Honeybee Hive Shares: Adopt a Bee Hive
Bee Supportive and Get a Sweet Deal!
Do you love bees but don’t have the room or time for your own hive yet? Squeamish about handling bees but still want to support the planet’s most important pollinator? Looking for an eco-friendly birthday or holiday gift?
Our Honeybee Hive Share program allows you to adopt a honeybee hive for a year and experience the fascinating world of beekeeping without any risk of getting stung! At Purple Valley Farm, we are raising funds to continue to nurture our healthy bees, to purchase materials to build new hives, and to manage our growing apiary. Every year, we must build hives, purchase bees, and buy additional equipment to work the bees. Proceeds from the Honeybee Hive Share program directly support our endeavors. Our Honeybee Hive Share program is a way for you to support the increasingly fragile honeybee population and enjoy some sweet rewards fresh from our farm and apiary!
What a Purple Valley Farm Honeybee Hive Share Includes:
Honey – Shipped once a year, after the summer harvest
Hive Share Certificate – Personalized certificate of adoption
Your name listed on the Adopt-a-Hive page on our website
Seasonal updates (spring, summer, and fall) on what’s happening in the hive (hive growth, honey production, treatments, what the queen is up to, and more) and welcome letter
An opportunity to visit your hive – Come out to see the hive on special shareholder dates
Exclusive early access to purchase additional honey harvested that year
Two jars of our 100% raw, unheated, unfiltered, organic honey
Four jars of our 100% raw, unheated, unfiltered, organic honey
One Purple Valley Farm Organic Lip Balm made with beeswax and honey from our hives
Eight jars of our 100% raw, unheated, unfiltered, organic honey
Two Purple Valley Farm Organic Lip Balms made with beeswax and honey from our hives
Half a pound of our honey and apple cider sea salt caramels
Sixteen jars of our 100% raw, unheated, unfiltered, organic honey
Four Purple Valley Farm Organic Lip Balms made with beeswax and honey from our hives
One pound of our honey and apple cider sea salt caramels
Name the Queen bee of your new hive
Help us grow our apiary by funding a new colony of bees. Your donation will cover the equipment needed to build one full hive (hive stand, bottom board, multiple hive boxes, 30 frames, inner cover, and outer cover) that will serve generations of bees. We will purchase a colony of local, organically managed bees and provide the labor to establish the hive. In their first year, bees typically only produce enough honey to make it through the winter and there is not much to harvest. Beekeepers must wait until the colony’s second year to harvest more than a small amount of honey.
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Five jars of raw, unheated, unfiltered, organic honey
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Five Purple Valley Farm Organic Lip Balms made with beeswax and honey from our hives
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One pound of our honey and apple cider sea salt caramels
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Name the Queen bee of your new hive
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Name the new hive
If you would like to make a donation to Purple valley Farm to directly support our honeybee colonies, we would bee ever so grateful. In return for your donation, you will receive:
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Your name listed on the Friends of the Farm page on our website
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are honey bees so important to our ecosystem?
Bees are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat. They are perhaps the most important living creature in our ecosystem. Crops such as fruits (apples, oranges, berries), vegetables (tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants), nuts, seeds, fiber (cotton), and hay (alfalfa for livestock feed) require pollination. Some crops, including blueberries and cherries, are 90-percent dependent on honey bee pollination. Almonds depend entirely on the honey bee for pollination at bloom time.
When is honey from my hive share sent?
The main harvest is typically done in July, though this is variable depending on weather and what is in bloom. We will send honey to shareholders after the summer harvest, no later than September.
Is there a limit to how many shares I can own?
No, as long as there are shares available, you will be able to purchase them.
Do you sell more shares than hives available?
No, we only sell shares to existing hives.
Can I gift the shares to a friend or relative?
Yes, you can purchase a hive share and gift it to someone else. Please let us know the lucky recipient at the time of purchase and we will make arrangements. For a given hive share, we will ship the honey to a single address anywhere in the lower 48 states (export regulations do not allow us to ship honey outside of the country).
Can I visit my hive?
Of course you can! We have open house dates for our shareholders and you are welcome to reserve a place for a visit those days. We will notify shareholders of the dates and times by email.
Can I adopt a hive if I live outside of the United States?
Yes, we will be happy to sell you shares on our hives if you live abroad! We cannot ship the honey outside the United States, however. If you have a family member or friend in the U.S., we will gladly ship your honey to them.
Who owns and manages the hives?
Colony success and viability is highly variable. We will manage the hives according to best beekeeping practices including but not limited to: requeening, splitting, relocating, treatments (no pesticides or antibiotics ever), and honey harvesting. Hive equipment and colonies remain the property of Purple Valley Farm LLC.
Why is it important that I help?
Bees are facing serious challenges right now, and colonies are dying at alarmingly high rates. In our local area, beekeepers recently reported losing over 60% of their hives between seasons. While some loss is expected (bears, temperature fluctuations), the high loss of colonies is a large financial strain on beekeepers. Replacing one colony of bees can cost between $150–300, depending on the condition of the equipment (some diseases require equipment to be burned) and the timing of the loss. The loss of value, in honey, equipment, and in pollination, can easily climb into the thousands per hive. Many people don’t know what to do to help bees, and the Adopt-a-Hive program is a perfect solution.
How much does it cost to start a new colony of bees?
Starting a single hive costs about $500 in equipment and bees and that does not include our beekeeping gear or labor:
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Hive components (wooden boxes, inner and outer covers, bottom board, wooden frames, hive stand, queen excluder beeswax) ($300)
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Bees ($180)
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Hive assembly (nails, glue, paint, wire, tools) ($20)
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Labor (FREE)
If I make an online purchase, will my private information be secure?
Yes, your private information remains secure. We respect your privacy and will not sell your private information to other parties for any reason. Your payment information is processed through Paypal. We don’t collect, keep, or even see your credit card number. If you purchase a hive share, we will acknowledge you on our website only with your consent.
Still have questions?
Feel free to email us at Purple Valley Farm for more information or custom requests.