Welcome to Good Honey! That’s right, we have a name!  

We are a social enterprise with a three-pronged focus. Good Honey desires to...

  1. Provide good work.
  2. Employ and engage good people.
  3. Partner with God’s good earth to produce honey and other bee products. 

The month of May has been incredibly busy for this honeybee social enterprise!

May 8 -  We picked up this year’s honeybees from a farm in Hastings, Michigan. They were transported to our starter location on the North East side of Grand Rapids. Our resident beekeeper, Don Rewa, and some helpers - Heidi, Hannaniah and Ezra Mangione installed 10 nucleus colonies (nucs)- 5 frames of bees and one queen per nuc. We were even able to identify a couple of the queens in the process. (Check out the brief video to hear our excitement!)

May 15th - Don came to check on the bee’s progress and try to identify the brood pattern which can help determine the general health of the hive. He found the bees hearty and plentiful. We are so excited to report that the bees are productively developing their brood and have outgrown their homes. To allow for growing room, medium supers (a hive body with frames for the bees to build their comb shaped home) were added to a number of the existing hives but all 10 need the extra space! We are so thankful for this strong beginning, it is exhilarating! 

Upcoming -  This is good growth!  We needed to place an urgent order for more hive boxes so they have enough space to grow. If they outgrow the space provided, the queen and some of her faithful crew may swarm to find a new place to build their colony. We want to prevent swarming so this weekend we will add to the boxes, giving more space for the colonies to develop. 

As our team works to keep things moving forward, we meet every other week for 30 minutes. We are all learning together and continue to pray for wisdom, understanding, and creativity. If you have questions, reach out to Pastor Winfred at winfred@tabernaclecommunity. Interested in a visit to the apiary, contact Heidi at heidimangione@gmail.com. 

Originally published June 1, 2021.