By Anastasia Megdanis
Beginning of BeeWeaver Queens
Thanks to 130 years of experience and entrepreneurship in the Weaver family, Navasota is home to one of the few pesticide-free honey farms in the country, BeeWeaver Honey Farm.
The farm’s bee breeding and retail business dates back to 1888 when Owner Daniel Weaver’s great-great-uncles gave their sister, Florence, and her new groom Zachariah Weaver, 10 hives of bees as a wedding present. Together they would venture from their home in the Navasota area, down to Houston in a horse-drawn wagon to sell their honey at the markets until the early 1900s.
From those 10 hives and Florence and Zachariah’s efforts, the Weaver branch of their family bee business was born. This year marks the 130th anniversary of BeeWeaver Honey Farm. Nowadays, BeeWeaver is run by Daniel Weaver and his wife, Laura Weaver, more commonly known as “The Queen Bee.”
Throughout the past 130 years, the Weaver family has grown the business tremendously by venturing into bee breeding on top of the honey production. However, Daniel and Laura changed the game in the late 90s and early 2000s. They managed to make BeeWeaver 100 percent free of any pesticides or other chemicals, a significant feat for the bee industry.
Beekeepers across the country had been using pesticides to rid bees of mites. “A Varroa Mite is a foreign pest that was introduced to the United States in the late 80s and it’s like a little tick that gets on the bees and literally sucks the life out of them,” says Laura. She compared the size of the mite on the bee as the same burden a crab would have if stuck on a human. “What is even more harmful than just the mite itself, is the fact that the mites carry diseases that kill the bees.” These diseases include Deformed Wing Virus and Parasitic Mite Syndrome.
While the astronomical costs of pesticides were one factor for change, the Weavers were not happy about the potential side effects pesticides came with. “You have insects in the hive, but you also have wax and honey; both of those substances soak up what is in their environment, including chemicals,” says Laura.
Daniel practiced as an attorney in Austin prior to re-joining and taking over the family business. Determined to find a solution, Daniel used his background in biology to his advantage. “He decided that the best way forward was to begin to only breed and select from bees that didn’t die from the diseases the mites carried,” says Laura. To do so, he began to leave some yards untreated. This process started in 1995.
BeeWeaver has many bee yards scattered over a five-county radius, each housing anywhere from 50-100 hives. When Daniel and Laura would check on the experimentally untreated yards, they would only find one or two remaining hives.
By 2001, BeeWeaver farm could state they were 100 percent pesticide free. “It was definitely hard at first; we lost thousands of bees,” says Laura. “At one point, we were worried about the survival of our business, but I’m glad that he stuck with it because now we are able to provide safer products and better bees to our customers.”
The customers that buy bees from the farm to start hives of their own have found the same success. It is not because the mites are gone; they are always a presence among bee hives. What sets BeeWeaver’s bees apart is their ability to effectively groom off the mites and fight any diseases they carry with them.
The BeeWeaver Honey Farm’s reputation for resistant bees and all natural products is extremely unique and allowed them to expand their products into BeeWeaver’s first retail location, BeeGoods Mercantile, in 2016.
BeeGoods Mercantile is located in Navasota where they host their tours, tastings, and other exciting events. Unsurprisingly, the most popular item on the shelves is the honey. BeeGoods offers an assortment of honey ranging from creamed to whipped, or even with different infusions of flavor.
Additionally, the store also offers a wide variety of bath and body products as well as useable and wearable items such as jewelry, mugs, clothing, and more. For avid bee lovers who are interested in starting their own hives, pure beeswax can be purchased to begin the process. Beeswax can also be used to polish furniture or make soaps, candles, lotions, balms, and more.
The Weaver’s choice to go pesticide free and practice a healthier lifestyle carries over into all aspects of their business.
The Weaver family and the BeeWeaver Honey Farm team are dedicated to providing the best products for their customers while also inviting them into their world. The free hive tours and honey tastings available to the public are completely safe, family friendly, educational, and most importantly, fun.
To learn more about BeeWeaver Honey Farm, visit www.beeweaver.com.
