A lot of work goes into a jar of honey. To learn more, we asked Priscilla Everett, a Brockville-based beekeeper and owner of Made by Bees, for an inside look at the wonderful world of bees.
Brockville beekeeper Priscilla Everett’s interest in honeybees started soon after her son began keeping bees on their property. “At first, I was just the nosy Mom having a peek at what he was doing,” says Everett. But, soon, the beekeeping became a family activity, and when her kids left for university, she took over caring for the hives. “I had extra honey and, basically, one thing led to another and I became interested in producing other products from the hive, using their wax — candles, beeswax wraps — and that’s what really took off.”
Everett started Made by Bees in 2016, making beeswax wrap for storing food to create functional and minimal-waste products that help reduce plastic pollution. But her passion is bees and educating people about the critical role they play in terms of global food security. She loves to do talks about beekeeping, especially teaching children about the importance of pollinators. “The mainstay of my enjoyment is definitely the beekeeping part of it. I’m just intrigued and learning so much all the time — they are just a fascinating insect — they are the only insect in the world that produces food that humans can eat.”
Everett has four hives. Each hive has 60,000 to 80,000 bees in the summertime, but they don’t produce enough beeswax for her food wraps company, so she buys Canadian beeswax from a supplier in Alberta. The wraps are individually handcrafted by infusing 100 percent cotton cloth with pure Canadian beeswax, tree resin and organic jojoba oil. Food wraps start at $24.99. Everett says the wraps are easy to make but time-consuming. What started as a hobby has grown into a business that keeps her, well, as busy as a bee. “When I open up a hive, I’m just so thankful to be part of something so magical. I have this little saying that each bee is small, but together, they do big things. It’s also like saving the planet and using less plastic: you think it doesn’t make a difference, but every little bit that we can do is for the greater good.”
The article was originally written by Debra Norton from the Toronto Star and can be found here.
It’s a simple story. Let me start at the beginning.
This summer we had a great holiday in Canada spending time catching up with our friends and enjoying a bit of nature.
One day, we stopped by Colborn, Ontario to see Ana and Steve, neighbors from the time we lived in Toronto. After a great lunch at their amazingly treed property (Canada is full of trees, thanks be to the gods), Ana took my seventeen year old daughter Zoe aside and gave her a special parting gift as friends are like to do.
Later, Zoe showed me the present. It was Madebybees cotton cloth infused with bee wax, tree resin, and organic jojoba oil. “Its for covering food, Pa,” she said with the simple happiness discovering something good brings, “We can get rid of plastic leftover wrapping at home now.”
You can read the rest of the article here.
]]>Courting new shoppers can be a hit or miss proposition for many entrepreneurs, especially when they have limited marketing dollars.
For startup entrepreneurs such as Priscilla Everett, a beekeeper and founder of Made By Bees, the perfect channel to get her name beyond her local Brockville, Ont., market turned out to be a Montreal-based subscription service called Little Life Box.
“I knew if I wanted to take the business to the next level I would need more exposure,” Everett said. “I also knew subscription boxes were becoming quite popular and figured it was a good way to get a name for my beeswax wrap out there at very little cost.”
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