{"id":39489,"date":"2019-01-03T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T15:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=39489"},"modified":"2019-11-27T10:47:01","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T15:47:01","slug":"hear-honeybees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/hear-honeybees\/","title":{"rendered":"Ep. 32: Let&#8217;s Hear It For Honeybees"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"player_container player-39489\" ><div class=\"spp_player_textabove\"><b>Listen to the Episode  <\/b><\/div><div id=\"sm2-39489\" class=\"sm2-39489 playercontent sm2-bar-ui compact flat full-width full-width-player\"><div class=\"bd sm2-main-controls\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-inline-element sm2-button-element\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"sm2-button-bd\" style=\"background: transparent url(https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/app\/uploads\/2021\/05\/podcast_channel_artwork.jpg) repeat scroll 0% 0% \/ cover ;\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div 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class=\"sm2-playlist-wrapper\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<ul class=\"sm2-playlist-bd\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/thestoryexchange\/Kristy_Allen_Podcast_Final.mp3\">Ep. 32: Let&#8217;s Hear It For Honeybees<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div><div class=\"sppbuttons\" style=\"\"><a class=\"button-itunes\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-story-exchange\/id1036000689?ls=1\">Apple Podcasts<\/a><a class=\"button-g-play\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVzdG9yeWV4Y2hhbmdlLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz\">Google Podcasts<\/a><a class=\"button-embed\" rel=\"modal:open\"  id=\"button-embed\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"#ex1\">Player Embed<\/a><a class=\"button-share\" data-target=\"btnshare\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"#\">Share<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t<div id=\"btnshare\" class=\"webui-popover-content share-buttons\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/hear-honeybees\/\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"facebook\"><i class=\"fa fa-facebook\"><\/i><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?text=Ep.+32%3A+Let%E2%80%99s+Hear+It+For+Honeybees -&url=https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/hear-honeybees\/\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"twitter\"><i class=\"fa fa-twitter\"><\/i><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><a class=\"button-sppreview\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"http:\/\/getpodcast.reviews\/id\/1036000689\">Leave a Review<\/a><a class=\"button-spplisten\" style=\"display:none !important;\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"javascript:window.open('http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/thestoryexchange\/Kristy_Allen_Podcast_Final.mp3','','width=500,height=250')\">Listen in a New Window<\/a><a class=\"button-download\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/thestoryexchange\/Kristy_Allen_Podcast_Final.mp3\">Download<\/a><a class=\"button-soundcloud\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"\">SoundCloud<\/a><a class=\"button-stitcher\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.stitcher.com\/s?fid=72717&refid=stpr\">Stitcher<\/a><a class=\"button-sppandroid\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"http:\/\/subscribeonandroid.com\/thestoryexchange.libsyn.com\/rss\">Subscribe on Android<\/a><a class=\"button-spprss\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.libsyn.com\/rss\">Subscribe via RSS<\/a><a class=\"button-spotify\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"\">Spotify<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom1\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.prx.org\/series\/34510-the-story-exchange\">PRX<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom2\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/music.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLaK2UyNCu2g2_preGI12R4z2iRXjIH3ah\">Youtube Music<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom3\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5lJgdFK8g9WWXLBYjWytyn\">Spotify<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom4\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/pca.st\/B094\">Pocket Casts<\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom5\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"\"><\/a><a class=\"spp-button-custom6\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"display:none !important;\" href=\"\"><\/a><\/div><\/div>\n<p>We talk to Kristy Allen, a beekeeper who turned her love and concern for honeybees into the thriving Minneapolis business The Beez Kneez. She maintains hives, sells honey, and teaches intensive beekeeping classes to the tune of $200,000 a year, all while maintaining environmentally sustainable practices. Allen is an advocate for honeybees, whose numbers have dwindled in recent years due to mites, pesticides and the overuse of monoculture farming. Learn more in this buzzy podcast.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-39491\" src=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/app\/uploads\/2019\/01\/beez3.jpg\" alt=\"Beez Kneez\" width=\"1000\" height=\"657\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/22214650\/beez3.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/22214650\/beez3-525x345.jpg 525w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/22214650\/beez3-768x505.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/22214650\/beez3-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/22214650\/beez3-100x66.jpg 100w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/22214650\/beez3-862x566.jpg 862w, https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/22214650\/beez3-846x556.jpg 846w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/minneapolis-beekeeper-kristy-allen-building-thriving-business\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read Related Article<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"transcript-box\" style=\"float:none !important;\">\r\n<div class=\"accordion-container\">\r\n\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"accordion-toggle\">Read Full Transcript<span class=\"toggle-icon\"><i class=\"fa fa-angle-double-down\"><\/i><\/span><\/a>\r\n\t\t<div class=\"accordion-accordion_content\">\r\n\t\t\t<p><p>SUE: (as music plays lightly in the background) Welcome to The Story Exchange. You\u2019re listening to our series Good on the Ground...<br \/>\nVARIOUS VOICES: ...Good on the Ground...<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: ...featuring women entrepreneurs making an impact in a world that needs fixing.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: I\u2019m Colleen DeBaise<br \/>\nSUE: I\u2019m Sue Williams<br \/>\nSOUND OF BEES<br \/>\nKRISTY ALLEN : Hello ladies<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: And that is beekeeper Kristy Allen<br \/>\nKRISTY: I just want to see how big you are\u2026<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: She\u2019s outside checking on a hive of honey bees...it\u2019s a relatively balmy day in February in snowy Minnesota...<br \/>\nKRISTY (SOT) whoa, beautiful! Look at all those bees<br \/>\nKRISTY:  Every day I get phone calls about, you know, \u201cHow do I start a beehive?\u201d or, \u201cI\u2019m really interested in learning about bees.\u201d When I started in 2010, we just didn\u2019t anticipate the kind of growth, and, and it\u2019s not waning.<br \/>\nSUE: Kristy\u2019s business is called the Beez Kneez - and we headed to Minneapolis to find out more about it.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: This is not your typical \u201csell honey at the farmers market\u201d type of business.<br \/>\nSUE: No, it\u2019s really not<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Kristy\u2019s company makes about $200,000 dollars in annual revenue \u2014 while maintaining environmentally sustainable practices.<br \/>\nKRISTY: The Beez Kneez is a local beekeeping organization that is pedal-powered both in honey delivery and honey extraction. We teach intensive beekeeping classes. We rent out our honey house to beekeepers. We sell beekeeping equipment and we do advocacy and education around bees.<br \/>\nSUE: Bees, of course, are dying at an alarming rate...<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: \u2026.Yet we need them more than ever...<br \/>\nSUE: \u2026 to eat -  to eat foods, like fruit, apples pears melons, coffee  require bee pollination.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: In this podcast, we\u2019ll explore the plight of the bee, and we\u2019ll talk to Kristy about the challenges and rewards of running a business, in which your assets are literally disappearing<br \/>\nKRISTY: your livelihood being dependent upon something that is dying or struggling to survive it\u2019s a pretty big gamble you\u2019re taking.<br \/>\nSUE: Keep on listening.<br \/>\n**musical interlude **<br \/>\nKRISTY: Honeybees have been around longer, you know, their real [relationship] with humans is longer than any other animal on the planet<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Kristy is originally from a small town about an hour north of the Twin Cities<br \/>\nKRISTY: Yeah, so growing up I really enjoyed being outside, and we had a big open field by our house. That eventually changed to development but I have memories of playing in the little wooded areas<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: The Midwest, of course, is known for farming<br \/>\nSUE: It\u2019s America\u2019s breadbasket, where wheat was traditionally grown, not to mention a variety of grains and vegetables<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: But since World War 11, that  rich diversity of crops has dwindled. Kristy is only in her 30s but even in her lifetime she\u2019s watched<br \/>\nKRISTY:  ...the town change dramatically from, you know, a lot of that open prairie or traditional farms to corn and soybeans.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: That\u2019s known as a monoculture, where you have a sea of single crops<br \/>\nSUE: Grown largely for livestock feed or ethanol<br \/>\nKRISTY: It\u2019s a staggering number [pick up] how much of our prairie has disappeared since monocultures and, and pesticides started to be used on a much larger scale.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Kristy graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2008<br \/>\nSUE: She was drawn to agriculture<br \/>\nKRISTY: I\u2019m a hard worker and it\u2019s hard work and I\u2019ve always wanted to spend my profession majority outside<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: But more than that, as a global studies major, she was drawn to social issues and \u2014<br \/>\nSUE:  perhaps idealistically \u2014<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: fixing large-scale problems like lack of access to affordable food.<br \/>\nKRISTY: it seemed very daunting, all the problems in the world<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: So she decided to home in on one tiny piece of it.<br \/>\nKRISTY: Bees were something I could kind of focus on<br \/>\nKRISTY (SOT) Here\u2019s a drone coming out. Look at the size of those eyes.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Kristy first learned about the struggles bees were facing when she spent some time after college with the Americorps program\u2026<br \/>\nSUE:....working on farms in Arkansas and then Ecuador.<br \/>\nKRISTY: Bees pollinate a third of everything that we eat. Without bees who\u2019s gonna do the, that very important pollination work of, of making those plants reproduce?<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Environmentalists have been concerned for some time about the drastic drop in the number of bees\u2026<br \/>\nMARLA SPIVAK: When honeybee colonies were reported to be dying en masse first in the United States, it was clear that something was really really wrong<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: That\u2019s Marla Spivak, a professor at University of Minnesota and a bee expert<br \/>\nSUE: She\u2019s an advisor to Kristy - here she is, explaining this devastating problem in a Ted Talk<br \/>\nMARLA: Bees are dying from multiple and interacting causes<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Part of the problem are those giant monocultures that Kristy talked about earlier\u2026<br \/>\nSUE: ...which maximize profits for agro giants like Monsanto and many farmers<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: but destroy biodiversity. So bees don\u2019t have the good nutrition that they used to.<br \/>\nSUE: Then there\u2019s disease and parasites -- and of course, pesticides<br \/>\nMARLA: The bottom line is bees dying reflects a dysfunctional food system.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: That\u2019s what drew Kristy to bees.<br \/>\nSUE: When you don\u2019t have bees pollinating our fruits and flowers and vegetables<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: It\u2019s not hard to imagine a world where...<br \/>\nKRISTY: Only the very rich would probably get to eat things like strawberries, coffee would disappear, chocolate would disappear, these things we kind of take for granted -- apples, watermelons, I mean there\u2019s just-, any fruit would be -- would be gone. Yeah.<br \/>\n** musical interlude **<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: So that\u2019s the inspiration for Kristy\u2019s mission-based company, the Beez Kneez, but the logistics of running a bee business are...unique<br \/>\nSUE: I\u2019d actually call it somewhat terrifying<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: You\u2019re allergic to bees, right?<br \/>\nSUE: Yes, extremely<br \/>\nKRISTY SOT: Remember you are a surface Sue. They don\u2019t care about you.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Well, maybe this is not an industry you should think about...<br \/>\nKRISTY: When I was being educated about bees someone once said, \u201cYou know a real beekeeper because they lean in instead of kind of cower back,\u201d right. And I immediately leaned in. I was just the smell, the\u2026 taste of real honey. There\u2019s a lot of sensory. You\u2019re outside, flowers are blooming, and they, the sound, you know, they\u2019re buzzing all the time and it\u2019s, it\u2019s very meditative and you have to be present with bees.<br \/>\nSUE: I spent some time with Kristy when we filmed our video profile of her\u2026<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Listeners can watch that on our site, www.thestoryexchange.org<br \/>\nSUE: And even though it was terrifying, it was thrilling, too. She took us out to some fields where she has about a dozen hives - she checked each one by pulling out the wooden frame the bees - thousands of them - cluster on.<br \/>\nKRISTY (SOT) They have glands, wax glands on the side of their abdomen. Like if I pick up a bee and you look underneath, and the underside, it looks like what looks like kind of like shingles.<br \/>\nSUE: And she did it with her bare hands<br \/>\nCOLLEEN - That\u2019s incredible!<br \/>\nSUE - Me, I was very happy to be completely zipped up in what looks like a white hazmatt body suit. Kristy pointed out each queen bee -<br \/>\nKRISTY (SOT) There she is. She\u2019s much bigger. And you\u2019ll see bees following her around.<br \/>\nSUE: she puts a yellow dot on each one so she can easily track it and she\u2019s just totally at ease with them.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: - Wow<br \/>\nSUE- And she also took us to rooftop downtown where she keeps other hives - urban beekeeping, it\u2019s a bit of a thing now. Devotees swear you can taste the difference between uptown honey and downtown honey.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Right - this is part of what Kristy does at the Beez Kneez - she manages about 130 hives around Minneapolis.<br \/>\nSUE: Some of them are owned by local universities, who pay an annual maintenance fee to her company.<br \/>\nKRISTY:  I\u2019m going hive to hive checking their health, checking to make sure that they\u2019re set up to make honey and then checking to make sure they\u2019re gonna make it through the winter<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: But we\u2019re getting ahead of ourselves - let\u2019s get back to how Kristy started her business.<br \/>\nSUE: In 2009, after her time in Americorps, Kristy came back to the U.S. to work for her aunt, who had married a commercial beekeeper<br \/>\nKRISTY:  I went to work at their honey house in northern Minnesota<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Kristy read a book called \u201cHoneybee Democracy,\u201d by Thomas Seeley<br \/>\nKRISTY: I was really inspired by the way that bees work. It\u2019s an all-female run organization. They dance to communicate.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: She was particularly fascinated by a passage in Seeley\u2019s book, about how a swarm of bees finds a new home -- scout bees will fan out and search for the perfect tree cavity<br \/>\nSUE: Here\u2019s some sound of Dr. Seeley giving a lecture at Cornell University, about how an individual scout bee will dance to communicate she\u2019s found a dream home.<br \/>\nTOM SEELEY: In doing this dance, she shares with the other scouts, the ones that did not find a possible home site, information about the direction, and the distance, and the goodness of what she found.<br \/>\nKRISTY: They all eventually go with that, that bee and then decide.  They democratically choose where their new home is gonna be.  It blew my mind.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Kristy herself decided<br \/>\nKRISTY: \u201cI\u2019m gonna be a beekeeper\u201d and that\u2019s, that was the goal. I didn\u2019t really know what it would turn into and I think that\u2019s the typical entrepreneur\u2019s story, right, you have this idea and then it kind of balloons into something. Yeah.<br \/>\nSUE: We\u2019ll tell you how she figured out her business model, after this brief break<br \/>\nAD: The Story Exchange is a nonprofit media company that provides inspiration and information for women entrepreneurs. Check out our videos -- including a profile of the entrepreneur you\u2019re listening to right now -- at www.thestoryexchange.org. And we\u2019d love to hear from you, especially if you know someone who should be featured on this podcast: Drop us a line at info@thestoryexchange.org -- or find us on Facebook.<br \/>\nKRISTY: I think the hardest challenge for me was sort of figuring out the model and the financial model. And, and I mean as any business owner, it\u2019s a perpetual challenge.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: We\u2019ve been sharing the story of Kristy Allen, founder of the Beez Kneez. So Kristy is working at her aunt and uncle\u2019s honey house<br \/>\nSUE: It\u2019s called Bar Bell Bee Ranch<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: and also bartending at a restaurant<br \/>\nSUE: Her aunt asked if she\u2019d like to sell their honey in Minneapolis<br \/>\nKRISTY:  and I was like, \u201cOh, that sounds like fun.\u201d<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: She had a bike\u2026<br \/>\nKRISTY: and I was like, \u201cIt\u2019s close to Halloween. I should paint my bike like a bee and dress up like one and, and hand out, you know, honey samples,\u201d and, and I just went with it.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: I love this idea<br \/>\nKRISTY : I put on some striped socks, I got some pipe cleaners and some foam balls, and at 30 years old I dressed up like a bee<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: I think the striped knee socks - bright yellow and black stripes - were a particularly good touch<br \/>\nSUE: Yes. She stood out.<br \/>\nKRISTY: I actually started by delivering to people\u2019s doors, doorsteps. I had this nostalgia for a time when I wasn\u2019t alive when the milkman would come to your door and you had this interaction. And, and, you know, I\u2019d get my picture taken, and kids would get really excited about it.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: And this worked - she picked up a number of clients, not just individuals but restaurants, coffee shops, food co-ops...<br \/>\nSUE: She dubbed her new business the Beez Kneez<br \/>\nKRISTY SOT: So this is this year\u2019s harvest. It\u2019s a little different than what he was getting. But it\u2019s super delicious and drizzles real nice.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Kristy didn\u2019t know a ton about business, so she took a course at a women\u2019s business center, run by the Small Business Administration<br \/>\nKRISTY: I took a, like a six-month\u2026 like consultation through Women Mentors, which is a local non-profit that helps women business owners as they start and as they continue.<br \/>\nSUE: Kristy was resourceful<br \/>\nKRISTY: I worked three jobs until about 2013 when we did our Kickstarter when I started the business all of the money would go back into the business and so I, I never took a salary or a wage and then I took a very, you know, modest one<br \/>\nSUE\u2019S QUESTION FROM TAPE: What was the Kickstarter campaign?<br \/>\nKRISTY: The Kickstarter campaign was to open the space and we raised $40,000.<br \/>\nSOUND FROM KICKSTARTER: We need a headquarters, a hive of our own\u2026 Your Kickstarter donation will help us \u2018revive the hive\u2019 by making the honey house a reality for our community\u2026<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: With the money raised, Kristy turned an old carpet factory<br \/>\nSUE: A big concrete box, smack in the middle of the Twin Cities<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: into her honey house.<br \/>\nKRISTY: So it paid for the-, everything, the walls, the\u2014not the walls, I\u2019m sorry, the ceiling, and the floor, and the extractors, and the sinks, and things like that. Mm-hm.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: It\u2019s a place where hobby beekeepers can come and process their honey<br \/>\nSUE: Kristy charges by the hour and handles the cleanup afterward<br \/>\nKRISTY: It\u2019s really rewarding and sticky.<br \/>\nKRISTY (SOT) That knife isn\u2019t working very well. Let me get you a different one. It\u2019s getting too hot. That shouldn\u2019t happen.<br \/>\nKRISTY: Today I have about four employees that are part time and, and two of them are seasonal<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: They manage hives, sell honey, and also teach a 14-week course on beekeeping called Camp Beez Kneez.<br \/>\nKRISTY: we charge, you know, around $600 for the course per person so that\u2019s a good chunk of money in the springtime.<br \/>\nSUE: Last year, they had a waitlist for the class<br \/>\nKRISTY: It\u2019s been amazing to see the attention around bees and, and people who wanna save the bees by becoming a beekeeper.<br \/>\nKRISTY (SOT): They build all this wax that\u2019s in here. It comes out of their bodies and they grab it with their teeth and they form perfect hexagons. And they angle them so that stuff doesn\u2019t fall out of them. And join them together right. How can you not love these animals! They\u2019re just brilliant.<br \/>\n** musical interlude**<br \/>\nKRISTY: My role in the company is, is changing. As I get older I can\u2019t be hauling as much honey around on my bicycle.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: One last thing we wanted to mention is an invention that Kristy has come up with\u2026<br \/>\nSUE: It\u2019s called the Beez Kneez Honey Cycle<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Many beekeepers use a hand crank to extract honey<br \/>\nKRISTY: ... kind of like a butter churner that sits on the side of the machine but it\u2019s really awkward to use<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: Kristy thought there must be a better way<br \/>\nKRISTY:  I went to my, my bike mechanic friend, Carl Stolzener, who\u2019s got a brilliant engineer mind and I said, \u201cHelp me make this pedal powered.\u201d And so I literally gave him a six-pack of beer and we sat in his garage and, and just noodled around like, \u201cHow can this be the best for the beekeeper?<br \/>\nCOLLEEN:  They came up with something that looks like a stationary bike with a giant tank on it<br \/>\nSUE: It\u2019s used for extracting and filtering honey -- while we were there a young man was pedalling away on a bike with a very large circular vat on the front of it. As he pedalled honey slowly streamed out of a hole near the bottom and into a large bucket.<br \/>\nKRISTY (SOT) The cells are now empty. And then the other side still has honey in it. And we turn them around.<br \/>\nSUE: It\u2019s clear Kristy\u2019s years biking around, delivering honey, inspired it and it\u2019s great because using your legs is way less tiring than extracting honey by hand.<br \/>\nKRISTY (SOT) So it only takes a minute to two minutes to empty one side of the frame.<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: I asked Kristy for an update recently on the Beez Kneez Honey Cycle<br \/>\n -- she has sold a few -- each one retails for about $2,000 -- and she\u2019s hoping to raise funds to properly advertise it.<br \/>\nKRISTY: Yeah, we\u2019re just seeing the, the potential of the equipment sales. (PICK UP)  this year we had a really good year for honey. The weather was just kind of nice for flowers and so we\u2019d been very busy with extractions this year.<br \/>\nSUE: Kristy hopes her company<br \/>\nKRISTY:  grows to a point where it can sustain itself, and continue to do really good work with community.\u201d<br \/>\n**music to signal we are coming to a conclusion **<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: If you are not up for starting your own bee business  but are concerned about the plight of the bee, Kristy has some advice<br \/>\nKRISTY: we as consumers have a ton of power and it\u2019s the only power that we seem to have right now , and, and so using it wisely, supporting small businesses, small beekeepers, farmers that are growing food in, in a sustainable manner, and number\u2014that\u2019s number one<br \/>\nCOLLEEN: We thank Kristy for spending time with us<br \/>\nSUE: And we thank you for listening<br \/>\nOUTRO: COLLEEN\/OUTRO: This has been The Story Exchange. Join us next time to hear more stories about innovative and inspirational women doing the things you\u2019d never dream of. Or...maybe you would. If you liked this podcast, please share on social media or post a review on iTunes. It helps other people find the show. And visit our website at TheStoryExchange.org, where you\u2019ll find news, videos and tips for women entrepreneurs. And we\u2019d love to hear from you, especially if you know someone who should be featured on this podcast: Drop us a line at info@thestoryexchange.org -- or find us on Facebook.<br \/>\nSound editing provided by Nusha Balyan. Production coordinator is Christina Kelly. Interview recorded by Sam Shinn. Executive producers are Sue Williams and Victoria Wang.<\/p>\n<\/p>\r\n\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t<!--\/.accordion-accordion_content-->\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this podcast, we explore the plight of the bee and talk to Kristy Allen, a beekeeper and advocate who is running a thriving business, The Beez Kneez, in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":39490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":false,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[19611,20436,19763],"class_list":["post-39489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","tag-beekeeping","tag-environmental-advocacy","tag-sustainable-business"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.3 (Yoast 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