‘Sweetie Bees’ A Labour Of Love For Young Entrepreneur
SAINT JOHN — A random check of the weather forecast lead Lincoln Bell down a path to learning about a new animal, and eventually starting his own business.
“I was just checking the weather on my computer and I saw the bees were dying at an alarming rate on a video. So, I started learning all about bees,” says now 12-year-old Lincoln Bell, of his interest in apiculture.
Two years earlier, when Bell first saw the video, it piqued a curiosity in bees that has grown to include a couple of hives and a number of beeswax products. With the help of a next-door neighbour, Dr. John Dornan, who has several rooftop hives at the Saint John Regional Hospital, Bell now has hundreds of bees in his care and hopes to soon have more.
“Bees are a major part of keeping all of our nature alive on earth. That’s when I decided to get some hives,” Bell recalls. “When I was with [Dr. Dornan] collecting some honey from his hives, I was wondering what he did with it. He said that he just gave it away so I asked him if he could sell it.”
Sweet success
Since then, there’s been no looking back. Bell’s business Sweetie Bees sells solid perfume, dog paw balm, and other healing skin balms. He has plans for lip balms, and of course, honey, in the future. Bell has already made a number of sales from the stand outside his Saint John home, as well as to friends and classmates through Facebook.
The hobby hasn’t come without challenges. Bell had bees die on him over the winter and has since learned about which ones are best suited for their rural southern New Brunswick environment. He keeps his bees on his uncle’s acerage outside of the city.
“You should keep your bees for two-to-three years to have the honey be ready for harvesting. Most of the times that I wanted to harvest, my bees didn’t make it through the winter. We had a few really rough winters for bees all around Canada,” he says. “This would probably be the first year that I’ll actually harvest the honey. I would have been harvesting beeswax before so I made beeswax products instead of just honey.”
A pragmatic approach for an ambitious entrepreneur.
Retail location in the works
Bell already has a retailer lined up for his products. While you still may catch him by chance selling his wares at a sidewalk stand, you can soon find some of his products at The Nest yoga studio, which will be opening a new location this spring in Saint John.
This second location of the well-known Fredericton studio will be in Uptown Saint John and Bell’s products will be part of the wellness treatment section owner Jenn Tuttle has planned.
“We have an essential oil blend that we use at the studio, for your cold cloth..that is specific to our studio,” Tuttle explains. “Lincoln took some of our blend and created a beeswax mixture with it that you can actually use as a perfume as well. He has given me multiple samples of different intensities. We’re going to be selling that, we’re going to sell his honey for him as well.”
Bell’s commitment to running a business that has a positive environmental impact was also important for Tuttle.
“People are so much more aware of what’s going on in the world, and bringing attention to issues with wildlife and that environment, recognizing they can have an impact,” Tuttle says. “The fact that that meant so much to Lincoln, that he was so passionate about it, it just spoke volumes to me about the kind of person he is. And the kind of entrepreneur he’s going to be.”
“I just think he’s got some great character and a great ethic and I’m excited to be able to be his first retailer.”
Bee mentor
With a place to market his products in the works, the last piece for Bell is mastering the tricky art of beekeeping. Like any kind of farming, it’s a process to get to know how to best care for your animals and how to make the most of the time you spend with them.
Beekeeper Ryan Golden has been mentoring Lincoln.
“I had actually met Lincoln and his mom at a market where I was selling honey,” he recalls. “I guess he was about 10 then.”
He remembers Bell having an interest in bees and the products that could be made from wax and honey. A couple of years later, Golden says Bell came out to his apiary, Maple Lane Apiary, to see a larger operation in action.
“As a commercial beekeeper, I don’t have one or two hives sitting around, I have yards of bees. The area we went to actually had 48 bee hives,” Golden says. “So he gets all suited up and we cross over the electric fence that we have around them to protect them from bears, and then it’s just nothing but bees flying everywhere. So, it was kind of an experience.”
He says they spent a few hours among the tens of thousands of bees that live on his farm, learning about how to work them to be the most productive, and how to care for them.
“Beekeeping tips and tricks,” Golden laughs. “He was interested and he did well.”
Golden says Bell had an eye to his beekeeping future.
“I’m 47 and I’m relatively young in the beekeeping world. It’s nice to see young people taking an interest in it… Lincoln had an interest and he had a business plan,” Golden says. “If I knew now at 12 what I know now, I wouldn’t be working anymore. I’d drive around, play with the bees all day.”
“By the time he’s 25, if he had a few 100 hives, he’d be well on his way to a very good, stable career.”
Even though he’s been stung a few times, Lincoln Bell isn’t letting it stand in the way of his beekeeping future.
“I really enjoy having bees,” Bell says. “I’ve been having a great time!”
Alex Graham is a Huddle reporter in Saint John. Send her your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].