Honey and the Hive is the combined brain child of Doug Anderson and Keith White. They are both members of the Huguenot Beekeepers Association in Powhatan, VA and are active beekeepers. Being beekeepers, they know what works and what is hype. Being a small business, they won't spend their inventory dollars selling anything that they won't personally use themselves.
Doug AndersonDoug is originally from Wisconsin, but lived in Arizona for 19 years before moving to Goochland, Virginia in 2010. That first month in Virginia he saw a flyer at a feed store for a local beekeeping club meeting and started attending. He jumped right into beekeeping that next spring with colonies of his own. Most of his initial beekeeping education came from attending the monthly meetings at the Huguenot Beekeepers Association in Powhatan and learning all that he could about bees. After a few years, he became the club secretary, and then the club President for three years.
Trying to learn as much as he can about bees he went through the Virginia State Beekeepers Association Master Beekeeper program and in the fall of 2017 became a VSBA Master Beekeeper. He keeps on average about a dozen hives and enjoys mentoring other beekeepers in his area. Each year he gets to share his love of honey bees by giving several beekeeping presentations at various business and civic groups in the Richmond area. His beekeeping philosophy is that beekeeping is local and you need to tailor your beekeeping style and methods to what works best for you and your beekeeping goals. |
Keith WhiteKeith is originally from Madison County, Virginia, but has lived in Powhatan, VA since 1996. Growing up in farm country, his interests included woodworking, gardening and the outdoors. He brought all of these interests together in the Spring of 2016 when he started keeping bees.
He now has multiple hive types in his apiary, including Langstroth, Layens, observation, top bar and Warre hives. His observation hive (located inside his garage) is the "star" of his apiary and is made from 60+ year old walnut and cherry that his grandfather originally harvested from the family farm and contains eight medium frames (two wide by four tall). He also handcrafted the Layens, top bar and Warre hives. His Langstroth style hives are 4-frame, 5-frame or 8-frame configurations using medium frames. Although he has used some small cell foundation, most frames in his hives (including the observation hive) are foundationless. Most of his bee stock is derived from Central Virginia swarms and colonies that have survived multiple seasons. He has also introduced a few Russian queens in his apiary as an experiment in strengthening his local stock. In addition to developing his apiary and launching Honey and the Hive, LLC, he has been a member of the Huguenot Beekeepers Association since 2015, and has served as an officer since 2017. |