At BeeKind Honey Bees, we believe that understanding the history of honey bees is essential to appreciating their incredible contribution to our world. Have you ever wondered where honey comes from, or how bee pollen and beeswax are produced?

Honey bees have been a vital part of our ecosystem for millions of years, evolving from predatory wasps that lived 120 million years ago. Unlike their carnivorous ancestors, bees have become masters of collecting nectar and pollen from flowers, which provide them with their primary energy source and nutrition, respectively.

Over time, bees have developed an incredible skill for architecture, creating efficient hexagonal (beeswax) comb as individual storage compartments within the beehive. Bees use these combs to raise brood and store nectar that they convert into honey, as well as pollen that they convert into bee bread for storage and to feed their brood.

For thousands of years, humans have been collecting honey from wild bees. However, with the development of the managed beehive (Langstroth) design in 1851, beekeepers can now work with removable reusable frames inside stackable boxes that closely mimic the conditions bees experience in the wild. Bees produce beeswax through special glands that create the hexagonal shaped comb on both sides of a foundation inside each frame. They also use their wax to cap (close off) each cell until it needs to be accessed in the future.

At BeeKind Honey Bees, we are passionate about sharing our knowledge of honey bee history and the wonders of apiculture with others. We strive to create educational opportunities that inspire and empower individuals to become knowledgeable and responsible beekeepers. We are dedicated to promoting sustainable beekeeping practices that prioritize the health and wellbeing of honeybees and native pollinators, and we are committed to supporting local beekeeping communities through mentorship and collaboration.

At our apiary, we follow a careful process for harvesting honey that ensures the well-being of our colonies and produces high-quality honey for consumption. We wait until after the peak nectar flow during summer, typically from late July to the end of August, to assess the needs of our bees for the winter ahead. Once we determine how much honey is required to sustain each colony, we carefully calculate and pull the excess honey for harvest.

Using the langstroth beehive design, we are able to extract honey from the stored nectar in the frames without harming the bees or damaging the comb. We use a honey extractor that applies centrifugal force to remove the liquid honey from the honeycomb, and then we filter and package the honey for consumption. For those who prefer comb honey, we offer frames without a foundation, or with a very thin wax foundation, that can be cut and packaged without an extraction process.

The quality and characteristics of honey depend on the available forage, which can vary by region and location. We offer three basic categories of honey - Single Origin, Multi-Flower, and Local - in three forms - Liquid, Creamed/Whipped, and Honey Comb. Our area's most common multi-floral sources include alfalfa, clover, dandelion, fireweed, and wildflower, while other parts of the world have popular sources like canola, buckwheat, manuka, eucalyptus, and sourwood. No matter the source, we take pride in offering delicious, high-quality honey to our customers.

Bee pollen is a remarkable superfood that is packed with essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that the body needs to function optimally. It is an excellent source of protein and contains all of the essential amino acids that the body needs for muscle growth, tissue repair, and overall health. In addition to protein, bee pollen is rich in B vitamins, including thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and pantothenic acid, which are essential for energy production and maintaining healthy skin, hair, and nails.

But bee pollen isn't just a source of essential nutrients – it also contains a wealth of other bioactive compounds that can benefit health in various ways. For example, bee pollen is high in antioxidants, which can help protect the body from free radical damage that can lead to chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer's disease. It is also a rich source of enzymes, which help the body digest food more efficiently and absorb nutrients more effectively.

Studies have shown that bee pollen may have immune-boosting properties, helping to support the body's natural defenses against pathogens and illness. It may also help reduce inflammation in the body, which is a common factor in many chronic diseases. Bee pollen has been used for centuries as a natural remedy for allergies, with some evidence suggesting that it can help reduce symptoms like sneezing, congestion, and itchy eyes.

Bee pollen is not just beneficial for physical health – it can also help support mental health and cognitive function. Some research has suggested that bee pollen may help improve memory and concentration, while also reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Overall, bee pollen is a true superfood that offers a range of potential health benefits. Whether you're looking to improve your physical health, support your immune system, or enhance your mental clarity and focus, bee pollen may be a valuable addition to your diet.

Our honey bees use their wax-producing glands in the abdomen to form the wax into scales, which they then use to create the hexagonal comb for storage of brood, pollen, bee bread, and honey. Beeswax is also used to cap brood cells, honey cells, and queen cells.

We take great care to collect beeswax during the honey extracting process, ensuring that we are not harming the hive's ability to function properly. We gather beeswax from the wax capping, any damaged comb from the extracting equipment, and every few years from the beehive frames to keep the reused comb within a hive in good condition. Once collected, we render (melt down and filter) the combination of beeswax to purify it from any remnant honey and impurities. The end result is a fine filtered beeswax with many applications and practical uses.

Our beeswax blocks are made from 100% pure filtered beeswax, rendered from wax cappings during the honey extraction process. Our beeswax is of the highest quality and can be used in a variety of applications such as food wraps, candles, furniture polish, crayons, lip balm, wood lubricant, body butter, footwear waterproofing, wood cutting board conditioning, rust preventative for tools, homemade deodorant, lotion bars, soothing cracked heels and hands, homemade vapor rubs, and many more.

We are proud to offer you the finest filtered beeswax for your many uses. Whether you are using beeswax for personal care products, home maintenance, or artistic endeavors, we are confident that our beeswax will exceed your expectations. Thank you for considering our beeswax for your next project or purchase.

The domestication of bees can be traced back to ancient Egyptian art from around 4,500 years ago. Fast forward to the 17th century, honey bees were imported to North America from Europe and are now widely utilized to pollinate many crops, such as fruits and nuts, and to produce commercial honey. Like other commercially raised livestock such as cattle, sheep, horses, and goats, honey bees are reared and bred commercially for specific characteristics and traits.

At our honey bee stock production, we focus on Carniolan Honey Bees. The Carniolan honey bee is highly favored among beekeepers for several reasons, such as its ability to defend itself against insect pests while being gentle in its behavior toward beekeepers. These bees are also skilled at adjusting worker population to nectar availability, resulting in efficient storage of honey and pollen during periods of high nectar. They are resistant to some diseases and parasites that can be harmful to other subspecies.

Our honey bee stock's strengths include their gentle and non-aggressive nature, ability to adapt quickly to changes in the environment, and strong sense of orientation. They are also able to overwinter in smaller numbers of winter bees and have low use of propolis. However, they are more prone to swarming if overcrowded and have low ability to thrive in hot summer weather.

We take a unique approach to building up our honey bee colonies by harnessing their reproductive energy during the early spring to split them into smaller (nucleus/ nuc) colonies. This process controls their instinct to outgrow their hive and multiply into additional colonies (swarm) while maintaining the parent hive as a manageable size. Additionally, we rear (raise) queen bees through a delicate process of simulating one of the colony's natural impulses (emergency queen replacement) to reproduce a new queen within the hive. Once hatched, the queen undergoes a mating flight and is confirmed to be laying before being harvested for a waiting queen-less nucleus colony.

We take pride in our honey bee stock production and believe that our approach results in healthy, productive, and thriving bee colonies.

Strengths

*Considered to be gentle and non-aggressive

*Can be kept in populated areas

*Sense of orientation considered better than the Italian honey bee

*Less drifting of bees from one hive to a neighboring hive

*When compared to the Italian honey bee, they are not as prone to rob honey

*Able to overwinter in smaller numbers of winter bees

*Honey stores are conserved

*Able to quickly adapt to changes in the environment

*Better for areas with long winters

*Fast rhythm of brood production and then brood rearing reduction when available forage decreases

*Low use of propolis

*Resistant to brood diseases

*For areas with strong spring nectar flow and early pollination

*Forage earlier in the morning and later in the evening, and on cool, wet days

*Workers live up to 12% longer than other breeds

Weaknesses

*More prone to swarming if overcrowded

*Low ability to thrive in hot summer weather

*Strength of brood nest more dependent on availability of pollen

*Unless marked the dark queen is difficult to find

Nucleus (nuc) Colonies

Our team is dedicated to supporting beekeepers at all stages of their journey, whether you're just starting out or looking to expand your operations. To assist with this, we produce nucleus colonies (nucs) for a variety of purposes, including replacing winter losses and increasing operational size. In the past, we have offered 4 frame nucs for sale, but in 2022, we are proud to announce our transition to primarily offering 5 frame nucs. Through extensive development of our nuc production process, we aim to provide greater efficiency and value to our customers, both retail and commercial. The benefits of a 5 frame nuc over a 4 frame nuc are significant - typically, a 5 frame nuc is more developed at the time of purchase, requiring less effort from the customer to achieve the desired developmental outcome. We are thrilled to offer these high-quality nucs to our customers, and look forward to continuing to support beekeepers of all levels with top-notch products and expertise.

Custom 5 Frame Nuc Boxes

Our focus is on delivering a custom 5 frame nuc box design that offers our customers more than just a means of transporting bees. Our nuc box is designed to provide additional functionality, including top feeding syrup from outside the cover (with a plastic plug when not in use), screened ventilation on the bottom and back for temperature control, and a migratory top and bottom with 1/2 ply walls, enabling two nuc boxes to fit onto a 10 frame Langstroth super and increasing options for creating splits. Additionally, the box features a disc wheel entrance for easy flight control, an extra bee space above the top bars, and below the inner cover, allowing for supplemental pollen patty feeding. Our goal is to provide a nuc box that offers versatility and practicality to our customers.

Provincial Bee Regulations

We take great pride in adhering to the British Columbia Bee Regulation, which mandates us to register all bee yard locations, maintain the health of our honey bees (ensuring they are below the allowable varroa mite threshold and disease-free), and undergo annual inspection by the Provincial Regional Bee Inspector to receive a permit of sale. As a business, our reputation and success are built on delivering high-quality products to our customers. We recognize the paramount importance of providing healthy, content, and productive honey bees to our valued customers. Therefore, we encourage all our customers to reach out to us if they encounter any issues with our products, and we promise to work with them closely to address and resolve any concerns immediately.

As always, the devil is in the details, and there are an exceptional amount of details in each of the areas of production above. So many variables to consider with each managed process including; science, environment, weather, timing, planning, resource management, to name a few. We hope you enjoyed our simplified explanation of our product production processes. If you still have any questions on how we produce and/ or where we source any of our quality products, please Contact Us by email, or send us a message through any of our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter social media accounts.