About The Apiarian Home

In the hive, every bee has a purpose that serves the whole, adapting to what the colony needs. My mission is to serve something larger than myself, by reconnecting people to the natural world and the pollinators that sustain it. The goal is to help you create rituals of presence in your surroundings, guided by what the bees have always known: balance happens when we work in harmony with nature.

Honeybees see in ultraviolet light, perceiving patterns and pathways invisible to us, yet guiding them exactly where they need to go. My vision is for us to see what's always been there, but is often overlooked. To support a world where we remember we're part of nature, not separate from it, where bees are thriving because of how we live.

As the queen moves through the hive, a small group of young worker bees form a retinue around her. This circle of attendants stays with her constantly, taking care of her needs so that she focus entirely on laying eggs.

Every product I offer begins with deep respect for the honeybee and their labor. I treat their gifts as sacred, and create products to encourage that same slow, beautiful attentiveness in your own daily life.

When worker bees gather propolis, they seek out specific tree resins from poplars, birches, conifers, etc. that have the antimicrobial properties that the hive needs. A single bee can spend hours visiting the same bud, scraping off tiny amounts of resin with her mandibles and packing it into her pollen baskets. She is as deliberate and selective as she can be, given her environment.

There is something so beautiful about slow, intentional creation. Everything is made by hand, with integrity.

As bees forage for food, they brush against the reproductive parts of flowers, cross-pollinating them. They cannot help but leave every environment better, more fertile, and more beautiful than how they found it.

Business should be regenerative. A portion of every purchase you make directly supports bee conservation and habitat protection, allowing our collective impact to ripple outward beyond just our homes.

When a forager bee discovers a rich patch of flowers, she returns to the hive and performs a waggle dance on the vertical comb. She moves in a figure-eight pattern, vigorously shaking her abdomen during the straight run. The angle of her dance relative to the sun's position tells her sisters the direction. The duration of the waggle tells them the distance. She is teaching them exactly where to go, using a language refined over millions of years.

Learning never stops when it comes to bees, and knowledge is better when it's shared! I appreciate the breadth of resources that are available as I continue on my journey, so that I may pass along what I learn to others as well. Understanding the hive makes us better stewards of the natural world.

When a forager returns to the hive with a heavy load of nectar but cannot find a receiver bee to take it from her, she begins to tremble dance. She walks slowly across the comb, rotating her body and vigorously shaking her legs and abdomen. It is a signal that the hive is overwhelmed, and message is dual. To the younger bees, it signals them stop what they are doing and help process the nectar. To the foragers, it tells them to pause gathering, as the colony needs time to catch up. They work together to create the right balance of resources in the hive.

Every day I am inspired by other makers, beekeepers, apitherapists, and pollinator organizations. Partnering with them makes my work so much more impactful (and fun). Community is everything!

On occasion, worker bees perform what researchers call the DVAV dance, or dorso-ventral abdominal vibration. A bee will place her front legs on top of another bee or on a queen cell, then rapidly pulse her abdomen up and down, transmitting the vibration, This dance can happen during major transitions or moments of preparation in the life of the colony. It is a call to action, signaling the bees to pay attention because something important is happening!

There is so much challenging news in the world, but let's remember that there are also moments worth celebrating! Even in the small moments, the Apiarian Home is here to support all the good things happening in your world.