2 0 2 0 2 0 1 7 C A T A L O G C A T A L O G GoldStarHoneybees.com Setting the Gold Standard for Natural Beekeeping ®
Gold Star Honeybees ® Setting the Gold Standard for Natural Beekeeping! We are proud to be a part of your beekeeping journey ... Beekeeping is odd. “It’s sort of a parallel universe,” someone once said to me. And that’s about right … because until you become a beekeeper, you probably don’t realize how many people you already know are also beekeepers – but when you get your first bees, they suddenly appear out of the woodwork. Where the heck were they all that time!? Christy Hemenway Owner, Author, Teacher, Speaker Gold Star Honeybees PO Box 62 Spruce Pine, NC 28777 828-552-5225 GoldStarHoneybees.com Ew Little did I know, when I founded Gold Star Honeybees back in 2007 where my own beekeeping journey would lead me, but since then I’ve been privileged to be a part of so many amazing beekeepers’ journeys that it is nothing short of humbling. We appreciate your interest in top bar hives, natural wax, treatment-free beekeeping - and we wish all the best to you and your bees. Bzzzzzt! Treatment-Free Honeybees “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, one finds it attached to the rest of the world.” – John Muir 2 GoldStarHoneybees.com Gold Star Honeybees is proud to offer you 3-pound packages of treatment-free bees with unmarked queens. These bees are raised with no chemical treatments, and on small-cell (4.9mm) foundation. They will do just fine in any hive, but they are ideally suited for natural wax hives due to their smaller size. These are hearty “mutt” bees - Italian, Carniolan, and Russian genetic mix. Get on the Bee List! Online bee sales begin in January each year. Bee the first to know when bees are available by joining our Bee List at GoldStarHoneybees.com bit.ly/Beelist 3
Gold Hive Kit Star TOP BAR BETTER FOR THE BEES FOR THE BEEKEEPER FOR THE PLANET! • Made of long lasting cypress Rear view with roof removed • 30 Gold Star top bars*: 17.5” long x 1.375” wide The Importance of the Top Bar • 2 follower boards • 20 spacers • 4” x 36” glass observation window (installed) • Screened hive bottom • Removable bottom board • All wooden parts - predrilled and countersunk Front view A Gold Star Top Bar Hive Kit is made of solid cypress - we don’t use any laminated wood products. Cypress, never needs painting! All Gold Star Hives come with a 4” x 36” glass observation window, installed with a super-strong nontoxic caulk. Observation windows are standard with all Gold Star hives! 4 • All hardware is included • Illustrated instructions included legs are removable as well for very easy moving or for storage. Two follower boards and two additional entrances on the back side of the hive makes splits and swams easy for advance bee keepers. Our hive kits also contain 30 of our finest quality, bevel-point top bars, 2 follower boards, and 20 spacers. It utilizes a screened bottom and a removable bottom board for mite monitoring. The GoldStarHoneybees.com View of observation window with shutter in place What matters most when choosing a top bar hive? The top bar of course! A Gold Star Top Bar sets the standard at 17 1/2” long. The bars measure 1 3/8” wide in order to accomodate brood rearing. Our full-length, beveled-point comb guide reduces crosscombing; and the ratio of weight: attachment is the best. Cross-combing is heartbreaking and can destroy your hive’s hard work. A quality top bar is extremely important for trouble-free inspections of your hive. Do not skimp in this critical area! To learn more about the Top Bar go to page 9 $695.00 Made in North Carolina, USA. Rear view with observation window with shutter removed The Gold Star Top Bar Hive Kit gets the GOLD STAR when it comes to easy inspections, quality construction, versatility, and in-the-field lifespan. It’s All About the Wax ... The best feature of a Gold Star Top Bar Hive is what goes on inside the hive ... Natural beeswax, made by bees, for bees makes for truly natural beekeeping. Honeybees make “brood comb” to raise babies in, and “honey comb” to store food in. This beeswax is made specifically for the very important things that bees do inside the hive. Sounds simple enough, bees make beeswax. That’s the way nature intended it. And bees know how to do it best. So in a Gold Star Hive, the bees make their comb naturally - and most importantly, they do it without any “assistance” in the form of sheets of embossed wax known as “foundation”. Learn more about why we say “It’s All about the Wax” in The Thinking Beekeeper - A guide to Natural Beekeeping in Top Bar Hives. GoldStarHoneybees.com 5
New-Bee Double TOP BAR Hive Starter Set The beauty of our New-Bee Double Set is that not only will you learn even more than TWICE AS MUCH, you will have EVERYTHING YOU NEED--right in your own bee yard TO GROW! Beginning your beekeeping journey with two hives can make a world of difference to you and your bees. To help you get started strong, we have created the New-Bee DOUBLE Hive Starter Set. Not only will you learn (more than!) twice as much, you will have valuable resources you need to support your hives --right in your own bee yard. The New-Bee DOUBLE Starter Set includes: • 2 Gold Star Top Bar Hive Kits - now made of cypress! • 2 Syrup Feeders The Thinking Beekeeper (regularly $25) • 1 Hive tool • Both Thinking Beekeeper books written by Christy Hemenway: - The Thinking Beekeeper - A Guide to Natural Beekeeping in Top Bar Hives - Advanced Top Bar Beekeeping - Next Steps for the Thinking Beekeeper Advanced Top Bar Beekeeping (regularly $29) Hive Tool (regularly $25) 2 Syrup Feeders (regularly $70) $1,400.00 Made in North Carolina, USA. 6 GoldStarHoneybees.com If you are New-Bee, be sure to look for the Gold Star next to additional items recommended for beginners. GoldStarHoneybees.com 7
New-Bee Single TOP BAR Hive Starter Set The New-Bee SINGLE Starter Set includes: Spare Top Bars All of our Hive Kits include 30 of our awesome Gold Star Top Bars - but there are plenty of reasons to want a few spare bars around. An actual Top Bar with Comb attached. What if you want to save a bar of honeycomb for later in the season? What if you lose a top bar? • 1 Gold Star Top Bar Hive Kit - now made of cypress! Or... even better! What if you could provide a bar of drawn comb to a new beekeeper to “pay it forward,” and help them get started? When it comes to encouraging your bees to build straight comb, the Gold Star Top Bar works best! - Set of 10 • 1 Syrup Feeder • 1 Hive tool • Both Thinking Beekeeper books written by Christy Hemenway: - The Thinking Beekeeper - A Guide to Natural Beekeeping in Top Bar Hives $110.00 Made in North Carolina, USA. - Advanced Top Bar Beekeeping - Next Steps for the Thinking Beekeeper *A Special Note about Interchangeability and Gold Star top bars: The Thinking Beekeeper (regularly $25) Syrup Feeder (regularly $35) Hive Tool (regularly $25) As one’s bee yard grows, interchangeability between hives is crucial! This one simple feature - interchangeability - enables you to solve problems between hives, simplifies all your hive management, and provides a wonderful way for you to be able to support new top bar beekeepers. The Gold Star top bar will fit in Golden Mean top bar hives and the former Bee Thinking and Bee Built top bar hives. (Unfortunately, the reverse is not true.) Do-It-Yourself Plans Build your own genuine Gold Star Top Bar Hive from scratch. Plans include: CAD construction drawings, material list, cut diagram, and assembly instructions. Metric and US dimensions. Advanced Top Bar Beekeeping (regularly $29) $750.00 Made in North Carolina, USA. 8 GoldStarHoneybees.com BONUS: Feeder plans are included. A PDF file is available for download upon ordering from the website. Print copy also available. NOTE: Advanced woodworking skills are required. GoldStarHoneybees.com $25.00 9
Tools Fondant Feeder Frames Sticky Board-Mite Monitoring Tool Set of 2 for Gold Star Top Bar Hive How do you feed a top bar hive in winter? With a Fondant Feeder! In this feeder, the fondant is suspended from above, just like a honeycomb, making it accessible to your bees in winter - when they cannot break cluster. Fondant recipe included. $35.00 White, flexible, reusable plastic. You can cut it with scissors, and secure it in place with thumbtacks. You can coat it with oil, wash it off, and use it again and again. $20.00 Spare Spacers Swarm Lure/Starter Comb Honeybees build their brood comb to a very specific width, and with a hallway between combs of 3/8”- the famous “bee space” dimension. This kit contains a piece of natural brood comb, the wire to fasten it to a top bar, and a dose of lemon- grass essential oil. Having this piece of brood comb in your hive, and wiping the oil on the inside of the hive makes things “smell” a little more like home. Prevents your bees from absconding! Honeycomb, on the other hand, is made for the storage of honey. Your bees will make the combs in their honey stores much fatter than their brood comb. Use spacers when needed between honey bars! Set of 10 $35.00 $25.00 CONNECTION IS IMPORTANT Are you looking for other folks near you who also keep bees on their own natural wax? Gold Star Honeybees sponsors Facebook groups so people of like mind can locate each other, around the globe. Beekeeping is hugely global and intensely local - both at the same time. The Global group is here: www.facebook.com/groups/TopBarHiveBeekeepers/ 10 GoldStarHoneybees.com Top Bar Hive Tool This top bar hive tool does all the things that need doing in your top bar hive. It slips easily between the top bars to separate them as you inspect your hive. It’s long and thin, perfect for the “windshield wiper” technique used to cut away any comb the bees may have stuck to the side of the hive. It cuts and scrapes and cleans when needed. Works great for every top bar beekeeper’s inspecting needs! $25.00 GoldStarHoneybees.com 11
Tools Top Bar Hive Nuc Box Honey Harvest Kit Harvest the treasures of your hive with ease with our Honey Harvest Kit. The Gold Star Honey Harvest kit includes a long handled crusher and two reusable nylon strainers for “crush and strain” honey harvesting. The strainer is fine enough to remove wax and bee parts, but it lets all the pollen and other good stuff through, making your honey nutritionally superior to honey that has been heated and/or over-filtered. The bottom bucket has a honey gate installed for ease in bottling. Simple and sweet! $125.00 Spare Strainers Replacement strainers for use in the Gold Star Honey Harvest kit (2-pack). 5-gallon size - fits the Gold Star Honey Harvest kit strainer bucket. Pollen gets through, wax and debris don’t. Re-usable! 8 Interchangeable Top Bars Whether you just need to move some natural beeswax comb, are working to increase the size of your apiary, or helping to launch another top bar hive beekeeper, this versatile nuc box is going to come in handy. Includes: 8 Gold Star top bars, 2 entrance corks, easy assembly instructions. Gold Star Top Bar are interchangeable with BeeThinking, Beebuilt, and Backyardhive hives. This versatile top bar with its ultra-reliable comb guide goes more places and does more things! $135.00 $12 .00 Top Bar Hive Syrup Feeder Starting a new colony often means that your bees don’t have any resources - no wax, no food, no brood, they’re just bees in an empty box! That’s a tough situation for bees, and while we advocate for bees eating only their own honey - in a case like this, if you don’t feed them, they can starve before they even get started. $35.00 12 GoldStarHoneybees.com GoldStarHoneybees.com 13
3 Easy ways to order! ✁ ➊ Visit us online: GoldStarHoneybees.com ➋ Call us at: 828-552-5225 Be sure and SUBSCRIBE to our FREE NEWSLETTER! ➌ Use the order form below Gold Star Honeybees ❏ Please sign me up for your newsletter now! Ordered By Name: Address: City: State: E-Mail: Zip: Phone: Ship To (If different than “Ordered By” above) Our WEEKEND INTENSIVE CLASS is two full days, soup to nuts, on keeping bees in top bar hives. This inspirational class can travel to you. If you’d like to know more about hosting a Weekend Intensive, you can request information by emailing us: classes@goldstarhoneybees.com Name: Address: City: State: Qty. The Thinking Beekeeper Educational Series Item Description Zip: Item Price Total Price The Thinking Beekeeper - A Guide to Natural Beekeeping in Top Bar Hives Buy BOTH • Bees live on their own natural wax and SAVE • Chemical free, sustainable colonies $4! • No heavy lifting for the beekeeper Advanced Top Bar Beekeeping - Next Steps for the Thinking Beekeeper • Year two and beyond • Splitting for increase • Supporting and pre-empting the swarm impulse $25 $29 Total Price of Items The definitive how-to and why-to books about keeping bees in top bar hives! North Carolina Residents Please Add Your County’s Sales Tax Online Top Bar Beekeeping Class TOTAL This engaging online class will boost your confidence and have you raising bees in no time! GoldStarHoneybees.com Please enclose your check or money order, payable to Gold Star Honeybees. Gold Star Honeybees Mail to: PO Box 62 Spruce Pine, NC 28777
Gold Star Honeybees ®
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