A Curated List of BEE-autiful Resources in the Hudson Valley

As explained in our recent blog “And So it Shall Bee,” bee populations are under siege globally as a result of “pesticides, habitat loss, climate change and increased rates of colony collapse disorder due to parasites and pathogens.” It’s true: 90% of bee populations are tragically facing extinction. That’s 1 in 10 wild bee species, as well as honeybees everywhere. Thankfully, there’s much we can collectively do before it’s too late.

Please take a few moments to read (and share!) that earlier article to learn about all kinds of inspiring and accessible ways you can make a difference! You can also support some of the “Bee-autiful Resources in the Hudson Valley” listed below for truly pure bee products, wonderful beekeeping classes and suppliers or to shop local spots for pollinator garden seeds and native plants, and oh so much more!

To bee or not to bee…that answer lies in all of our hands, hearts and gardens…and especially corporate and governmental decision-making.

Please bee kind and help spread the word about this urgent issue, and consider the earth and other life forms, as well as our global neighbors when making your purchasing, gardening and pest control choices.

Don’t forget, human bee-ings, we are all connected 🐝

A List of Resources for Beekeepers, Lovers of Honey, Bee Festivals and More!

Beacon Bee | Beacon | @beacon_bee

Run by two Beacon based artist/beekeepers, Deb started beekeeping in 2007, partly out of curiosity and partly out of concern for the fate of pollinators. Over time, they’ve developed a range of all-natural beeswax-based skin and hair products using only the finest ingredients, including beeswax taken from their own hives. Beacon Bee Balm is available in a variety of sizes, scents and formulations, and our hand rolled beeswax candles, gift bags and wedding favors are sure to please.

Catskill Provisions |  Calllicoon | Bee Involved | @catskillprovisionsny

Local Hudson Valley makers of rye, whisky, vodka, gin, bourbon, and amaro, their 100% raw wildflower honey is the star ingredient in their handcrafted line of products. Claire M Marin, owner of Catskill Provisions, started beekeeping as a hobby and found herself drawn to the bees and how they work in easy harmony with each other and their surroundings. Today, Claire tends to over 300 beehives in Delaware, Sullivan, and Madison Counties in cooperation with other local beekeepers to create her line of small batch artisanal and celebrated honey-kissed products. A percent of sales is also donated to environmental causes devoted to saving the bees and other pollinators.

Bee Informed. Important facts below offered by Catskill Provisions in support local beekeepers and bees  #Savethebees

• Bees have been pollinating the Earths plants for approximately 25 million years.
• The health of pollinators, is directly linked to our nation’s food security and the health and vitality of our ecosystems
• Bees are responsible for 1 in 3 bites of food we eat, from almonds to tomatoes & strawberries
• There are 20,000 species of bees worldwide, and more then 4,000 in the US alone
• Since 2006, beekeepers have lost an average of 30% of their hives annually
• While climate change has contributed to colony collapse, the leading driver of global bee decline is toxic “neonic” pesticides
• Nearly all colonies of wild honeybees have died out in the US. Without beekeepers to care for them, honeybees would disappear completely in a couple of years.
• Increasing bee-friendly flower-rich habitats in farmlands, gardens and parks can provide forage for bees and other pollinators.
• Facts provided by Friends of the Earth, NRDC and Sierra Club

BeeJoy | New Paltz | @beejoy

Grai St. Clair Rice is an organic beekeeper, was co-founder of HoneybeeLives and is an educator and owner of BeeJoy. With her love and knowledge of Honeybees she encourages a better understanding and appreciation of Honeybees by the public at large, and helps nurture beekeepers to embrace a gentle and spiritual approach to their care. Grai is founder of the contemporary Ulster County Beekeeping Association.

Burt’s Mountain Honey | Windham-Conesville | Facebook

The Northern Catskill Mountains have always been home to Burt and his bees. One of the founders of the Catskill Mountain Beekeepers Club and a professional beekeeper for over 65 years, Burt knew more than most about the birds and the bees. Burt promoted the use of honey for both health and healing from his early beekeeping days and his motto was Bee Happy, Bee Healthy, Eat Your Honey! Sadly, Burt passed away peacefully on July 13, 2013 but his wonderful products are still available and include honey, honey candy, lip balm, soap, honey straws and hand balm. Burt kept his first hive of bees at the age of 13 and was joined by his son Wayne who has adopted the same love for bees and is following in his father’s footsteps.

Catskill Mountain Beekeepers Club | East Durham | Facebook

This club began in 1996 with a dedicated and experienced handful of people and has grown to more than 130 member families who raise bees, teach others about beekeeping and sell their honey products across the valley. “In addition to our hive products, our exhibition booths contain literature, posters, equipment, and an observation hive.” They serve as a resource to local beekeepers, educate the community about the joys, skills and fruits of beekeeping and provide an outlet for the membership to sell member-produced honey and other hive products.

Catskill Native Nursery | Kerhonkson | @catskillnativenursery

Gardening for a better environment, Catskill Native Nursery offers all kinds of native plants, organic, heirloom, and non-GMO seeds. They also offer classes and landscaping services, tools and so much more!

Damn Good Honey Farm | Kerhonkson | @damngoodhoneyfarm

Damn Good Honey’s mission is to help new beekeeper’s on their journey into apiculture. Classes, home visits with apiary design, hive set up and installation, hive checks, care and maintenance, winter wrap up, swarm removal, honey, farm stand in Kerhonkson.

Dancing Bee Woman | National Geographic Short Film | Facebook

In this captivating film, “Sara Mapelli brings new meaning to the term “queen bee” as she with a swarm of bees blanketing her body. While wearing the queen of the hive, Mapelli is surrounded by 10,000 bees, creating what she describes as a meditative atmosphere of movement, energy, and sound. Mapelli uses this dance to build awareness of the importance of bees and all of nature and to allow people who are scared of bees to confront their fears. She sees the dance as a tool for healing.”

Honey Bee Rescue Service | Middletown

Honey Bee Rescue Service offers classes and 100% truly organic and non-toxic removal of Wasps, Hornets, and Yellow Jackets. “We can also apply Our 100% essential oil product to keep new colonies away. Bumble Bees, White Faced Hornets and Honey Bees are all re-located as they are beneficial! We Literally remove all nests without the use of any pesticides whatsoever!” Serving all of Orange County. No hive too big or small! Call Tom at 845-282-3431.

Honeybees Lives | New Paltz | Facebook

Classes at your home and throughout the Hudson Valley. Chris Harp is an organic beekeeper, “Bee Doctor,” beekeeping teacher and co-founder of HoneybeeLives. He has been tending his own hives in New Paltz, NY for twenty-eight years. He has expanded his naturalist and biodynamic approach to tending approximately 200 colonies in locations in New York and Connecticut for both individuals and organizations. Harp is a consultant on hive health for troubled colonies and concerned beekeepers. Grai St. Clair Rice is an organic beekeeper and co-founder of HoneybeeLives. With her love and knowledge of Honeybees, she encourages a better understanding and appreciation of Honeybees by the public at large and helps nurture beekeepers to embrace a gentle and spiritual approach to their care. Grai is the founder of the contemporary Ulster County Beekeeping Association.

Hudson Valley Bee Supply | Kingston | @hvbee

Classes, bees, hives, kits and components, tools, clothes, feeds, meds, books, harvesting containers, molds, honey and gifts.

Hudson Valley Natural Beekeepers |  Hudson Valley | Facebook

Bee supplies, meetings, resources, mead/honey wine classes. “We beekeepers and bee supporters are concerned about the loss of natural habitat and ecological degradation for all pollinators and creatures as a whole, and we commit ourselves to the healing of our world.” Hudson Valley Natural Beekeepers (HVNB) was formed in 2014 to serve the Hudson Valley New York area for beekeepers trying to use sustainable and natural practices to care for and live in harmony with honeybees. HVNB also supports those who plant forage and take action to support pollinators and restore natural habitat, as well as to educate the public about the importance of honeybees and other pollinators. “We encourage beekeepers and non-beekeepers to join us for our meetings and events.”

Hudson Valley Seed Co | Accord | @hudsonvalleyseedco

Hudson Valley Seed Co. has all kinds of divine heirloom varieties and veggies, flowers, berries, herbs and tools. Check out their site or pick up at their shop in Stone Ridge. Protect and support the pollinators by planting bee balm, sunflowers, milkweed and other technicolor attractors, which they sell in gorgeous, seed packets with art by local creatives.

Mira’s Naturals | Woodstock | @mirasnaturals

Local and truly natural honeybee products are made in small batches, with pure love. Their divine offerings include body butter and deodorant, soap, candles, lip balms, facial scrubs, sanitizing sprays and more, all created without fillers, dyes or toxins of any kind. But why bees and why so scrupulously natural? The owners of Mira’s Naturals explain it this way: “Our daughter Mira is diagnosed on the Autism spectrum and we had always been brainstorming ideas on how to create a sustainable business to support her needs in the future. Since her diagnosis, we were also constantly seeking healthier and more natural options to use in our household. Then along came beekeeping and all of the wonderful, useful, healthy offshoots of it.” Their family also brought beekeeping back “to the only working farm in our community of Woodstock, NY.” What a beeeeeautiful dream manifested!

Narrowsburg Honey Bee Fest | Narrowsburg | @nburgbeefest

A fun festival in Narrowsburg NY, Sullivan County, which promotes awareness, demonstration and education, it’s good food for the whole family. Join them Saturday, September 23rd, 2023 for their 9th Annual Narrowsburg Honeybee Fest! NOW ACCEPTING VENDOR APPLICATIONS!

New York Bee Sanctuary | Callicoon | @nybeesanctuary

The New York Bee Sanctuary, focused on conservation, advocacy, research, and education, is building a wildlife sanctuary for honey bees and pollinators in New York State, with programs to promote the conservation of our vital insect friends all across the US. “Using permaculture principles, we will plant the sanctuary with a broad variety of bee- and pollinator-friendly flowers, endangered fruit trees, and berry bushes. These polyculture gardens will provide an ongoing food supply to bees and other pollinators. New York Bee Sanctuary is actively seeking land through purchase, donation, lease, or partnership. If you are able to contribute to our growth in this way, please contact us.

Phoenicia Honey Co | Phoenicia | @phoeniciahoneyco

Their Queen Bee is a Chef, Beekeeper and avid gardener. “Our products are carefully crafted to bring out the best in your food. They are made in small batches and filled with locally sourced ingredients wherever possible.” While their “budding Apiary is not yet large enough to meet the growing demand for our delicious concoctions, we work with several local beekeepers and carefully source all the honey we use. Our honey is always raw and from the hudson valley region. As we grow, we plan to add more cutting gardens and several new hives.”
Phoenicia Honey Company is based at Amira’s Farm, where bees are raised, and plants are grown organically and with love.

Ulster County Beekeepers Association | Ulster County

The Ulster County Beekeepers embrace a natural, organic approach to honeybee care. We nurture bees and beekeepers, as well as advocate for public awareness and a shift in environmental policy to keep our pollinators and our earth healthy and diverse. The Ulster County Beekeepers’ Association meets the second Monday of most months at 7 pm via Zoom. Meeting invitations are sent to members only via email. Classes are also offered.

Urban Apis | Hurley | @urbanapisbees

Raw honey, beeswax candles, body products and pure sweet love “produced by our hard working bees, then extracted and bottled right in our home! Our honey is raw which means it is pure, unheated, unpasteurized, and unprocessed. Which in turn means it preserves all the natural vitamins, enzymes, phytonutrients, and other nutritional elements that make honey so great for you.” They also promote honey bee education. “Our top concern is that our honey bees are alive and healthy, therefore, products will only be available in limited quantities (including honey). So why the name Urban Apis? Well Urban means city and we started with our first hives in the City of Kingston, NY in 2014.”

Please bee kind and help spread the word about this urgent issue…

Love everything about Bees? Watch this amazing film. by Catskill Mountainkeeper on HUDSYTV – Save the Pollinators

Save the Pollinators highlights the importance of pollinators for human survival and offers tangible actions you can take, right now, to protect these critically important creatures. This film by Catskill Mountainkeeper features the efforts of local advocates, activists and farmers who have dedicated their lives to protecting pollinators.

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