* All Bee Boys Products are made in small batches, by beekeepers. Each batch uses unique beeswax, pollen and propolis. We do NOT refine our beeswax. We keep all the natural goodness intact! Natural variation WILL occur in our product! You can be assured color differences, structure variations and olfactory originality in each product indicates QUALITY! Bees and their products are not homogenized. Each bee, every colony is individual, just like us! We celebrate that individuality, and celebrate the unique wax, propolis and honey that each beehive produces. Each Bee Boys product is special and unique, just like you. Please, with respect, do not expect homogeneous products from our Apiary. Mahalo
How Do We 'Save The Bees' ???
Our Apiary and beekeepers work to help save the bees in many diferent ways.
Education : As well as being beekeepers, we are out on the front lines 4 days weekly, educating the public about honeybee stewardship. This information includes how we keep bees, what you can do to help, and how we are different from other beekeeping outfits.
Practice What We Preach :
We take a holistic, sustainable approach with our bees.
*We never harvest more then 5 frames of honey at a time from any given beehive .
*We never use chemicals in our hives to treat for pests or disease.
*We do not feed our bees sugar water or high fructose corn syrups, EVER.
*We allow our bees to build all of their own comb, and we never use plastic frames or foundation in our beehives.
*We allow our bees to raise their own queens.
*We do not use Round Up or other chemical herbicides, pesticides or chemical fertilizers on our property.
*We do not move bees to nectar flows, they remain in one location, their sanctuary home.
*We allow our bees to swarm, if they choose- and never use queen excluders.
3. Innovation :
We are constantly working with other like minded beekeepers to come up with sustainable solutions for the problems facing the bees. We listen to the bees and understand that they have changing needs. Our job is to stay sensitive to those needs. It's our duty as beekeepers to challenge our community to put the bees first, over profits.
What is 2Bee+ ?
( TO BEE POSITIVE)
At Bee Boys, we don't believe the current organic certification is acceptable for clean raw honey. Organic beekeepers are permitted to use chemicals and pesticide treatments in the colonies. Organic beekeepers are also permitted to feed their bees sugar, and then re-sell that 'product' as honey!!!
We feel this is disingenuous and strive for a better certification acknowledgement. When you see 2BEE+ on our products, or any other product, you can bee assured that the product has Bee Boys standards behind them. This standard includes: Chemical Free, Pro pollinator, no kill ethic, BEEGAN, beyond organic, biodynamic principles & sustainable actions.
Most of the wax harvested for our products is naturally abandoned by the bees, or rendered after a honey harvest. Honey bees like to constantly build new comb, to keep the colony clean and healthy. This natural process allows for a very low stress wax harvest. After the wax combs are harvested, we put them in our solar wax melter to begin the rendering process! Each time we harvest honey, the comb is cut from the frame. The honey in the comb is crushed, and strained. The remaining wax is lightly washed, solar melted or rendered in a double boiler, to clean for use in our salves and balms.
We encourage our bees to build all of their own comb, as is done in nature. We do not use wax foundation or plastic frames. When a honey super is full of capped honey( 10 frames) we may choose to remove one or two of those frames. We feel to remove too many frames at a time overwhelms the bees ablity to rebuild comb sustainably. After the combs have been removed from the colony, we immediately cut the honeycomb free from the wooden frame. Next we return that frame promptly to the the colony to be re-built by the bees. The bees get to work quickly on these sticky frames, and usually within a few days, new beautiful comb can be seen being built. This comb building process, we believe, is vital to the nature of bees.
Harvested honey is either jarred up in its complete comb form, or crushed and gently strained to retain all of the natural propolis, pollen and enzymes present in the honey. The remaining wax is lightly washed and readied for rendering.