Local Honey and the Queen Bee Who Presides Over it All

If you’re like me, then the last two years of pandemic living has really forced you to realize the biggest investment in your life is not your 401k or your pension — it’s your longterm health. If you think about it, we all have a longevity investment account, and it has a bottom line just like our stocks and bonds. The only difference is that we can’t see the number. It’s there — but we just don’t know what it is — until, of course, it’s time to cash it all in at that great big bank in the sky.

Many of us are realizing this and are taking steps to improve our health.
Unfortunately, looking for information on how to get an edge on aging, or whatever mutates next, is not easy; especially when the only people who are actively sharing their health knowledge are on the internet.

Personally, I’m not on the hunt for miracle cures, but I am constantly looking for nutritional advantages I can gain by eating better, cleaner, and when possible, more locally. Ancestrally approved natural foods that have been around for thousands of years always get my attention. So, when I read about the health benefits of raw honey, it wasn’t long until I walked into Save Your Bees, a little store on the corner of Salem and Sutton that I’d driven by so many times, but had yet to visit.

Shopping

When I walked into Save Your Bees, I was greeted by a woman behind the counter. Her name was Patty Reed, an owner of the store, and she was surrounded by jars of honey in what seemed like various stages of production. Some were on hot plates and others were infusing herbs and spices. I saw weight scales and oils and immediately got old school apothecary vibes. The old wooden floors and small shop charm only added to the mystique.

Patty was quick to engage and eager to share her knowledge. She didn’t hesitate to politely explain the varieties of honey on her shelves — from clover to buckwheat and everything in between.

I learned a honey’s flavor depends on the type of flower the bees used to collect the nectar and pollen. The clover honey tasted like the honey most of us are familiar with, sweet and mild. The buckwheat was visibly darker and had a much richer taste, like molasses.

I’m pretty sure Patty knew what she was doing when she repeatedly dipped little wooden sticks into jars of honey and offered them to me as samples. I was already a little hungry when I walked in, so to be suddenly savoring so much honey all at once was a little intoxicating. It’s no wonder I walked out buying more honey than I intended.

But before I left drunk on fructose, I stood there in Patty’s charming shop among the sweet smells and rustic decor with so many questions. How long has the shop been here? Where does she get the honey? Is it raw and locally sourced? What’s behind the curtain?

And that is how a Beechmont Story is born.

The Backstory

Patty and her husband Mike opened Save Your Bees in 2019. To understand the story behind how it started, you have to understand them personally. To start off, Patty and Mike are like yin and yang. They are so different in so many ways, yet fit together so perfectly at the same time. Opposites attract, but did you know they also make great business partners?

Patty is clearly an extrovert. She’s also a dreamer with a strong spiritual side. She seems unafraid of the abstract and probably thrives when thinking outside the box. People like Patty have no limit to where their thoughts and dreams can take them. The sky is truly the limit, but the higher they go, the further they can fall, and that’s where her husband comes in.

Mike seems more practical and grounded. He’s quiet and capable, and likely prefers to trust in things that he can see with his own two eyes. If you can think of Patty making sense of the world in a balloon up in the clouds, seeing big picture things without any rules, then you need to picture Mike holding a string attached to her back on the ground.

A Shared Vision

Because of their differences, it was interesting to hear that Patty and Mike came up with the notion to open Save Your Bees at the same time. One day, out of the blue, the whole business dawned on each of them at the same time, down to the location itself. Patty called it a vision, but to Mike, it was just an idea. Either way, it was an unusual collaboration for yin and yang, and surely a sign that they were onto something.

And then there’s the name of the shop. I’m told they spent months fighting over what to name their son when he was born. In the end, they compromised with Christopher, but for the store, it was an instant consensus. Mike just said, “Save Your Bees,” which Patty heard as, “Savior Bees,” and she put her stamp of approval on it right away. They worked out the official spelling later.

Why Bees?

Mike had been beekeeping as a hobby for years before they opened the shop. He’s actually an electrician with Local 212, and it was a former co-worker of his, George Anderson, who introduced him to the world of beekeeping.

“When George got out of this truck at work, he started talking about bees, and he only stopped talking about bees when it was time to go home,” Mike said. “Unless he called you on the phone later to talk more about bees. It was the only thing on his mind, 24/7.”

Patty recalled the early days when Mike would come home after hanging out with George and his face would be unrecognizable from all the bee stings. Today, Mike is rarely stung, but when it does happen, his body hardly reacts.

The Network

George is a big deal in the local beekeeping community. He’s been beekeeping since the 1970s and currently runs GMBee Farms in Clermont County. Although GMBee Farms and Save Your Bees are separate businesses, they are partners in a larger network of beekeepers. Clermont County House of Honey, which is run by George’s daughter, Christina, and Wolf’s Honey Bee Farm is also included in this network. I met Mike Wolf by chance one day, and he’s quite the character. His nickname is Super Mario because of his resemblance to the popular video game character. What is it about beekeeping and the fantastic mustaches?

And then there are all the smaller, independent beekeepers all over town, like Mike Webster, who I met one day as well. He’s a former deputy from Anderson, and a valuable member of the team. The others operate from the west side to the east side, and from NKY to Mason. They all exist, in part, like cells, under the umbrella of Save Your Bees.

You may be asking, how did they all formally come together? And who worked to get them organized and networking?

Well, it was Patty, the queen bee herself.

The Swarms

“All beekeepers know all the other beekeepers,” Patty said. Like all niche occupations and crafts, the members are drawn to each other for support. But for resources like bees, it’s more necessary than ever to stay in the loop. Why? Because of the swarms.

Every spring in every hive, a bee population explosion occurs after all the queen’s eggs start to hatch. There are so many bees that the hive becomes overpopulated and dysfunctional. Among all the new bees, a new queen will hatch, but each hive can only have one queen. So, the old queen rounds up her most loyal half of the population, and they all leave the hive. That migration is a swarm.

Swarms happen in the wild and in managed hives alike, and are very vulnerable when they travel. Did you know honeybees are not native to the United States? They are more tropical, and although they have adapted quite well to the local weather, they still don’t like the cold, so it’s important for them to find warm places to live.

Ideally, they look for dead trees, but in places like Anderson, where dead trees are quickly removed, migrating bees have to settle for alternative habitats. Occasionally, they land on a car, or a fence, or a shopping cart. Sometimes, they find your attic or garage. It only takes a few minutes for a swarm to assemble.

Now, I’ve never witnessed a swarm before, but I’m sure they can be quite unnerving. Imagine thousands of bees suddenly appearing on your porch or car. In the past, people would call an exterminator, and they would send somebody out to kill all the bees. Today, people generally call the fire department, and then they call Patty.

First Responders

Remember Patty’s network? Wherever a swarm pops up, Patty will know a beekeeper nearby who can respond and remove it. The best part is that everyone wins when a swarm is removed. The beekeeper gets the bees, the bees get a home with everything they need, and Save Your Bees gets the credit and publicity. That’s the deal. I told you Patty knows what she’s doing.

Just last year, Save Your Bees beekeepers responded to 50 swarms.

And then there are the cutouts. These are the home infestations where hives need to be cut out from behind walls. Mike will never forget the woman in Anderson who noticed honey dripping down from a light fixture in her dining room. When Mike got there and cut into the ceiling, he found hundreds of thousands of bees and gallons of honey within the walls.

“I have a bee vacuum that sucks the bees out and dumps them into a burlap bag. Then I take them and dump them into my existing hives. For that particular cutout, it took me weeks to remove all those bees and find them new homes.”

If you see a swarm anywhere, call or message Save Your Bees, and they will dispatch someone out to take those bees off your hands.

Industry

If you ask Mike and George, they will tell you the money is in the bees. Honey money is okay, but bee money is better. For example, Mike and George have a queen machine. It’s a rather clever device and process to trick hives into creating queens that they can then extract and sell to other beekeepers.

George will also be attending classes at Purdue University to learn how to artificially inseminate queens. The natural mating process works fine, but for large farms with bees everywhere, a more controlled process makes things easier.

Between all the farms in the network, there are about 300 hives total. That number is expected to grow to around 450 hives this year.

Fostering

So, where do they keep all these bees? Well, they have farms, but they also utilize bee foster homes. There are people who allow Mike and other beekeepers to house hives on their property. What’s in it for them? Well, bees help with pollination in gardens and farms.

Mike told me there’s a pumpkin farmer who fosters some hives, and claims Mike’s bees yield 40-50% more pumpkins for him. Another woman fosters bees for her lavender crops.

If you are interested in fostering a hive or two, give Save Your Bees a call. Any size yard will work, but if you have a lot of space, that is ideal. Oh, and bees work best in full sun, so keep that in mind.

Medicine

While Mike’s job is in the field managing hives and collecting swarms, Patty’s job is in the store. She runs the pharmacy. If you do your research on raw honey, you’ll see how the line between food and medicine becomes blurry. What are some benefits of raw honey?

1. Raw honey is an excellent antioxidant, which helps block free radicals in the body. Free radicals are unstable molecules that can damage cells in the body and cause cancer and other illness. Honey helps keep them in check.
2. Raw honey boosts the immune system.
3. Raw honey promotes sleep. Try a little before bed.
4. Raw honey improves digestion.
5. Raw honey can counter pollen allergies. When you consume honey, you consume some pollen, which could desensitize you to the pollen that is irritating you.
6. Raw honey is anti-microbial and often used topically to treat wounds and burns.
7. Plus, there is much more. Just google it.

Is Save Your Bees’ Honey Raw?

Yes. I watched Patty spin some honey personally. The honey isn’t heated, treated, or refined in any way. Here is the process I witnessed:

The wax is cut away from the comb, revealing the honey. The comb is placed into a spinner, which is a centrifuge that pushes the honey to the sides of the container, which then collects at the bottom. The honey is then poured out and strained to keep out chunks of wax and any other natural impurities, and then placed in a jar ready for your consumption. That’s it. Pure. Raw. Honey.

If you have a lot of extra money laying around, ask Patty about her top shelf honey. It’s the early spring honey made from tree nectar. This is the honey the bees make before the flowers are in bloom, and I got to taste it. No other honey can compare, but I’m warning you – it’s not cheap.

If you want to spice things up a bit, there are a variety of infused and flavored honey as well. My favorite was the fudgesicle honey. It’s honey mixed with cocoa powder and tastes like brownie batter. I also saw ginger, coffee, cinnamon, and elderberry honey to name a few.

Beyond Honey

But, remember, Save Your Bees is more than honey. Ask Patty about her propolis tincture, and check out the beeswax candles. The candles come from Clermont County House of Honey, but you can find their candles for sale in Save Your Bees in Anderson. All the connected farms and stores cross promote and sell each other’s products throughout the network.

Beeswax candles are known for being one of the few non-toxic candles you can use. Those candles you get from big chain grocery stores or in the mall are loaded with chemicals that turn toxic when they burn. But beeswax is completely non-toxic, and they last longer. And thanks to essential oils, there are a variety of scents available as well.

So, What’s Behind the Curtain?

If you’ve been in the store, you’ll notice a big curtain that hangs near the counter. Behind that curtain is a gathering space for people. Save Your Bees holds beekeeping classes there, taught by George and Mike Webster, as well as other classes not necessarily related to beekeeping. Patty said a recent jewelry making class was quite the success.

Patty is well aware of the power of that space behind the curtain. She has many ideas on how to make it useful to the community. Being the social butterfly she is, she shared an idea she had for an open mic/coffee night, where neighborhood locals could come in and perform or speak. She said It could be a stand-up comedy routine, music, poetry, or anything. “It doesn’t have to be good,” Patty said. “It just has to be fun.”

I like Patty’s philosophy. I happen to agree that community engagement is more important now than ever here in Anderson.

The Queen Has Spoken

Patty had some additional advice regarding a topic that is less intense and easier to manage — your own backyard. She hopes one day people will reexamine their definition of beauty in nature, especially locally.

“We need to get back to the old idea of beauty. Is a perfectly manicured lawn with chemically treated green grass really beautiful? Beauty is a diversity of flowers and other life. What makes a dandelion a bad flower and a daffodil a good flower? They are all part of nature. Dandelion is the first food for not only honeybees, but other native bees as well. People need to learn to leave a little messy for nature.”

Patty said from time to time, someone will come into the shop and comment about how they are seeing more bees in Anderson than ever before. When Patty told me this, she got a proud look on her face and excitement in her eyes. “Whenever I hear that, I tell them, thank you. I must be doing my job.”

Important

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