Todays featured Etsy shop is Williams Honey Farm! They are active beekeepers who practice and promote safe, sustainable, chemical free beekeeping. This results in clean, safe, and chemical free products such as honey, comb honey, creamed honey, lip balms and soaps. Keep reading to learn more, and be sure to enter the giveaway sponsored by Williams Honey Farm to win a free months supply of all natural raw honey straws!
We are a small beekeeping operation based just south of Nashville, TN. We love our bees and consider them part of the family. Because of this, we have committed to not using any chemicals, antibiotics, acids, or any other harsh treatments when raising our bees. The honey is as pure and natural just as if you stuck a spoon inside the hive and pulled out a scoop. This care and attention is quite rare in today's beekeeping business and we're actively trying to change that one person at a time.
What makes our honey different from other shops is not only how we treat our bees but also where we place our hives. There is a lot of strategy involved to try and get the best tasting honey possible. Over the years we have learned a few secret spots that yield the best floral variety. This year for example, we had a great nectar flow from the Basswood tree. It's a tricky flower that only blooms for 2 short weeks out of the year. What it does for the honey is yield subtle berry taste up front and an extra sweet buttery after taste. The best way to experience this is by pairing the honey with certain meats or cheeses just like you would your favorite wine. This year's honey has such character, you just have to taste it to really know what we mean.
We sell lots of different products of the hive including wildflower honey, creamed honey, honeycomb honey, lip balms, honey straws, gift boxes and wedding favors. Our honey is available in many stores around Nashville and of course online anytime.
Beekeeping is such a fascinating art. I always joke that the bees keep us instead of us keeping them! It's so much fun because bees are wild animals and you can only try and suggest that they do certain things like make honey or forage off of your flowers. In the end, the bees will do what they want! Another reason to become a beekeeper is that the art has not changed in over 150 years. Today we try and keep bees just as our ancestors would have.
Our honey farm got started after my wife read an article in the newspaper about the dangerous decline of the honey bee. The more I researched, the more I wanted to help. We started out with 2 hives and now have somewhere around 45 (depending on the time of year).
We were attracted to selling on Etsy because of the community. People really tend to resonate with our message to treat honeybees with love and respect. We've made a lot of good friends and built some great partnerships online. Our customer appreciates a high quality product and seems to recognize the attention to detail. We like that.
We have a really cool project that we do in our spare time. We rescue beehives in danger! We are connected all over the city to exterminators, fire departments, and bee clubs. When a hive is found that is in immediate danger from the exterminator or is a public hazard, we will rush over and rescue the hive. We'll cut it out and relocate it to a quiet farm away from the city where it can safely live out the rest if its days. We will then collect the left behind beeswax to be melted, strained and cleaned. We turn this wild beeswax into lip balm that we affectionately call "Lip Rescue". The bees get to live another day and you get to enjoy the purest lip balm. It's a win win situation for all parties involved!
One final cool thing that we recently started offering is called a "honey subscription". We are constantly approached by people looking for honey to combat their allergies. They need to take a teaspoon a day but inevitably life gets in the way and they run out of honey and miss their daily dose. As a result, we recently began packaging our honey in teaspoon size straws and offering a subscription service where at the beginning of every month we automatically deliver your "monthly dose" in the form of 30 honey straws. People never have to worry about missing their dose and can easily take the straws to work, the gym, or even on the plane.
To sign up for this visit: http://www.williamshoneyfarm.com/Pages/HoneySubscription.html
Enter to win a months supply of all natural raw honey straws!
