SPONSOR A HIVE

We are proud to offer Hive Sponsorship and Adoption, brand new in 2021!

Beehive Sponsorship Program

Support your local pollinators by sponsoring a bee hive for one year, or adopting a bee hive for the lifetime of the hive - with the Happy Bee Honey Club.

Rescuing honeybees is hard work and requires lots of equipment and tools. We keep our fees low to be in line with or less than the cost of exterminators so people can afford to save the bees instead of killing them.

The Bee Hive sponsorship program will help us to keep our fees low so we can continue to rescue honeybee colonies in the Fort Lauderdale area and relocate them to one of our honey bee sanctuaries. The Honey Bee sponsorship program will help us provide the tools and equipment needed for our rescue operation.

It's the gift that keeps on giving - so not only are you giving TO the bees, but through them you're giving to the planet, to nature, and ultimately to ourselves - they pollinate one third of our crops, we desperately need the honey bee population to grow and this is definitely a great way to do that! What better birthday or Christmas gift to give to someone - or any time of year - a really wonderful gift.

$300 Donation: Sponsor a hive for a year - Your $300 donation will go towards providing a bee hive for a wild colony, including all the equipment and resources needed to rescue the bees and relocate them safely to one of our Bee Sanctuaries. We will attach your name to the hive, and we will also provide you with updates and photos of your hive in our bee sanctuary for that year. Don't worry - when your year up, the bees still continue to live there, but someone else may choose to take over that sponsorship!

$500 Donation: Adopt a hive! This is for the lifetime of the hive: Your $500 donation will go towards providing a bee hive home for a wild colony and is for the lifetime of the hive, including all the equipment and resources needed to rescue the bees and relocate them safely to one of our Bee Sanctuaries, as well as the additional benefit of 3 jars of honey and a Happy Bee Honey Club T shirt. When the time comes to harvest honey from your hive (it may take up to a year or longer for that to happen, depending on how well your bee colony is doing), we will most definitely give you a couple of jars from your very own adopted hive. We can put your name on the hive, although if you prefer, with the $500 donation you can personalize the new bee hive yourself by taking it home (before we move the bees into it) and painting it yourself or with your family. If you don't live locally, no problem - we can get one of our volunteers to paint it and put your name on it and if you have ideas for the design - let us know and we will do our best to create a hive you'd be proud of. These will be your adopted bees - only WE get to look after them!

Remember - this sponsorship or adoption program isn't about what you can get back from the bees, but it's about helping them. As someone famous once said, ask not what the bees can do for you, but what you can do for the bees :-)

Have questions? Email Evan at
happybeehoneyclub@yahoo.com

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT SPONSORING A HIVE

"For the $500 donation, if I want to paint my hive, where would the decorating/painting of the hive take place?"

- We would give you an unpainted hive to take home, so you can paint it at your convenience.

It is essential to give the hive two full coats of non-toxic, latex outdoor paint (which you can get in a nice light color) to protect it from the harsh Florida weather - so this base coat would be your first step. See on the left an example of a hive just painted (in a lovely bright yellow). This yellow is the base coat. We want your hive to last as long as possible, and this is essential. We give you STRICT guidelines as to what kind of paint to purchase and use (latex, non-toxic outdoor/all weather paint) - but the colors are up to you - as long as they are light colors. Once you've painted your base coat and let it dry for 24 hours, then it's fun time! Let your inner "bee" come out! If you look on the internet for "pretty hives", you'll be amazed at the beautiful hives people create.

"Is a hive difficult to paint?"

- Not at all - it's very easy. We would tell you which parts of the hive you must not paint (like the inside, for example, and any horizontal surfaces that would come into contact with another hive box above it or below it) - and once you've done the two base coats, it's your playground. You can make it as simple or elaborate as you want! You can put your name on it or a message or two - or a cool slogan - we just ask please, no political messages and no bad language! Remember, the bees have to come home to this every day so we want to make it something they're proud of! We have hives that simply have nice light pastel spots on them - about 2 inches in diameter (painted) and they look stunning - simple and beautiful!

"May I use permanent (acrylic) markers to make my design or pictures on it, once I've painted it?"

- Yes absolutely - if you would rather use permanent markers do make your design or picture, that's fine - but they MUST MUST MUST BE permanent non-toxic, waterproof and UV protected. You can purchase "Colorful Art" acrylic markers for under $10 off the internet (for example) - they are long lasting and easy to use.

"How do I pay for Sponsoring a hive?"

- We accept ZELLE through your bank, or Venmo, or a check made out to Happy Bee Honey Club - any of those options are great. We also accept cash and will provide you with a receipt. We do take credit card, although we get large fees deducted, so this is really a last resort for payment.

"Where will my hive be kept, once you have put bees inside?"

- We currently have three Bee Sanctuaries where we put all our bee removals, one is on loan to us by the City of Fort Lauderdale (see photo on the left, which shows just a few of our hives at the City Sanctuary), and two are very kind private citizens with a very large gardens, who volunteered their gardens to us. They both have fallen in love with bees, and we are so grateful to them for letting us put our hives there! We are always looking for more land though, so if you know someone who has land or a huge garden, who will allow us to set up another Bee Sanctuary, let us know!

"Once my hive is painted, how long before you put bees inside? How long before I get a photo?"

- Great question - once your hive is ready, and the paint is absolutely dry - it will be marked for the very next swarm or removal that we do. It might be a few days or a few weeks before that happens, but rest assured, we will do it as quickly as we can. Once the bees are in there and the hive is settled in one of our Bee Sanctuaries, we will send you photos.

"What if I physically want to keep the hive in my own garden?"

- That is fantastic news - we LOVE it when people want bees! What you want is for Evan to do a Bee Installation - he will do an inspection of your property to make sure it would suit the bees and meet regulations, then he will provide you with one or two bee hives, you would need to paint them and prepare them, he would then install the bees and a queen, physically put the hives onto your property, give you a basic introduction to the bees, and then it will be up to you to look after them. There's more information in "Services" - click on this link.

www.happybeehoneyclub.com/services

And of course if you have questions, you can email Evan at happybeehoneyclub@yahoo.com

SPONSORED HIVES

OUR FIRST ADOPTED HIVE!!! WOO HOO!!! "BEEING VERY SUPPORTIVE!!!" THE BEST CHRISTMAS GIFT EVER!

We are SO pleased to welcome our first Sponsor of a honey bee hive, who did a lifetime Adoption, Vevila! A bee lover and bee supporter, she thought this would make an excellent Christmas gift for her husband, as they both love nature, wildlife and animals. He absolutely LOVED it!!!! It's the gift that keeps on giving - the bees pollinate one third of our crops, so each sponsored hive is a gift to nature and a gift to ourselves. It's the perfect gift for someone you know who loves nature - and all proceeds go to the Happy Bee Honey Club! So not only will your donation go towards saving the bees (buying equipment, hives etc.), but it allows us to capture more swarms, do more hive splits and ultimately put more bees out there - which is our main goal - and more bees means more food for us all!

THANK YOU TO OUR FIRST HIVE SPONSOR - Vevila - your bees came from a colony living in a tree, (you can see the removal here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHgxE2ggGE was placed in the hive, and then put in one of our bee sanctuaries. They are LOVING it there! Thank you again.

Our second Hive Sponsor (Adopter) was DEBORAH! She read about the plight of the honey bee on Nextdoor.com (where I post regularly about our bees and various rescues/removals) and what we're trying to do to save them, and was thrilled to be our second sponsor. She and her son painted and decorated a beautiful light blue hive, and because her maiden name was Zube, she named the hive the Zubees! Not to mention that her name, Deborah, means "Bee" in Hebrew! When the hive was painted and ready, we waited for our next bee rescue, and very soon, we learned about some bees living in someone's water meter, that the city was going to exterminate. Evan and Brock leapt into action, took Deborah's hive up there and rescued the water meter bees. It was a very successful removal, they found the queen, got all the bees, comb, brood and honey into the box and placed it in our Bee Sanctuary, where they are thriving and happy! THANK YOU DEBORAH - you saved a healthy and happy family of at least 30,000 bees that would no longer be here without the intervention of the Happy Bee Honey Club, and sponsors/donors like yourself.

Project Name

While we're not quite at this level, see what possibilities there are for painting your own bee hive!! The luxury 5 star hotel, Baur au Lac in Zurich, Switzerland, has a bee hive (apiary) as a replica of the hotel. See what they have to say on their website: "...Baur au Lac may have the world’s only five-star bee hive, where a colony of over 80,000 bees are in residence. Bee au Lac, a miniature replica of the hotel, houses Apis mellifera bees collecting nectar and pollen on property for the hotel-made honey."

SPONSOR A HIVE! IT'S THE BEST GIFT YOU COULD GIVE - IT HELPS THE BEES, IT HELPS NATURE AND IT HELPS HUMANITY!

Evan at

happybeehoneyclub@yahoo.com