Poised for Growth
A common theme this past month has been a quote of Luke’s: “We are poised for growth.” Things have been moving pretty quickly for our business that are all perfect examples of God’s amazing timing. It is all culminating in a perfect storm of building blocks for us. Here are the main pointers-
Honey House is near completion and the growth just from this project alone will be more than impactful
I am changing up my schedule with my job so that I can devote to this business more fully. We will be able to accomplish more!
Our social media presence has really grown over the last few weeks; one of our videos went viral and we gained about 500 new friends! While this alone doesn’t mean everything, we are hoping for a greater community and more people we can reach with our mission. We want customers who actually value what we are doing for our environment as well as their own wellness.
Local community members are starting to hear about us, which means our name is getting out there! This is what we have been after for a year or more, so it’s finally so nice to see the results.
So to get into the nitty gritty, these are the details of how we have been staying steady over the past month to prep for the (hopeful) huge growth that is this coming season.
Over the past month we have had several big updates to the honey house :
Finished fascia and soffit
Completed all the finishes on the electrical and water, and also dug the water line and hooked it all up. Officially have running water now!
Installation was installed- we did outsource this. We used an amazing local company that not only did a fantastic job but did it at a lower cost than it would’ve been to buy the insulation and do it ourselves. Not to mention, much faster.
Drywall was installed. Everything but the ceiling now has drywall. We are thinking next will be mudding and sanding those walls and then doing the ceiling. It might change, who knows, haha.
The honey house is definitely going to be ready (enough) for extraction season so this is one of our first points of growth. If you haven’t checked out our honey house page, I linked it at the bottom so you can see how it’ll impact our future as a business and the future of our local bees!
Over the last month we have also:
Made some bee pollen patties for the first time and then fed those to the bees. We checked for losses and as of right now we have lost 7 total since the fall. This is actually a huge relief compared to the numbers we have been seeing from other beekeepers. Losses have been massive across the US this past winter. Scientists and government officials have been struggling to find the cause. We are hoping to hear soon so that we can do our best to protect the bees that we have!
Gotten a few wholesale orders for our taper candles as well as one for our skincare. I also received a custom wholesale order I am working really hard on. I was struggling with the look of my tapers for awhile but I have finally perfected every last bit of it so I am extremely happy with these orders! Also our packaging for them is *chef’s kiss.*
Introduced our products into two new local stores and have been feeling all the love! We are putting a pause on where our honey is now being stocked as we have reached a pretty good capacity and don’t want our local area to be oversaturated. Next step is to look into surrounding counties and cities! We have also been working on an exciting new potential wholesale partnership in our local community for our skincare. Please wish us luck!
Been taking your notes and making a new version of our skincare- scented! I recently bought some lavender essential oil for a different product that I wanted to launch this year but it was really good timing to just go ahead and try it with the lotion bars and cream. Beeswax and lavender are a match made in heaven… look out for the release of those soon as well!
Been working hard on those beeswax wraps. I finally have nailed down the exact recipe I like and am waiting on labeling/packaging/education etc. After those are completed you can look for that launch!
Done a lot more lumber related business with the wood kiln being ready for an unload/reload so we had several orders that were fulfilled.
This next month starts a lot more beekeeping, finishing up the necessities for the honey house, and tying up loose ends on all the wholesale orders. Also really hoping to get those wraps to you by the end of the month! Thanks for staying tuned and as promised, here is the link to the reasons behind our honey house and the benefits it will bring our environment: