Spring Edition - May 23, 2020

Welcome to our May Online Market!

I'm Annanie, the owner/operator/beekeeper of Forever Bee!
We are excited to be hosting another online market for all of you! They're a lot of fun for us, we hope they are for you too :)

Make sure to comment with your thoughts and questions throughout the afternoon, we have some fun giveaways (open to residents of Canada) planned for those of you who are here (and it's not too late to invite your friends to join us)! :)

Refresh the page every 15 minutes or so to see fresh content.

When you're ready to order, you can do so on through the website, text/call 403-220-2020, or email info@foreverbee.ca

Announcing our Grand Prize

An amazing Forever Bee product bundle valued at $100!

To enter, make sure to comment with your thoughts and questions throughout the event. One lucky draw winner will have this product bundle sent to their home next week! Winner to be drawn tomorrow morning and announced on Facebook at noon (feel free to join us there, if you'd prefer)!
*only open to residents of Canada, no purchase necessary*

Introducing Our Team

Hi  We are Matt and Annanie and we started Forever Bee almost 9 years ago from the ground up. We have 5 kids and 2 grandkids and most of them have been involved in the business to some degree. They have helped with beekeeping, making candles and flavoured honey, and staffing markets. We are so appreciative of having such a loving family, a hard-working team to help us, and an incredibly supportive community.

Hi, I'm Ritzie! I have been with Forever Bee since the very beginning and have loved watching as we continue expanding our production and develop meaningful relationships within our community. When I am not helping out behind the scenes, I enjoy traveling and spending time with my family.

I’m Kathy, aka Aunt Kathy. Knowing I’m Matt & Annanie’s most favorite Auntie in the world 🙂, how could I resist being involved with their family business while doing what I like to do most - Digital Art Illustrations & of course eating honey? Forever Bee’s honey is the best I have ever tasted so being part of their team to spread the sweetness is to me, “the bees knees”!

Hi, I'm Kira. I'm Mom to a bee-utiful 1 (almost 2) year old and brand new baby squish. I love being a part of the Forever Bee Family. This month has been particularly interesting to see our team adapt to the unpredictable changes in today's world. I'm so proud to be a part of this family.

Let me introduce myself: my name is Heather and I am lucky to be the lady who delivers your honey in the Calgary area. I also help in the warehouse and when markets are running, I love to introduce Forever Bee products to customers, old and new!

I am Joelynn, a stay home mom and wife. I believe in using natural products for my health and well-being. Which is why I love being a honey bee worker selling honey and products at your local markets.

Hi, I'm Lanice! I am fun, outgoing, and a self proclaimed pun master. I work in the main warehouse and take pride in the hand crafted products that are delivered to you.

I'm Cassandra, a momma to one. We spend our time together baking and enjoying as much sunshine as possible! I've been working with Forever Bee on and off for the last few years and am happy to officially be a part of the family as your customer service representative.

Gifts with Purchase

When you're ready to order, you can do so through the website, text/call 403-220-2020, or email info@foreverbee.ca

Building Bee Boxes

Every new beekeeping season for us starts with building and painting new boxes!
We choose to use new boxes for all new hives to ensure our bees stay as healthy as possible. Every hive consists of two brood boxes and as many supers as needed.

Brood boxes are where the bees live and once the bees are at home there, we leave those boxes alone! When they start to fill up, we know they have enough wax, honey, and pollen for their own use and we can start adding supers.
Supers are half the height of brood boxes and are added as needed. This is where we harvest our honey, wax, and honeycomb from.

Being an attentive beekeeper is important to balance having just enough space for the bees at all times. When bees have too much room, they're trying to defend more territory than they're equipped to defend and may become subject to pest infestations. When bees don't have enough space, they'll build bur comb (extra wax built on the top of the hive) and swarm cells. Swarm cells are especially problematic as that is where they raise a new queen. The new queen then kills all other swarm cells and takes half the hive and leaves.

Bee-Friendly Gardening

Did you know that bees are a necessary pollinator? They're responsible for pollinating 1/3 of the food we eat!

Have you been wondering how you can make your yard and garden more bee-friendly???
You're in luck, because that's what we do! ;)

Our focus on beautifully manicured lawns is one of the many things that is detrimental to bee health. Dandelions are bees' first food in the spring and the pesticides we use to keep dandelions at bay are doubly harmful to our bee friends. Glyphosate (the weed-killer of choice) causes a lot of damage to the nervous systems of bees in addition to eliminating their food. Something as simple as keeping these misunderstood flowers around in the spring can have a massive impact on the health of our local pollinators.

There is so much more that we can do to help keep our bee friends healthy and this is an amazing first step.
If you're looking for even more you can do, Annanie wrote a great guide to some bee-friendly flowers that we can add to our yards and gardens this spring! We are giving away some of these seeds as part of our gifts with purchase promotion this weekend. :) Share what bee-friendly changes you've made to your garden and yard already or what you'd like to implement soon!

Download the ebook here.

Bee Pollen

Who can see the bee pollen in this photo?!?!
We'll give you a hint: bees collect pollen in pollen bags on their back legs ;).

Bee pollen is an incredible natural food and only a teaspoon a day is necessary to reap its many benefits (and that teaspoon contains over 2.5 billion grains of flower pollen that took a busy little bee 8 hours to collect!). We collect it 3 weeks out of the year from our strongest hives.
Bee pollen is approximately 40% protein and contains nearly every nutrient needed by the human body and cannot be replicated by a laboratory (though they have tried!). Bee pollen is best known for assisting in seasonal allergy symptoms but has a host of health benefits, find the details on our FAQ page: https://foreverbee.ca/apps/help-center
*Note that if you are allergic to bee stings, it is not recommended that you consume bee pollen!*

We’ll be giving away a bee pollen sample jar to a commenter this afternoon, so make sure to ask your questions or share why you love our pollen!!!

Shop for bee pollen here.

Creamed Clover Honey

Our creamed clover honey is raw and unpasteurized. We harvest it directly from our hives as a liquid and then put it through a freezing process to cream it. We choose to freeze the honey because we believe that it is the best way to keep the honey as pure as possible without adding anything to it (starter crystals) or destroying it through any heat created by friction caused by whipping it. Creamed honey will maintain its texture and never crystallize though you can return it to its liquid state if preferred by placing it in a warm water bath.

How amazing is this customer submitted photo??? We are so happy to be a family favourite! 

We’ll be giving away one 500g jar of our incredible creamed clover honey to one commenter on this post, so make sure to ask those questions and share what you love about our creamed clover honey!

Shop creamed clover honey here.

Preparing Hives

Every spring, we head out to check on our existing hives. We need to see which hives survived the winters, which hives may have burcomb and/or swarm cells present, and to provide them with fresh food for the upcoming season.

If hives have burcomb, we clean it off and provide additional space. In the event we find swarm cells, we keep some and put them into any hives that need a queen. We then add more space for the bees.

We then leave bee pollen patties in their hives. Bee pollen patties are made up from fermented pollen and honey to help keep the bees as happy and healthy as possible. We keep these patties within the hives so that they don't have to share it with surrounding hives or additional pests that may find it tasty. This year, we also started adding special bee probiotics to our cleaning protocol. Just like us, it's important for bees to have healthy tummies. Our goal is to keep the bees as healthy as possible throughout the entire year, including our harsh winters.

Lavender Flavoured Honey

Our Lavender flavoured honey is a spring-time favourite!
Made by mixing Lavender imported directly from France with our pure honey, it is the *perfect* balance of flavour. Our team-member Cassandra always tells people that it is MADE for tea.
It is a mild flavoured honey with beautiful floral undertones and is very versatile. Try some of our Lavender Honey recipes here.

We'll be giving away one 500g jar of our Lavender Honey to one lucky commenter on this post, so share what you love about Lavender Honey, any questions you have, or what you'd use it for!

Shop our flavoured honey here.

Honeystix

If you've seen us at markets in the past, you likely know that our honeystix are a HOT commodity for our customers.
We used to source them from an outside company and are so excited to be able to make them ourselves with our amazing flavoured honeys (Cinnamon, Ginger, Lavender, Maple, Licorice, Turmeric, and Raspberry).
They're a perfect treat for the little ones, the perfect serving for a tea or coffee sweetener on the go, or even a handy bag-treat for when you're out and about.

We'll be giving away a variety pack of 50 honeystix to one commenter on this post. Who would you share them with? What flavour would you be most excited about trying???

Shop our honeystix here.

Getting New Bees

When we get new bees, we get them in these really cool 5-frame boxes called Nucs.

Each Nuc has a strong laying queen, 3lbs of bees, enough honey and pollen to feed them, and an empty frame for the bees to build into! It's important when transporting bees this way that you do it in the late night or early morning so that it is cool outside and thus cool for the bees. We then wait for a calm, dry, and warm day to move them into their new hives.

This years new bees were so well-natured and were a joy to move into their new homes. They were calm, gentle, and cooperative. Some years, the bees will dive bomb anyone who disturbs them ;)

Decorative Candles

Our candles are handmade in our workshop from pure beeswax. We're excited to feature our two decorative candles this month!
Our fern pillar and ball candles are beautifully delicate and make for an amazing gift or pick-me-up treat for yourself.
Beeswax candles don't drip, don't smoke, have an incredible burn time, and smell amazing!
Our ball candle will burn for 60-80 hours while the fern pillar will last 100-120 hours.

Have you used our candles before??? Share you experience below to be entered into our draw for a fern pillar! If you've never tried our candles before, share where your favourite place to indulge in a good candle is or any questions you have!

Shop our beeswax candles here. 

Rolled Candles

Also made by hand and with lots of love are our rolled candles (normally by Kira while she's momming two littles). We carry beeswax sheets in a variety of colours for creative projects or you can purchase our rolled tapers to enjoy. Our premade rolled candles have a burn time of 2-3 hours and like our molded beeswax candles, don't drip or smoke.

We'll be giving away one pair of rolled candles in the colour of your choice to one commenter on this post. What have you seen that can be made out of beeswax sheets?

Shop rolled candles here and beeswax sheets here.

Body Butter

Our body butter is, if we may be so bold, incredibly luxurious.
Not only does it smell amazing, it WORKS. Handmade using shea and cocoa butter alongside our pure beeswax, it is moisturizing without being greasy (a little also goes a LONG, LONG way).

We donated a case of body butter to the Emergency Room workers at Foothills Hospital and this is what they had to say: "We can’t even begin to thank you all enough for the generous donation of lotion to our health care workers at the Foothills Medical Centre Emergency Department. This thank you is long overdue! Your products are absolutely remarkable and we thank you a million times for ensuring our hands are soft and healthy! Your body butter is an absolute God-send. Thank you for blessing us and thank you ever so much for you all!!! Happy health!"

We'll be giving away a jar of body butter in the scent of your choice (orange, natural, peppermint, or lavender) to one commenter on this post. Share your experience with our body butter or why you're excited to try it below to enter! :)

Shop our body products here.

Delivery

We will be hand-delivering all orders placed this weekend to the following areas on the following dates:

Tues May 26 - High River, Nanton, Claresholm, Fort Macleod, Coalhurst, Barons, Carmangay, Champion, Vulcan
Wed May 27 - Lethbridge, Coaldale, Edmonton, St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Red Deer, Olds
Fri May 29 - Calgary, Airdrie, Cochrane, Okotoks
Sat May 30 - Canmore and Banff

Our standard delivery rates apply ($5 or FREE with a $30 order!)
For those of you outside of our delivery areas, we will be happy to ship your orders out on Monday. Standard shipping rates apply ($12 within Canada or FREE in Alberta with orders over $60 and FREE in Canada with orders over $125).

Thank you!

Thank you so much for joining us! We hope you had as much fun as we did.

A quick reminder of the promotions and giveaways:
300 bonus points for attending - email cassandra@foreverbee.ca with "Attended" in the subject line and we will add your bonus points to your account.
Gifts with purchase: buy more, get more! For this weekend only!
Grand Prize draw for engagement
Product giveaways where mentioned
Free delivery with qualifying purchase for standard delivery areas
*All winners will be announced tomorrow at noon!*

And one more promotion to announce now ;):
200 bonus points for providing us with feedback about your experience this afternoon.
Email cassandra@foreverbee.ca with your answers to the following questions: What was your favourite part of the event? What was at least one portion of the event that you would change and why? And any other notes you wish to share! :)
Upon receipt of your email, we will credit your account with your bonus points so make sure to use your account email or provide it to us when you send your message!

For any questions or concerns feel free to message our page, email info@foreverbee.ca, or call/text 403-220-2020. Place orders through our website or through any of the contact points above!