Inspiring Conversations with Beth Conrey of Bee Squared Apiaries

Today we’d like to introduce you to Beth Conrey.

Beth, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
It all started when…

My name is Beth Conrey and I am the owner of Bee Squared Apiaries, a small beekeeping operation located in Berthoud, CO. I have 125 hives in various locations in Weld, Larimer and Boulder counties.

I began beekeeping some 20 years ago after reading a series of newspaper columns on beekeeping by my friend, Tom Theobald. I have always been a bit “buggy”. I collected insects as a 4H project in both Maryland and New Mexico and my collection still hangs in my front hallway. Tom’s articles inspired me to take a beekeeping class and the rest, as they say, is history.

I started out innocently enough with just 2 hives and found myself fascinated. When you are out in a lawn chair watching bees enter and exit an active hive as sundown nears, you’re hooked! I am astounded by the differences in the pollens being collected by different hives and different bees within the hive at various times throughout the production season. Where do they find it? What is blooming that they have so much in their little pollen baskets that they can barely fly? How do they “spread the word”? The answers to these questions can be found through constant observation and reading. The more I observe and the more I read, the more interesting the insect becomes. The more intrigued I became, the more hives I acquired. Before long I had transferred my enthusiasm to my husband who now helps with swarm catching and hive removals and soon we had 60 hives instead of 2. It is no wonder that the honeybee, Apis mellifera, is the single most well studied beneficial species on the planet.

I remain captivated by the ability of this social insect to produce food for human consumption—the only insect to do so. A honey bee is estimated to produce a mere 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in its brief life. Look at that again, that is not a half, it is a twelfth. To produce a single pound of honey, a hive has to pollinate two million flowers! TWO million flowers! Flabbergasting numbers, to say the least.

Yet produce excess honey they do and I have honey to share.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has generally been a smooth road but of course there have been struggles. There are opportunities which we capitalized upon that really weren’t in our wheelhouse and that we ended up discontinuing after the effort.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Bee Squared is a small chemical free apiary specializing in varietal and infused honeys. We are the only Good Food Award winning honey producer in the state of CO. The Good Food Award recognizes not only the caliber of our finished product but the manner in which we treat our livestock (bees) and process the product. We are very proud of those awards as well as the collaborations that resulted in them.

Our first GFA is our rose petal infused “Honey from the Heart”. This is a collaboration with Happy Heart Farm CSA in Fort Collins and is a stunning product.

Our second GFA is our whiskey barrel aged honey which is the brainchild of my employee, Jamie Erickson. We partnered with Branch and Barrel, Spirit Hound and Laws Whiskey House to create this awesome honey.

Bee Squared strongly believes in “putting our money where our mouth is” and we generously support local food and pollinator health organizations. I am an active volunteer and officer for both People and Pollinators Action Network (PPAN) and the Pollinator Stewardship Council (PSC).

What are your plans for the future?
Bee Squared has experienced steady growth over the past 8 years or so and will try to more successfully manage that with additional systems on the accounting and inventory side.

We have some new products that we’re going to send down the pipeline and we’ll hope that they are just as delicious as the past GFA winners!

Pricing:

• Varietal Honey $4.00-$65
• Candles $12-$25
• Soap $7.50
• Infused honey $5.00-$80

Contact Info:

• Email: beth@bethsbees.com
• Website: bethsbees.com
• Instagram: beesquaredapiaries
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beesquaredapiaries

Image Credits
Jamie Erickson (for all)