bay to bay the byproducts float to the top until the pure honey flows into the barrels .
In a year good year , two 55-gallon drums can be filled in a single day . Their personal record is five in one day .
One summer Sunrise Hives produced over 100 barrels . Once full , the barrels weigh 600 pounds . When you consider each bee produces one drop of honey , the sheer volume is nothing short of staggering . Carl points out if you want to know how many bees it took to fill any container , simply imagine how many bees you could stuff into the container . There ’ s your answer . Even a simple honey stick takes 16 bees to produce .
“ It always blows my mind to see these 55 gallon drums ,” Carl says with a shake of the head . “ Imagine if you put that many bees in there . I ’ m like , where are they ?”
Sunrise Hives needs about 35 barrels for its own products , after which the remaining barrels can be sold to larger companies — something Carl isn ’ t overly excited about . The reason for that is two-fold : One , Sunrise can make much more money from its own products per barrel ; two , the larger companies mix their honey with other honey to be distributed into the big box stores . That bastardizing of Sunrise Hives honey — pardon the pun — stings Carl .
Back in Spearfish , Kiah is busy pouring the honey into containers . The honey goes from the barrels into tanks that are waterjacketed so they can stay at 91 degrees , which makes sure the honey remains liquid . Just like at the honey house , the honey only undergoes the natural filtering it does to itself as the byproduct floats to the top of the tanks . The wax collected there — as well as from the honey house — is putting into a wax capping spinner , melted down and made into candles or used in the variety of lotions Sunrise Hives offers .
Kiah was born and raised in Spearfish and grew up beekeeping with her parents . Her father has previously worked at the Homestake Mine in Lead , and her mother , she says , is “ super artistic .” She and her mother used to make chapstick with wax they acquired form a man who had bees on her grandmother ’ s farm . One day , after her father had lost his job due to Homestake ’ s closing , her mother was reading the newspaper and saw an ad from a man who was selling his bee business .
“ She is the type she was like , ‘ let ’ s do that ,’” Kiah said . Her father cashed in his 401k , and the family bee business was set in motion .
“ I love it . I love the making stuff side ,” Kiah says . “ That is what I fell in love with when I was younger , making products and lotions and chapsticks .”
In an ironic and cruel twist , Kiah is now allergic to bee stings , and her most recent sting caused anaphylactic shock so severe she was hospitalized .
She says she became allergic at 19 after years of helping tend to the bees and many previous uneventful stings .
“ Beekeepers ’ kids are like 60 percent more likely to become allergic ,” Kiah said . There was a stretch of time where Kiah wasn ’ t getting stung quite enough , and the allergy developed . The first time in only led to hives , and got progressively worse until she realized her field work was done following the trip to the hospital .
“ I get sad because I loved working the bees . It was such a neat experience ,” she said .
Kiah stays plenty busy in on the retail end of things , however , as in addition to bottling the honey , she serves as the distributor of the goods , which go to stores in Spearfish , Belle Fourche , Sturgis , Deadwood and Rapid City .
All the lotions Kiah offers can be found online at sunrisehives . com , a website she built herself . Her products are infused with herbs that have medicinal properties to them , such as calendula , which she says is healing and helps skin regenerate . She
From left , Kiah ( beeswax candle ), Carl ( beeswax ) and Rowan ( honey ) show off some of the products available at Sunrise Hives .
dries all of the herbs she hand-picks here in the Hills for at least six weeks and follows a lunar calendar to determine the best time to pick the flowers . In total there are five different lotions that are beeswax-based products that can help with a variety of ailments .
Sunrise Hives also sells pollen it collects , and pollen is a superfood that contains over 250 biologically active substances , including proteins , carbs , lipids , fatty acids , vitamins , minerals , enzymes and antioxidants .
When ’ s she ’ s not working in the shop you can find Kiah at one of the schools in Spearfish , where she gives talks about bees and Sunrise Hives . Among her advice to the children is be careful about killing off all the dandelions and weeds , which are essential to the bees .
“ I really enjoy talking to kids , especially because adults may not like haring me preach about weeds ,” she said with a laugh .
Beekeeping must truly be a labor of love for the Crowleys , because they had an opportunity to get out of the business last year when disaster struck .
In the offseason their bees are rented to help with pollination of a variety of foods in California , including almonds , which rely on honey bees for pollination . The bees are trucked there for a month before being brought back . However , last year , the truck carrying the Crowley bees crashed , killing all of the bees . Carl said it was a devastating loss . However , thanks to some insurance money and a beekeeper in California , the Crowleys were able to buy 600 hives and slowly start to rebuild their colonies .
“ We joke we had an opportunity to be out of it if we wanted , but we decided to come back ,” Kiah said .
Instead the Crowleys press on doing what they love , something they say they will likely do forever .
“ We love it ,” Kiah said . “ We have had some crazy hiccups , but we still love it .”
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