Big week here at Serendipi-bee.ca, folks. As many of you know already, we completed our first extraction of the year and our little buzzies blessed us with a generous bounty. To celebrate their hard work, we are making Serendipibee honey available to people in the Ottawa area.
Lauchie with honey from our first extraction of 2018. The pail of honey is his reward for all the bee kisses this season.
Before we go any further, I want us all to take a second to fully appreciate the fact that one little honeybee makes just 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey during its entire life. Then look at a single jar of honey and let your mind wonder at this incredible feat. It took the collective energy of thousands of little bees to bring us just one teaspoon, one tablespoon, one cup, one jar. It really is amazing.
A 750g jar of Serendipibee honey!
Since our first extraction of 2018, our dining room here in Kanata has been converted into “Serendipibee World Headquarters”. The honey jars were filled. The labels were applied. We set-up a cute little honey stand by the door to serve customers who come to the house. Then we put up a sign in the front yard to let the world know. The sign blew down about 5 minutes later. So we put it back up. Then it blew down again. And again. And again. So Lauchie rigged up a new solution and let me tell you—that friggin’ sign will never so much as sway in the breeze. So, ya, things have been a little crazy around here.
“Serendipibee World Headquaters” (Hint: it’s our dining room)
Our yard sign! Just knock on the door, y’all!
The honey stand in our front entrance. We are ready for visitors!
What’s in a name?
We often get the question: Why the name “Serendipibee” (pronounced: Sar-an-dip-a-bee)? Admittedly, the word doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. It takes some practice. We considered changing it to something a bit easier, more palatable. But, at the end of the day, we felt that Serendipibee perfectly described our relationship to beekeeping.
The word is a play on “Serendipity”. The word serendipity (noun)—meaning “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way”— was combined with the word “bee”. It seemed fitting.
Earning our name
In all honesty, Lauchie and I didn’t really know what we were getting into when we began keeping bees. We started almost on a whim. It was the middle of winter and I was looking online, trying to get inspiration for the garden I hoped to plant in the spring. The goal was to plant as many pollinator-friendly plants as I could. And the more I researched pollinator-friendly gardens, the more I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great to put hive on our property? …wouldn’t that be GREAT?!?! (**wiggles my eyebrows**).
At which point, I texted Lauchie and told him all about my friggin’ great idea. It took him awhile to text back. Lauchie—ever the pragmatist—had questions.
But the more we talked about the idea, the more it seemed possible. Obviously we couldn’t put a hive on our property. We live in a suburb. Our neighbors would probably kill us. We needed to find another solution. So we researched and we reached out to people. We made connections with others who helped us make this little dream a reality. It felt like the universe was giving us the thumbs up. Things kept falling into place. This was in 2017.
And as we learned more, and spent more time in the bee yard, our passion for our colonies grew. That passion progressed into a full blown obsession. We developed a deep love and admiration for our colonies. We love everything about working in a bee yard—the good and the bad, bee kisses and all. We love the incredible community of beekeepers here in Ottawa who always seem willing to help each other out.
And so, coming back to the original point, what better way to describe our journey over the last 1.5 years than to say it has been a most happy and fortunate turn of events?
Serendipibee. It just fit.
Do no harm
When we started beekeeping, we made a pact to do no harm. Any decision we made had to be in the best interest of the colony. With that in mind, when it comes to extracting honey, we take only the excess. We thoroughly check our colonies’ food stores before deciding to extract. If our ladies do not have enough to feed themselves, we do not take honey from their hive. Their health is our number one priority. Period.
By the same token, selling the excess honey is a way to continue to support our colonies. It pays for necessary supplies like wooden ware, frames, treatments and winterizing gear. By buying Serendipibee products, you are supporting a local honey bee colony.
Available products
So, to round this one out, if you are looking for Serendipibee products, please see our Available products page.
For now, we are keeping things small and local. We are not a big company. We are just a husband and wife team, living here in Ottawa with our two cats and about 80,000 honey bees. So, ring our doorbell or email us at serendipibee@gmail.com.
We hope to meet some of you soon.