I wrote a letter to Nick Offerman the other day. (Click here to read the letter.) The reason for this sudden outpouring of creativity and fanboy-dom isn’t entirely not because I feel like we could be “besties”. Quickly, let’s just state facts:

• Nick and I are bo...

“There” I said, “That’s about all we can do.” I corralled the last remaining honeybee onto the sheet of paper from the rooftop in which we stood, and gently shook it over the hive. A client of mine and I had just spent the last 15 minutes combining two nucs into one hi...

It seems as though winter is finally establishing itself throughout the Chicago area. Last Saturday I was on my way to the Cook-Dupage Beekeepers monthly meeting, and had struggled my way almost to Harlem on 290. Then I received a call from my business partner Thad Smi...

I’m just going to address this issue for posterity sake, so many years from now, when the national media does its exposé on Westside Bee Boyz LLC and our rise to the dominant beekeeping company in America, we founders of the company (Thad, John, and myself) will be abl...

I often think that I was born during the wrong time period. I would be comfortable behind an ox and plow, would love to have only a home phone, and dream of a day where emails don’t exist. But the reality is just that, and one cannot pick and choose the hand they are d...

As this year’s bee season draws to a close, it’s only natural to take a step back and reflect upon some of the highs and lows of the past few months.

It has been a fast 7 months here with the Westside Bee Boyz. What started as a side comment from my business partner and...

Imagine a Venn Diagram with one circle containing the word “Farmer”, the other “Crazy”. The overlapping middle section would be “Beekeeper”. I feel that this is a fairly accurate representation of my occupation. It also makes me realize that, yes, indeed I am a farmer,...

So this past Thursday at the weekly South Loop Farmers Market, we did things a little differently than usual. We brought along our team of beekeepers and put up a demo hive as well as brought on a new team member, Edwin Serrano. We also premiered our Bella Beez Sp...

Have you ever wondered how that jar of delectably sweet honey got to your home from a comb? Before getting into the mechanics of honey extraction, let’s go a bit further back.

Little miss honey bee has just earned her wings, rather she has mastered the art of foraging....

As a beekeeper, I am asked many of the same questions regularly, “So are you suffering from Colony Collapse?” “What’s happening to the bees?” “Are they going to make it?” I would say that these are up there with the fan favorite, “How many times do you get stung?”...