Love and Honey Bee Company

It looks like a scene out of your favorite children’s movie. Hundreds of happy bees buzzing about, diving into nearby wildflowers as they spread pollen to turn into the unbeatable sweetness of local honey. This was Sean Hebein’s vision when he set out to honor his grandmother’s legacy and create Love and Honey Bee Company.

When Sean’s grandmother passed away and left the family her home in Montrose, CO, he knew just what to do; and his vision was anything but small. While most apiaries start with a hive or two, Sean went BIG and started with 20 hives. Sean ended this season with 28 hives by splitting his strongest colonies and has plans to add an additional 25 hives by next Spring.  

The process of creating a functioning hive takes time, passion, and of course, a lot of love. After cultivating and building the perfect hive setup, it’s all about the queen bee. Hives revolve around a queen, who can lay roughly 2,000 eggs per day. In the lower portion of the hive, she lays eggs that will become either drones, who mate with other queens, or workers, who either tend to the queen and brood, produce wax and build comb, or forage for pollen and nectar. Sean’s dedication to this intricate and delicate balance all pays off with gallons of delectable, local honey.

When we think of bees, it’s easy to picture spooning honey into our evening cup of tea. Friendly insects buzzing from wildflower to wildflower. Hives coming to life with hundreds of busy bugs. But what about high-tech, state-of-the-art technology? That’s where Elevate internet comes in.

“Our business is structured to harness the power of technology and cloud computing in order to better serve the bees. We will be installing technology in the hives that monitor temperature, humidity, hive weight, and bee activity. Those data points provide us with a picture about how the colonies are doing without disrupting them,” says Sean. “Without a strong and stable Internet connection, this type of monitoring would either not be possible or would not be cost-effective to implement."

The added technology allows Sean’s team to be more strategic with hive inspections and prevents unnecessary disturbances to the colonies. Additionally, Love and Honey Bee Company is a family-owned business but not all family members live locally. With many living hundreds of miles away, Sean credits Elevate’s fast bandwidth with keeping everyone connected.

“HD video calling and real-time messaging are crucial to ensure the success of the business. Having a strong backbone of gigabit service from Elevate allows us to focus on the things in the business that are truly important and helps streamline processes. Many of the things we are doing and plan on doing would not be possible without the speed of Elevate’s internet service,” says Sean.

With the passion and dedication that Sean and the entire Hebein family give to their apiary, it's clear that Love and Honey Bee Company is aptly named. Like them, Elevate also works to bring that same passion and dedication to our internet service, and it’s one sweet connection with Love and Honey Bee Company.

To stay informed about the happenings of Love and Honey Bee Company, follow them on Instagram @loveandhoneybeeco.