HMSBeekeeper Blog

February update! Buy your hives and bees!

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:57:33 -0800

Quick purchasing links for pre-buying your equipment and bees for in-store pickup:
English Garden Hive Starter Kit: $200
Three Pounds of Bees & Mated Italian Queen: $85

Just this past weekend saw 4 pallets of beekeeping equipment come into our store. Now the air smells spicy with the smell of fresh cut cypress, and the copper roofs of the hives sparkle in the sunshine. Come in and take a look at our beautiful new 8-frame hives with all the accessories. We also have Kim Flottum's latest edition of "The Backyard Beekeeper" with a section on Urban Beekeeping which is fantastic. We'll also be taking orders for 3lb boxes of Italians with queen for $85 starting today at our online store. Our next two beginning beekeeping classes are on February 27th and 28th. You can still sign up for them here. If you missed the urban beekeeping webinar, you can still view it on video.

In addition to hives, we also have manipulation cloths for working your hive, stickers encouraging others to save the bees, caution signs for your bee yard, Liquid Bee Smoke, new hatless veils for men and women, DVDs for the garden hive and mead making, and a new Honeybee Disease book.

If beekeeping isn't your thing, there are two very special items at the store which I am very excited about. We have 8 beautiful handmade copper and bronze bells covered in bees and honeycomb patterns that were made by a friend of Yuki's (the store's awesome friend from Japan that made the honey-filled glass sculptures here in the store). These bells can be put on your keys or on your person, and are beautiful to behold.

We also have meadowfoam honey in buckets for mead or in 9oz jars for sipping. This delicious honey tastes like marshmallows and burnt sugar, and should definitely be experienced.

Local artist Meredith Scheff-King just designed pretty new gift cards for us! They are available at the store with a pretty envelope for $2 each!

So come stop by the store and check out all the new items! I look forward to seeing you soon.

-Cameo Wood
Proprietrix and Her Majesty's Secret Beekeeper

Thank you for a great 2009

Sun, 20 Dec 2009 15:02:01 -0800

We’ll be open this Monday and Tuesday from Noon-7pm (Dec 21st and 22nd) so that you last-minute gift buyers will have the opportunity to visit! We’ll be open from Noon-7pm on those days, so please come visit! We’ll be closed from December 23rd - 30th.

Last Minute Gift Ideas!
First I just wanted to mention a few cool things that we have in the store here for gifts:

We just got in an handsome handmade skin-care kit designed for us and made with our local honey and other locally sourced ingredients. Our kits come with:
• Honey Cream Cleanser
• Honey Rose & Lavender Balancer
• Honey Monoi Skin Drencher
• Anti-Oxidant Nourishing Oil

These kits smell amazing and are made by a local SF Mission based Esthetician, Monica Fine of Shalom Organics. These are highly recommended. Come in and try them!

For those that are crafty - we have two DIY kits for those of you that want to give something handmade this year:

DIY Rolled Beeswax Candle Kit - $35
Make up to 30 rolled candles! Includes 15 8 1/2” x 16 7/8” sheets of pure unadulterated beeswax sheets, 30 feet of cotton wicking, a 1 oz. bar of pure beeswax, and clear instructions on how to make a perfect rolled beeswax candle.

DIY Lip Balm Kit - $35
Makes at least 25 organic lip balms. Includes almond oil, shea butter, beeswax, vitamin E oil, tubes, labels, instructions, 4 essential oils, and clear instructions on how to make perfect lip balms!

We also have lotion gift packs, and beautiful locally-sourced gift boxes ranging in price from $10 to $150.

Our first six months have been pretty interesting and eye opening. I’ve learned that I need to have a LOT of beekeeping suits on hand for Halloween (we sold over 40!), that people love DIY kits for xmas, and that keeping everything in stock all the time is pretty darn hard! That said, it’s been a great six months, and I’ve really enjoyed meeting everyone and helping people get into beekeeping!

Our classes have also been pretty great and unexpectedly popular. The beekeeping classes have been the most popular, followed by the Mead Classes. We had a couple unfortunate class cancellations, but overall, our events have been awesome and flawless.

In the next month or so, we’ll be taking pre-orders for beehives, bee packages, nucleus hives, and announcing our first beekeeping classes of the year.

In closing, I’d just like to thank everyone for a great 2009, and I look forward to seeing your bee-loving faces in 2010!

Better than Hoped for

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 15:22:47 -0700

Firstly I want to thank everyone for making our first month absolutely spectacular. I know there have been some bumps on the road, and I’ve sold out of some things much faster than I would have imagined. It’ll get better, I promise. In the meantime, some exciting things have happened.

We’ve launched our classes to great acclaim. So far we’ve had the soap making class with Jeremy Bornstein which all in attendance said was spectacular. Boiling lye, honey soap messes, and lots of excitement, I know a lot of people will be taking this class again when we offer it next.

We also had Carrie Redfern’s Balm & Salve class where everyone got to make their own lip balm to take home, and we even have these great “Lip Balm DIY” kits that Carrie made so that you can create 25 tubes of lip balm on your own. It’s pretty awesome as well as all natural and organic.

Karen Peteros also taught 3 introductory beekeeping classes, as well as one advanced biology class. The next intro class is next Saturday the 22nd at 9:00am. You don’t want to miss that!

You may have seen us in the press lately. This has been awesome. Lots of people come in because they read about the store in Daily Candy or on ABC’s evening news. Many times I’ve been asked “Why don’t you have your prices and inventory online? The answer is this:

All my candles are handmade by SF beekeepers and they deliver them in small batches of 10-20 depending on the amount of wax that their backyard hives have produced. As a result, I always have a small stock of candles in, but the prices, colours, shapes, and sizes change almost day to day. Candles range in price from $1.00 to $23.99. I charge about $1 per ounce of beeswax in the candle.

Finally, I want to hear from you!

What do you like or dislike about the store? What do you think we should carry that we don’t?? What sort of events would you like to see in the future?

I look forward to serving you in the future, and I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Presenting our Signature Dahlia Candle

Tue, 7 Jul 2009 08:17:51 -0700

We love San Francisco; It’s an amazing city to live in. While researching flowers to use in our mural, we realized that the city flower is the Dahlia. As a result, may we present our signature Dahlia candle, made of natural food dyes and pure organic natural beeswax. This is a great handcrafted candle that would make a perfect gift to someone you love. It’s also a great celebration to this city that we all love, San Francisco.

This is only available at Her Majesty’s Secret Beekeeper. Come enjoy San Francisco, the Dahlia, and the beautiful smell of beeswax.

The Store Opens Today

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:19:17 -0700

The store finally opens today, and this story is now complete. We stayed up all night labeling things and I was finalizing some pricing. Not all my beekeeping supplies are here yet, but they will be soon. But, it’s open, and I can sell things. So that’s pretty exciting. My mural is as beautiful as I’d hoped it would be. My door looks gorgeous. People walking by keep saying how amazing the store looks. All this makes me very happy. I’ve been in a few newspaper articles and blogs, but I really need to be in more. If you have and ideas or advice, I’d love to hear it!

This week we’re open every day from 12-7pm, but closed on Saturday, July 4th. We’re open on Sunday.

The store address is 3520 20th Street, at Mission

Our normal business hours are 12-7, every day for now.

Thanks for your support! See you at the store!