a swarm was caught and it needed a place to go.  So now, Mark had three.  Meanwhile, Brent was having the time of his life experimenting with double wide hives, condo hives, hive splits, and anything else he could possibly do with bees.

Larry’s hives crashed and burned the second year, but he reinstalled the third year.  Brent’s hives (now in his fourth year) did OK--even with all of his experimenting. 

And Mark, who was only going to have one hive, now had six hives. And by the way, there were no bees in the BBQ, no bees all over the lawn, and the grandkids could play in the back yard without any problems!

Neighborhood Beekeeping is Born

Well, here we are several years later.  Brent has six hives, Larry has three hives and Mark is still trying to get to ten hives. But wait! We have added another wanabee, Mark’s brother Grant.  And as for Grant, he has six hives.

So how did Neighborhood Beekeeping come to pass?

Every Saturday morning the four of us were having a lot of fun working the bees.  Many of our neighbors would stop us and talk to us about our bees. After awhile, we realized that there were many of our neighbors who also wanted bees to pollinate their gardens but really didn’t want to take care of the bees.  They just wanted the benefit of bees close by.  We decided that we could provide that service and Neighborhood Beekeeping was born—helping neighbors with bees. 

For 2008, we sold 14 hives to three of our neighbors, and placed 138 hives in the yards of 18 of our neighbors. Also, there was one company that wanted some hives and we have put three hives on their property. With over a 150 hives (besides or own personal hives), we have been keeping busy.

But besides helping our neighbors with bees, we have some of the greatest honey.  Our honey is made up of the nectar from flowers, trees and vegetable gardens from all over the communities we serve. We keep it raw with no heating so it takes longer to get it out of the hives and into bottles--but it is worth the wait!  Our honey has a unique, rich flavor that is unequalled by any of the honey in the stores. 

More than Honey

Then Mark got into the beeswax business. He realized that there might be some help for his dry, cracked and bleeding hands so he went to work. After two years of studying and experimenting, he has developed a formula for eczema that really works--all natural, no alcohol and again, it really does work! We call it beejuvenate™. But it's just not for eczema; it works wonders on any dry and rough skin--even lips.

For example, one mother was telling us about her three year old son. He was explaining body parts to his little sister. He said “This is your eye, this is your nose, this is your mouth” and pointing to his eczema “and this is your itch.” We gave her a tube of beejuvenate™. She was back in a week for more, one for herself and some for all of her friends who had children with eczema.

Also, a violin teacher had Band-Aids on her fingers because of dry cracked finger tips that bled. After a week of beejuvenate™, the Band-Aids came off and the dry cracked skin was gone.

But of the people who have enjoyed beejuvenate™ the most are women who wear sandals and have dry, cracked heels. beejuvenate™ will heal those heels and feet!

Oh, and we also sell honey pots that are hand thrown by Mark and Grant’s sister who believes that she can add to the honey experience. Each pot is unique as only hand thrown pottery can be. And if it still isn’t unique enough, you can have it customized. Just let us know.

Well, we are having fun and we hope that we can be of service to you. Whether it is with bees, honey, or balms, we look forward to helping.

Neighborhood Beekeeping
Brent, Grant, Larry and Mark