Let the honey flow!

Our company mission is to bring the benefits of pollination to every being while embracing and attempting to inspire in others the heart of environmental stewardship.  Currently we do this by providing honeybee products and services, and free community outreach and swarm services.  

So why are we asking for assistance?  We produce more honey than we can sell direct to consumer in rural southwest Georgia.  In order to expand our reach and sell our product in bulk, wholesale, to retailers, online or across state lines, we must process our honey in a USDA certified extraction and bottling facility.  There isn't one in our area.

Myself and every other beekeeper in our area find themselves in an economically depressed region with low population and a high value product we cannot get to consumers.  A honey extraction and bottling facility bridges that gap not just for my apiary, but offers beekeepers all over southwest Georgia the opportunity to process their honey in a facility that would open up other income avenues for a nominal fee giving them a chance at growth and economic stability and security.

I personally know over 300 beekeepers in my southwest Georgia region.  There are numerous others I do not know.  A single hive can produce 80lb's or more of honey per year.  With most honey being sold in single pound bottles, harvesting honey from more than 4 hives leaves beekeepers with a significant amount of inventory that will crystalize in a year or less if they cannot sell it, ruining it for most markets.  Opening the market by processing it in a USDA certified facility means they can sell it to a larger honey company, to restaurants, etc.  The potential is endless and we already have the building!

My company, Bee'n Queen'd Apiaries, LLC,  currently provides pure raw natural wildflower honey from 3 seasons from hives treated organically.  We also provide all natural hemp & beeswax candles that burn cleanly and without toxins, we offer honeybee queens to other beekeepers, and vegetables & fruit produce provided by our bees pollination locally.  All of this is done direct to consumer from the farm.  We also provide a number of services from pollination for farmers to native pollinator landscape design.  We have 1 on 1 mentoring and group courses available for the aspiring beekeepers as well.

Our passion and desire to spread the importance of environmental stewardship and save the true at risk pollinators leads us to speak at schools, expos, and bee clubs free of charge about native pollinators.  We try to support our economically depressed region by providing free swarm removal services as well as offer quarterly mentorship events to veteran and first responders at our apiary with the options of 1 on 1 mentorship for special circumstances as well.

We are seeking funds to renovate a 75 x 100 foot building (needs drywall, counters and a triple well sink) into a honey extraction facility and outfit it with a the necessary equipment to provide a facility our business and numerous others can utilize.  We own the building already and checked with the county for zoning.  We have a 20 frame extractor already and some basic equipment, (metal strainers, utensils, food grade buckets, etc.), but a 2nd larger extractor, a decapper, wax slinger/melter and a bottling machine are needed.  The funds raised will provide these things for the extraction facility.  This would give all the beekeepers of southwest Georgia the option to extract and bottle their honey in a USDA certified facility which opens up avenues for economic growth.

Currently our team is made up of myself, the sole owner & beekeeper, my child, Dan, and Josh, my fiancé.   My passion for pollinators and nature made me fall in love with beekeeping and sharing that passion with others.  With my grandma's encouragement to do something that makes money, I created this company.  Dan is currently pursuing customer relations and learning financing and marketing in hopes of taking over the family business someday and continuing the dream of providing the benefits of pollination and environmental stewardship to all beings (not just us honey consumers.)  Josh has found his groove experimenting with different apiary and extraction tools and equipment which lines up perfectly with his degree in Agriculture & Industrial Equipment Technologies.  He'll be taking his 30+ years of Ag industry experience and spearheading the outfitting of the honey extraction and bottling facility to optimize production.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone for reading about our company and our dream and for any and all support provided.  Without you we couldn't grow and we couldn't provide this service to our beekeeping community.  Thank you.