Smoky Mountain Apiary

Last minute Digital Gift Certificates Available @smokymountainapiary A super easy, sweet gift that can be sent online! #giftcertificates #honeyisasweetgift #localbusiness #goldengift

Honey Restock! Head down to the Mychosin Cafe @mychosensugarshack to check out these cute little Honey Sampler stocking stuffers. There are only a few so start the car!! And all 500gr & 1kg jars of honey are back on the shelf!

Nobody wants to have a Honey-less Christmas! Come find @smokymountainapiary at the Westshore Mall today until 5pm! Or message me for last minute orders for this week!!

Please pop by @smokymountainapiary Christmas market booth this weekend to get your last minute honey stocking stuffers & gifts! Saturday & Sunday December 19&20, from 10am-6pm. #christmasmarket #honeyfortheholidays #sweettooth #beeswaxwraps #cranberryjamandhoney #potterymdewithlove #suportlocalbusiness #beethechangetouwishtoseeintheworld

Guess who is retailing their honey at My Chosen Cafe! This lady! Head to the Sugar Shack and check out @smokymountainapiary products! #kindofabigdeal #inasmalltown #stickyfingersgaranteed

I think I need this!! What do you think?

This Friday I will be launching my ‘Sweet Holidays Gift Sets’. These are unique gift ideas that I think anyone would love. Shopping locally this year is more important than ever and at #smokymountainapiary you’re getting hand-crafted, quality products but best of all, you’re helping our local bee population so that come Spring, our backyards will be a buzz! #sweetgiftideas #givethegiftofhoney #orkeepitforyourself #nojudgement #holidayseason #beethechange

Take Home Beeswax Wrap Kits are such a fun, hands-on activity for you to give as a gift this holiday. Spend time together making memories and doing something new. AND the best part about these kits is that 100% of the profits go directly back to supporting our local bee population here on the Island. #beeswaxwrapkits #easyandfun #ecofriendlyproducts #givingbacktothebees #savethebees #beeconscious @smokymountainapiary

Guess what we have @smokymountainapiary! Raw cut honey comb for all of your holiday charcuterie board needs! #cuthoneycomb #honeyhoney #justintimeforchristmas

There was a time when almost every rural British family who kept bees followed a strange tradition. Whenever there was a death in the family, someone had to go... out to the hives and tell the bees of the terrible loss that had befallen the family. Failing to do so often resulted in further losses such as the bees leaving the hive, or not producing enough honey or even dying. Traditionally, the bees were kept abreast of not only deaths but all important family matters including births, marriages, and long absence due to journeys. If the bees were not told, all sorts of calamities were thought to happen. This peculiar custom is known as telling the bees. The practice of telling the bees may have its origins in Celtic mythology that held that bees were the link between our world and the spirit world. So if you had any message that you wished to pass to someone who was dead, all you had to do was tell the bees and they would pass along the message. The typical way to tell the bees was for the head of the household, or goodwife of the house to go out to the hives, knock gently to get the attention of the bees, and then softly murmur in a doleful tune the solemn news. Little rhymes developed over the centuries specific to a particular region. In Nottinghamshire, the wife of the dead was heard singing quietly in front of the hive, The master's dead, but don't you go; Your mistress will be a good mistress to you. In Germany, a similar couplet was heard, Little bee, our lord is dead; Leave me not in my distress. But the relationship between bees and humans goes beyond superstition. It’s a fact, that bees help humans survive. 70 of the top 100 crop species that feed 90% of the human population rely on bees for pollination. Without them, these plants would cease to exist and with it all animals that eat those plants. This can have a cascading effect that would ripple catastrophically up the food chain. Losing a beehive is much worse than losing a supply of honey. The consequences are life threatening. The act of telling the bees emphasizes this deep connection humans share with the insect. Art: The Bee Friend, a painting by Hans Thoma (18391924)