A couple of Twin Cities entrepreneurs are creating quite a buzz on Kickstarter.
The Beez Kneez, a Minneapolis-based business that delivers honey by bicycle, is seeking $35,000 on the crowd-funding website to expand its honey production and educational outreach. As of Friday afternoon, March 8, backers had pledged more than $22,000 to the project.
Owner Kristy Allen has delivered unprocessed honey to more than 200 homes in the metro area, and regularly provides honey to Kingfield and Fulton farmers markets and 20 local restaurants.
“We’re growing pretty fast,” Allen said. “People really want local honey.”
So much so that she and her sole employee, Erin Rupp, are having trouble meeting demand. They hope to use the Kickstarter cash to increase their production capacity.
In past years, the pair maintained about 25 hives in the metro area, but they plan to double that by this fall. Much of the honey they sell comes from Bar Bell Bee Ranch in Squaw Lake, Minn., which is owned by Allen’s aunt and uncle. They hope these new hives will reduce their dependence on the ranch.
The Kickstarter money also would be put toward renovating a building in Minneapolis’ Longfellow neighborhood that will serve as their headquarters.
“We’ve been working out of coffee shops and our homes,” Rupp said.
The appropriately named Honey House also will give people who live outside their delivery area — like most suburbs — a place to buy their honey.
But Allen says honey sales are just a way they fund their real passion: an educational program run by Rupp called Community Beez on Bikes.
Rupp says bees’ contribution to the food ecosystem often goes overlooked by consumers.
“You’d be surprised how many people don’t understand the bees’ importance,” Allen said.
In addition to producing honey, bees — along with a handful of other animals — pollinate roughly one-third of the produce we eat.
“The way this food system of ours works, it’s totally dependent on pollinators,” Rupp said.
Their education program seeks to familiarize consumers with bees and rehabilitate the nasty reputation the stinging insects have in popular imagination.
The pair also is hoping to generate interest in beekeeping as a possible career path. The beekeeping industry has fallen off in recent years as older beekeepers have retired.
“The industry is aging and it needs a push,” Allen said.
This, in combination with other threats like pesticides, has taken a toll on bee populations, contributing a sense of urgency to the Beez Kneez’s mission, Allen said.
Even if their Kickstarter project isn’t funded — Kickstarter projects that fail to reach their goal are scrapped and their backers keep their money — Allen says she and Rupp still expect to move forward with their expansion plans. They’re also applying for grants and, if needed, will take out loans to cover the costs.
Nick Woltman can be reached at 651-228-5189. Follow him on Twitter at @nickwoltman.
