HELLO FROM CHICAGO HONEY CO-OP

In the winter of 2004, three urban beekeepers conceived and created Chicago Honey Co-op.

While our original mission was as a job training program, our focus has evolved over time into a long term relationship within the community with emphasis on education, healthy eating and awareness of the natural environment.

In addition to our work in the community, we teach beekeeping classes and host a community farm where neighbors can grow their own food. You can see an overhead shot of our location on our blog At the Bee Farm

With education becoming more and more a part of our work, we made the decision last year to start a 501c3 partner organization called Chicago Honey Co-op Training Center. We are in the process of completing our application and hope to have it in operation sometime later in 2011. 

 

 OUR APIARY

Our apiary, or bee farm as we like to call it, is located on the west side of Chicago in the North Lawndale neighborhood.  We have been tending the bees and making natural honey from chemical free beehives at this spot since 2004.

Sadly we must leave our longtime home and find another place to keep our hives by February of 2012. Read more about our search and how you can help in this blog post

 

RAISING QUEEN BEES

Every beekeeper loses a portion of their hives each year and must replace those bees with ones purchased from Southern or Western beekeepers who have a longer beekeeping season. We don't believe it is a sustainable way to continue beekeeping. We want to reduce our dependence on this supply by raising our own honey bee queens. Doing this will enable us to reduce the yearly expense of buying package bees and allow us to derive extra income from sales of queens and nucleus hives to other local beekeepers.

Raising queens is a delicate and time consuming task. We estimate that it will take 3 years to make the project work. The start up costs and labor are considerable so we are trying to raise $10,000 to get the program up and running.

A generous donation by the Casten Foundation gave us a jump start last year and we were able to begin teaching ourselves how to raise queens.

If everyone who reads this page just gave $5 we would be well on our way to making our goal a reality.

 

FARMERS MARKETS

We believe in and practice local, sustainable agriculture and are proud to say that in 2010 our honey became Certified Naturally Grown which is a grass roots alternative to organic certification.

During the Summer and Fall we love to meet our customers in person at our two farmers markets in Chicago. You can find us at Chicago's Green City Market and Logan Square Farmers Market . 

You can see our Market Schedule and Events on our calendar page

OUR PRODUCTS

In addition to our honey, we make several types of pure beeswax candles and three personal care products. A solid moisturizing bar,  lip balm and a fragrant honey sugar scrub .

 If you would like our honey or other products as corporate gifts or for a special event, we would be happy to work with you. Please email us with your request. We also happily accept wholesale inquiries.