Have you ever wondered what it’s like to have bees on your property? Not just a few foragers flying around, but an entire colony. Paige Mulhern, Creative Director of The Best Bees Company, talks with Bob Greene, a residential client, about what it’s like to have scientifically-managed beehives on your property.
For Bob, the answer is simple: Education about bees followed by a bountiful harvest. Bob also gives us a glimpse into the life of our Founder, Noah Wilson-Rich’s childhood love of journalism and column writing. Here at Best Bees, we’re grateful for clients and friends like Bob, who are able to take the time out of their day to talk to us about bees.
When it comes to marketing, bee facts, or naming your Queen bee, Bob’s hive-side chat with Paige highlights that one of the tangible impacts of hosting a beehive is the harvested honey. That said, due to their foraging abilities and pollination, the impacts are so much more.
In this short interview, you’ll learn more about the importance of understanding what it means to preserve bee colonies. For more information on the experience of having bees in your backyard, what it’s like to have the Best Bees services , and becoming a part of the citizen approach to saving the bees, continue reading below.
Where are you located?
Provincetown, Massachusetts.
What first got you interested in bees?
It’s an intersection of a couple of things – I garden a lot and I’ve known Noah for a while who has shared a lot about the bees and bee business which has been fun.
Is this your first year as a residential client?
Yes, this is my first year.
Great. This is a good season to start off. The weather is really wonderful and the bees are really active. That sort of answers my second question which was how did you find out about Best Bees. Was it just by being friendly with Noah?
Yes, and I have to say I see your vans everywhere all over the South End so there’s a little of that too.
We call those moving billboards- helpful marketing tool. Just a side question, where in the South End do you live?
I live nearby Blackstone Park.
Beautiful neighborhood. I love it. And your bees are in P-Town, correct?
They are. Correct.
Our P-Town bees have been doing really well. I’ll be interested to see how their health goes throughout the summer.
I’m pretty excited to see how it’s going to go. The process of harvesting, bottling the honey, etc. will all be fun to see.
I’ll definitely be asking you about your honey. My next question is what is your favorite part about having bees at your home?
I think it’s just the notion having all those bees and how they interact with my garden.
I didn’t realize until Noah had told me that the travel range of bees is 3-5 miles. I think it’s just a fun thing to be able to do and to be able to have the fruits of all that bee labor all nicely bottled with my own label. I’m excited for a harvest!
That’s a good segue into this next point, especially talking about how bees pollinate such a wide range of space. By having our services, you’re taking part in this citizen science approach to save the bees. How would you want to share this message with your community or neighbors? Or how would you even spread wealth about the excitement of your bees?
Being able to share the honey harvest from my bees will be a big part of the share. But just being able to play a small part in bee conversation is a great benefit as well.
Then how are you going to enjoy your next harvest or what’s your honey vision for this year?
I don’t know. I’ve been talking to Noah about the best honey drinks. Maybe Best Bees can start to send some of those recipes so I can get the most out of of your honey.
I’ll say the best drinks depend on the season. When it comes to a nice summer and spring drink, you can make some really fun cocktails with honey. I like to marinate my vegetables in honey.
Oh, fun!
I didn’t know you could do that.
The seasonality is really fun. We also can put your harvest in smaller jars if you wanted to share more with your community. The next question: What would you say to someone on the fence about getting bees?
I don’t know yet, because I’m so new to this. I haven’t had a harvest yet, so it’s just a new experience but I’m excited for the adventure.
Also, I’m a small business owner as well, so to be able to support what Best Bees does is amazing – there’s no playbook for a bee keeping business and you have some really great people that are making this all work. It’s fun to watch and hear about. You all do a great job.
Thank you, Bob. That’s so kind. I’ve been with Noah and the company for 7 years so I’ve been able to really experience that. The way we’ve taken something out of nothing is pretty wild. Side note, what do you do?
I am a marketing consulting with technology companies. So you and I do similar things I think just different sides of the business world. I’m B2B, you’re more B2C, which is a whole different animal.
I’d be nowhere without our marketing consultant so Kudos to you. I have one last fun question before opening it up to things we haven’t gotten to. This is sort of a silly one, but some of our clients like to name their Queens, do you think that’s something you see yourself doing.
I already have. I already have named it.
[Laughter]. What’s the name?
Tootles.
[Laughter again]. Okay, say more.
Well, I have good friend who will remain nameless, but he may be a bee guru at Best Bees. When he was in elementary school, he used to pen an opinion column in the school newsletter. I don’t think it was ever about bees but he always signed his column ‘Tootles, Noah’ – oops I may have let the bee out of the hive.
So cute.
So break it to Noah gentle that his infamous signoff is now my queen bee.
Anything else you want to share about your bees’ experience that we maybe didn’t cover?
The only thing I would say is that it was a really good experience with the installation. I think was Sam that came and set-up the hive. He did a really nice job explaining everything, he helped me picking a location and just did a great job getting me and the bees situated.
I’ll be sure to let him know. That goes into just one other question. Is education an important part of this experience? Would you like to learn how to beekeep or how to inspect a hive?
I’m interested in understanding beekeeping, but I think I’ll leave that work to experts. I do love learning all the great factoids about the bees and beekeeping – and you all have shared a lot of that information just by simply interfacing with Sam, Noah and others. Great stuff.
Cool. It was such a pleasure speaking with you.
Tootles!
