DancesWithBees, LLC

Website: danceswithbees.com

Certified Naturally Grown (more info)

This grower has a photo album.

Dances With Bees in Cornelia, GA is a small chemical-free beekeeping operation owned by Patti Parsons and Jay Parsons, a certified Master Beekeeper with apiaries in White, Banks, Habersham, and Fulton counties. We specialize in gourmet and varietal honey products, pure beeswax candles and natural bath and body products handcrafted with quality ingredients which incorporate honey and beeswax from the hives. We are passionate about the honeybee and also work within the community to inform and educate the public about the importance of the honeybee in the food chain. We are proud to announce that Dances With Bees apiaries is Certified Naturally Grown! To obtain this certification we must adhere to strict management practices that ensure our honey is as “organic” as possible. You can view our profile on the Certified Naturally Grown website. In addition we also have our honey house inspected annually by the Georgia Department of Agriculture. As a result, we have a Food Sales Establishment License: #3156409.

Also, for wild foraged mushrooms see Wild Mushroom Food Safety Certification: ID# 363
With our bath and body products our mission is to use natural and naturally sourced innovative ingredients to offer quality products that are “As Natural As Possible” and safe. Our products are free from parabens, phthalates, formaldehyde releasers, and SLS. We utilize several certified organic ingredients. We search for the best quality essential oils and do not use synthetic fragrance oils in our leave-on products. Last and not least, are our hive products; what could be more natural than honey?
Our products flow from our ethics and the environmentally responsible lifestyle which we’ve had before we were Dances With Bees and before being green was cool!
We produce honey, wax, propolis as well as other value added products such as soap and body care items.
Sustainable beekeeping is a critical aspect of what we are doing. As it looks increasingly difficult to manage bees and reliably halt their decline something must change. We are focusing on contributing to our ecoregion with the raising of our own locally-adapted bees. This should positively enhance a more resilient, healthy and indigenous population of bees living in the wild and in our apiaries as well as those of other beekeepers. As a point of diversity Jay actively seeks out bee swarms and bees from removals, then adds them to our apiaries.
We are nearly treatment free, but will occasionally enhance the IPM process with organic miticides for those hives that didn’t get a good start to the season. In the development stages of nucleus hives we will frequently use sugar syrup for short periods until they can move into a honey production phase.
Jay enters honey contests every year and usually wins some awards. He won Best of Show at the Georgia State Beekeepers Association meeting two years in a row (2014 & 2015) for a nice purple ribbon. He also won a first and second place in the 2015 Georgia National Fair in Perry, Georgia. In 2016 Jay won 1st place in the 6th Annual International Black jar contest with his Poplar honey. (see the pix page!)
Jay is a UGA Certified Master Beekeeper and also a Senior Welsh Honey Judge.
Feel free to contact us at our email address: soapnhoney@danceswithbees.com