River-Bee Homegrown Honey

Are you committed to shopping small? Do you strive to shop locally? We are here for you! PLEASE NOTE: Mother Nature won--the Honey House has been tucked away for the winter. You may call us at 607-467-3104 for orders or check out Kerry's Korner or Vickie's Unisex Hair Salon. Taking bunches of Christmas-ready products up today. We have all sizes of honey with bows and wrappings, plus our fabulous soaps all ready to go. Should you need a Secret Santa gift or just a thou...ghtful co-worker or neighbor gift, look no further! In our no-wrapping-needed gift bags you get 3 bars (almost 10 oz.) of pure (NO TOXINS!) soap based in shea butter and laced with oatmeal, honey, buttermilk and essential oil. A free poofy is included. Lather away! I'll leave some free recipes in case you decide to give nature's perfect gift--honey! Last but not least, do not forget your fur babies! We've bragged for years now about our 100% Natural Dog Treats. We have yet to meet a dog that does not love the crunchy bite, and peanut butter and honey both aid in a dog's digestion. Look for a free bee treat in every bag! So there you have it. The best we have to offer at this most wonderful time of the year. Please accept our thanks for your business in 2021 and enjoy your preparations for the celebrations. See more

Still here...yup! Defying the weather gods for as long as we can, we are changing honey out and keeping the Honey House open for now. All sizes are available, and we have both spring and fall colors (and tastes!) I'll put a couple of gift sets over there in case you need to pick up a hostess gift for next Thursday. Are you thinking of glazing your holiday ham with local honey? Or have you had that frog in your throat along with annoying post nasal drip? Do any of your holiday recipes call for all-natural honey? We're here! We're just off the ramp in Hale Eddy. (under the pines) Don't forget, we'll be giving thanks for many things next week, not the least being our great and faithful customers AND our hard working, productive bees! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

First of all, THANK YOU to our seasonal vendors who added our honey to their product inventory this year. MelJon's Farm and Gerstner's Apple Farm both were gracious enough to carry River-Bee Homegrown Honey with great success and we APPRECIATE them! Secondly, come on down to the Honey House! Even with the cold mornings, we're going to keep it open as long as possible--I'll plan to change the honey out daily, and you plan to get your honey home into a warm place. (Just to p...revent crystalization) The cold weather won't hurt the honey at all, but anytime you have crystalization, (it starts anytime honey is stored at less than 70 degrees F) don't be afraid to put your honey in very hot water reapeatedly until it liquifies. We do avoid the microwave, as it can overheat and destroy all those good things you are buying our raw honey for. Lastly, you may have heard we are scaling back on our beekeeping. It will be a few years until we are done, but for now, fewer hives mean less lifting and carrying. As our friend put it, "We took a perfectly good hobby and made way too much work out of it." Make no mistake, we LOVE our bees, but most of them will be traveling to Trevor's in the spring and we will visit them there. You'll continue to see us at local fests and fairs for quite some time to come! See more

Humble thanks, Deposit, for your business during Oktoberfest. Honey Bites were gone first, then the dog treats. Sold lots of honey in all different sizes. Makes me think we have one SWEET town out there! Whether you were an old friend, or a new aquaintance who stopped by, thank you for buying River-Bee Homegrown Honey!

HELLOOO honey peeps! Just making sure you know we will be at Deposit's Oktoberfest on Sunday with all the sweetness we can muster. We've pulled all the hive supers and have been extracting almost non-stop. There's plenty of honey both light and dark. We'll bring our dog treats, people treats, soaps, creamed honey, and gift sets. Let's talk about the gift sets. Tell me where you can get a gift for $11 that is so versitile?? You can give a beautifully wrapped one pound b...ottle of honey, make our free recipes, have enough for your tea or coffee and still have honey left over to ward off a winter sore throat. Talk about a bang for your buck! Please, for goodness sakes, don't forget gifts for the hostess at Thanksgiving and Holiday gatherings. We will warn you, prices have increased a smidge on some sizes. We put in a large supply order this summer, and even though we used a current catalog, we were informed that prices had risen on almost every item we ordered. And if you have any glass honey bottles, THERE IS A SHORTAGE! We are not able to get them locally (we drove about 100 miles to pick up ten cases yesterday) so bring your glass jars to Oktoberfest and we'll give you $1.50 credit towards your honey purchases. Looking forward to seeing everyone on Sunday! See more

Ohhhhh honey! Light honey, dark honey, creamed honey, all sizes of honey! I've spent two days getting everything honey ready for a new home. Look for us at the Grand Opening of Gerstner's Country Store when they kick off apple picking this weekend! We really have a lot of honey (thank you, bees) and could never move it all without our friends who are willing to carry our products at their places of business. Soooo...Gerstner's have stepped forward to include local artisans at their brand spanking new country store. We'll join Jada Hill, A-4 Maple Products, and more. Open on weekends starting 9/4. Tell them we sent you!

HELLOOO honey peeps! Just making sure you know we will be at Deposit's Oktoberfest on Sunday with all the sweetness we can muster. We've pulled all the hive supers and have been extracting almost non-stop. There's plenty of honey both light and dark. We'll bring our dog treats, people treats, soaps, creamed honey, and gift sets. Let's talk about the gift sets. Tell me where you can get a gift for $11 that is so versitile?? You can give a beautifully wrapped one pound b...ottle of honey, make our free recipes, have enough for your tea or coffee and still have honey left over to ward off a winter sore throat. Talk about a bang for your buck! Please, for goodness sakes, don't forget gifts for the hostess at Thanksgiving and Holiday gatherings. We will warn you, prices have increased a smidge on some sizes. We put in a large supply order this summer, and even though we used a current catalog, we were informed that prices had risen on almost every item we ordered. And if you have any glass honey bottles, THERE IS A SHORTAGE! We are not able to get them locally (we drove about 100 miles to pick up ten cases yesterday) so bring your glass jars to Oktoberfest and we'll give you $1.50 credit towards your honey purchases. Looking forward to seeing everyone on Sunday! See more

Another SWEET ending to a happy occasion! Thank you Jennifer Brand for considering River-Bee Homegrown Honey for the special baby shower you hosted this weekend. First of all, check out the adorable woodland theme and THAT MOMMY TO BEE CAKE! (Sorry--we just can't be impartial when it comes to bees...) After all the gift giving and congratulations were complete to expectant mommy Geniveve Thatcher, everyone went home with mini-jars of honey and bags of Honey Bites. Look closely and you'll even see a little bee charm on each jar. As always, it was our pleasure to be a part of such a momentous event. Congratulations and best wishes to Geniveve, and thanks again to Jennifer!

Ohhhhh honey! Light honey, dark honey, creamed honey, all sizes of honey! I've spent two days getting everything honey ready for a new home. Look for us at the Grand Opening of Gerstner's Country Store when they kick off apple picking this weekend! We really have a lot of honey (thank you, bees) and could never move it all without our friends who are willing to carry our products at their places of business. Soooo...Gerstner's have stepped forward to include local artisans at their brand spanking new country store. We'll join Jada Hill, A-4 Maple Products, and more. Open on weekends starting 9/4. Tell them we sent you!

Hey Deposit! You've gone and done it again. We had a steady stream of customers at yesterday's craft fair on the green. So good to see old friends, new friends, classmates, relatives, and return customers from all over, who came back to our little town and our favorite little festival. Honey tasting was temporarily on hold, but there were lots of takers when we offered Honey Bites. There should be several kitchens making Honey Bites today and lots of people adding fresh honey to their coffee and tea. Decision of the day was whether to buy the light or the dark? Thanks to our many customers who helped make a hot, (and I mean hot!) muggy day enjoyable. See you next year folks!

Another SWEET ending to a happy occasion! Thank you Jennifer Brand for considering River-Bee Homegrown Honey for the special baby shower you hosted this weekend. First of all, check out the adorable woodland theme and THAT MOMMY TO BEE CAKE! (Sorry--we just can't be impartial when it comes to bees...) After all the gift giving and congratulations were complete to expectant mommy Geniveve Thatcher, everyone went home with mini-jars of honey and bags of Honey Bites. Look closely and you'll even see a little bee charm on each jar. As always, it was our pleasure to be a part of such a momentous event. Congratulations and best wishes to Geniveve, and thanks again to Jennifer!

Ummmm...truth in advertising. Mommy used my baby picture. I turned two years old in March, but wanted you to know no matter how old I get, I STILL love our dog treats! Mom says she's not sure I would be so well trained without them. No preservatives. No artificial ingredients. No worries!

Hey Deposit! You've gone and done it again. We had a steady stream of customers at yesterday's craft fair on the green. So good to see old friends, new friends, classmates, relatives, and return customers from all over, who came back to our little town and our favorite little festival. Honey tasting was temporarily on hold, but there were lots of takers when we offered Honey Bites. There should be several kitchens making Honey Bites today and lots of people adding fresh honey to their coffee and tea. Decision of the day was whether to buy the light or the dark? Thanks to our many customers who helped make a hot, (and I mean hot!) muggy day enjoyable. See you next year folks!

My name is Sugar--don't ask me why they didn't name me Honey--I'm so sweet! So anyways, one of the first things my Mom said to me as we were riding home to Hale Eddy was, "Do you know how lucky you are? Your Mommy make dog treats!" So let's talk about those dog treats. First off, they are 100% natural. My treats are made with only bananas, eggs, peanut butter, whole wheat flour and of course, a touch of honey! All good for my digestion. But my favorite part? The crunc...h, crunch, crunch! So, our dog treats are available anywhere you buy River-Bee Homegrown Honey--Vickie's Unisex, Kerry's Korner, Meljon's Farmstand, and of course at our Honey House here in Hale Eddy. The bone shaped treats come in three sizes, S, M, L. Standard size bag weighs 6oz. ($6) but my Mom makes larger bags on request. I recommend the 22 oz. bargain bag for $20. THAT'S A LOT OF BONES--even enough to last ME for a while! P.S. River-Bee Honey will be a vendor at the upcoming Lumberjack Festival. Come visit! See more

You'll be happy to know, the bees have done it again! Never in my life have I seen anything so unpredictable. Our new motto is, "whatever you expect them to do, they will do something else." It's so funny to think that no matter what we try, we do, or we think, these amazing creatures follow no agenda but their own. Thankfully, in our case, it is usually a positive move. So Rick went to check on the hives, no big deal, just check to see how things were going. He came ho...me in a panic about overcrowding, full supers, overflowing hives, etc. We have NEVER had spring honey be ready this early. We generally collect and extract it about a month from now, before the bamboo blossoms. But here we were, faced with supers bursting with spring (the light colored) honey. So thanks to our friends, the bees, we'll have fresh-from-the-hive raw spring honey for the Lumberjack Festival. Look for us with all the 2021 vendors on the green where the old Elementary playground used to be. (Second Street) Hope to see you there! See more

Ummmm...truth in advertising. Mommy used my baby picture. I turned two years old in March, but wanted you to know no matter how old I get, I STILL love our dog treats! Mom says she's not sure I would be so well trained without them. No preservatives. No artificial ingredients. No worries!

My name is Sugar--don't ask me why they didn't name me Honey--I'm so sweet! So anyways, one of the first things my Mom said to me as we were riding home to Hale Eddy was, "Do you know how lucky you are? Your Mommy make dog treats!" So let's talk about those dog treats. First off, they are 100% natural. My treats are made with only bananas, eggs, peanut butter, whole wheat flour and of course, a touch of honey! All good for my digestion. But my favorite part? The crunc...h, crunch, crunch! So, our dog treats are available anywhere you buy River-Bee Homegrown Honey--Vickie's Unisex, Kerry's Korner, Meljon's Farmstand, and of course at our Honey House here in Hale Eddy. The bone shaped treats come in three sizes, S, M, L. Standard size bag weighs 6oz. ($6) but my Mom makes larger bags on request. I recommend the 22 oz. bargain bag for $20. THAT'S A LOT OF BONES--even enough to last ME for a while! P.S. River-Bee Honey will be a vendor at the upcoming Lumberjack Festival. Come visit! See more

Soooo...I promised to tell you our Mel Jon's story some time ago. Might be a good time now, while we wait for the bees to "do their thing." As most of you know, 2020 was a big fat zero when it came to craft fairs, festivals and shows. Because honey isn't perishable, we knew we would be okay, but with 15 hives, it was literally piling up. (Please don't make me show you the 24 buckets of honey stacked three high in our cellar.) One day, I got a message from Melissa Russell.... She knew we were short on sales outlets, and she offered to sell our honey at the farmstand. Who does that? Who takes the time from their own business to reach out to the far end of the county? Who makes room on their shelves for someone else's product and sells it? The good people at Mel Jons do. When they knew there was a struggle, they reached out to help. We've all learned a lot about ourselves in this pandemic and businesses too had to re-think to survive. This is just a big ole shout out to Jon and Melissa for their thoughtfulness. Hopefully we're all shopping locally and supporting small business a little more. Add them to your list--I know they are expanding this year and River-Bee Homegrown Honey products will continue to be on their shelves in 2021. Tell them we sent you! See more

Soooo...I promised to tell you our Mel Jon's story some time ago. Might be a good time now, while we wait for the bees to "do their thing." As most of you know, 2020 was a big fat zero when it came to craft fairs, festivals and shows. Because honey isn't perishable, we knew we would be okay, but with 15 hives, it was literally piling up. (Please don't make me show you the 24 buckets of honey stacked three high in our cellar.) One day, I got a message from Melissa Russell.... She knew we were short on sales outlets, and she offered to sell our honey at the farmstand. Who does that? Who takes the time from their own business to reach out to the far end of the county? Who makes room on their shelves for someone else's product and sells it? The good people at Mel Jons do. When they knew there was a struggle, they reached out to help. We've all learned a lot about ourselves in this pandemic and businesses too had to re-think to survive. This is just a big ole shout out to Jon and Melissa for their thoughtfulness. Hopefully we're all shopping locally and supporting small business a little more. Add them to your list--I know they are expanding this year and River-Bee Homegrown Honey products will continue to be on their shelves in 2021. Tell them we sent you! See more

Awww darn! We missed it! Yesterday, my friends, was the fourth annual WORLD BEE DAY. On May 20, 1734, pioneering beekeeper Anton Jansa was born in Breznica, Slovenia. The day was founded by the UN to promote global cooperation and counter threats to food security and protect pollinators because without them folks, we are up a creek without a paddle. You've seen the numbers--bees pollinate an incredible portion of our food supply and as we all know, bee numbers are in dec...line. (I know you know, because you are great at asking us questions and inquiring about our bees when we see you!) Bee products are honestly on the cutting edge right now--beeswax is used in a plethora of products, and honey is being used in antibiotic resistence research. So how is OUR local bee population faring? As most of you know, the good news was that all River-Bee hives wintered well. What you don't know, is that the good news continues...our hives were split in the last two weeks because of an overabundance of bees. Yes, we even had a swarm take off which tells us that the hive has SO MANY bees, they are feeling crowded. So, things are looking good! Let's keep the pesticides and the bears at bay and hope for a successful season. Do me a favor and Google World Bee Day--you'll find lots of facts, figures, videos and info.--even a day late. Best of all, you'll find what YOU can do, one person at at time, to encourage pollinator health and production right here at home. Bee Happy! See more

Soooo...I promised to tell you our Mel Jon's story some time ago. Might be a good time now, while we wait for the bees to "do their thing." As most of you know, 2020 was a big fat zero when it came to craft fairs, festivals and shows. Because honey isn't perishable, we knew we would be okay, but with 15 hives, it was literally piling up. (Please don't make me show you the 24 buckets of honey stacked three high in our cellar.) One day, I got a message from Melissa Russell.... She knew we were short on sales outlets, and she offered to sell our honey at the farmstand. Who does that? Who takes the time from their own business to reach out to the far end of the county? Who makes room on their shelves for someone else's product and sells it? The good people at Mel Jons do. When they knew there was a struggle, they reached out to help. We've all learned a lot about ourselves in this pandemic and businesses too had to re-think to survive. This is just a big ole shout out to Jon and Melissa for their thoughtfulness. Hopefully we're all shopping locally and supporting small business a little more. Add them to your list--I know they are expanding this year and River-Bee Homegrown Honey products will continue to be on their shelves in 2021. Tell them we sent you! See more

First of all, we're back in business! A bit of sun and warmer weather, and we were itching to put the Honey House out, so out it is. You'll see all sizes of honey plus the dog treats and soaps. You'll also see the Havahart trap--red squirrels seem pretty excited about spring too. We'll see who wins the war this year. Last year, Rick caught 13 of the cheeky buggers. I do believe they swam the river and are back in the pines over the Honey House. And of course, there's ...still the issue of what they owe me for all the products they destroyed last year! Secondly, the canning jar shortage is apparently over! For those of you who like a large, generous jar of honey, we've got them again. The one quart jar gives you MORE than two and a half pounds of honey for $24. Keep using your honey for all the good properties in it, and come visit the Honey House between noon and 6PM. (Just off the ramp in Hale Eddy) HAPPY SPRING from the Smiths and the bees! See more

Drum roll please...the bees have survived! All. Fifteen. Hives. They were tucked back in today with some sugar on top, just in case they run out of food in this very critical month of March. We just can't have them make it this far and then not survive, so the sugar is there should they need it. I love the contrast of seeing the snow on the roof and the bees on the hive. Despite the last vestiges of winter hanging on, the bees felt and needed the sun just as much as we did! The hives are bursting with new life and will continue to multiply until we split them in April. For all of you hoping for continued success with our bees, thank you from the Smiths, and from this world that will so benefit from our bounty!

WHAT? You didn't know we have soap made from our honey? Ohhhhhh, let me tell you all about it! Our soap is nothing but good, pure, skin nourishing ingredients. We start with shea butter, and add buttermilk, oatmeal, honey and essential oils. Would you believe the honey actually ATTRACTS moisture to your skin? (Science majors know this as a humectant.) The oatmeal is the exfoliator and soooooths and calms skin. We first started with a nice mild vanilla scent, but I mad...e a special batch of soap for our new little Baby Beau using lavender essential oil. Uh-oh. People are loving it. I think you started something Beau... Nice full sized bars are $4.00. Gift sets get you a little extra plus Christmas bags, bows, or boxes. You can let me know your budget and I can build your gift set, or just let me know how many bars you'd like. We're not far from town and can even deliver! Our video shows most products, but NOT the soaps. I'll try to post some photos tomorrow... Call me at 607-467-3104 for info or orders. (Yes! We ship!) See more

The time has come. We kept the Hale Eddy Honey House open as long as possible, but it is long past time to tuck it all away. The Honey House is now CLOSED. First order of business--thank all of our faithful customers. Covid-19 may have taken away all of our craft fairs and festival outlets, but luckily the Honey House was a busy place! Now the matter at hand is the holidays. The bees produced, we have bottled, and all is ready! We'll be delivering our Holiday Collect...ion to Kerry's Korner and Vickie's Unisex soon after Thanksgiving. As usual, it includes all sizes of honey, including creamed honey, soaps, dog treats and our birdseed ornaments. Our bows and wrappings make everything so festive! You can also contact us at home. So should you be searching for local, quality, unique gift ideas, consider River-Bee Homegrown Honey. 607-467-3104 We'll feature our products here starting in December. Stay safe everyone! See more

This is how we make the honey! Well, let me back that up a bit. WE don't literally make the honey, but once our beatiful bees make the honey, it's our turn. Gather the supers, extract the supers, and bottle all that sweeeeet honey. So, after an entire summer of gathering nectar and pollen, the bees have done their duty. We have stacked supers as the bees filled them. Each super has ten frames that the bees build comb on and fill with honey. But now, for all intents an...d purposes, honey making comes to an end. Cool weather keeps the bees less active and there is just a limited amount of flora out there. We take only the surplus honey that the bees won't need to survive the winter. Each of the boxes you see weighs up to 45 pounds. Ah yes, that explains the cart. Supers are stacked in the cellar, ready to extract. Stay tuned to see how it happens, and how much honey we get. In the meantime, we invite you to come on down to Hale Eddy. All sizes of honey are still at the Honey House daily. and we really appreciate our customers who are stopping by. You can also pick up honey at our loyal supporters, Vickie's & Kerry's Korner. We are also now at Mel-Jons farmstand on Route 41. I'll save that story for another time... See more

It's almost time! These sunny days are perfect for the bees to finish up their honey making. The frost has depleted the bamboo blossoms so all that remains is the goldenrod and some scattered asters. We plan to pull our supers the first week of October. In the meantime the bees "finish off" the honey. THEY know when the moisture content is just right, and cap it. We test every bucket that we extract and it never fails to test less than 18.1% moisture content--perfect! ...How do they do it? So, as long as the bears leave things be, we are on track to pull hundreds of pounds of honey. The problem in this year of Covid? How to get the honey to our customers? Most fairs, fests or craft shows have been canceled. The Honey House (literally a shelf on a picnic table) in Hale Eddy has been our only outlet and has been busy. Is it the truck drivers, the fishermen, or the local everyday passers-by buying it? I really don't know but appreciate whoever is out there buying honey week after week. With cooler temps, know that the honey will be somewhat slower moving--"like molasses in January" as we like to say. It is fine, but warm it up by putting it in hot water or in a warm spot. We change the honey out daily and we'll keep it going as long as possible. Should you need honey products, you can always give us a call (467-3104) as well. We never have a problem dropping off or delivering. So...if we are able to attend a craft fair, we'll let you know. In the meantime you know where we are, you know we have all of our popular products from soap to dog treats to jars and jars of golden goodness. Stay safe out there!

So, back to the lovebirds, showers and favors. Congratulations are in order to Louie & Bridget and Holly & Stephen. As I said before, two different couples, two different showers, two different locales. Take a look at these photos from Bridget's shower. Doesn't it look like a faerie party in the forest? For this shower, we had time beforehand and ordered jars. I filled the jars with both light and dark honey and Bridget's mom added labels, twine and a honey dipper. End result? Everyone went home with a sweet treat! Give us a call if there is a shower or wedding in your future or if you just need a refill on your anti-bacterial, anti-viral, all natural, raw honey! (River-Bee Homegrown Honey 607-467-3104)