Who We Are

OUR STORY

In 1994, my wife noticed that our neighbors' apple trees had way more apples than the ones growing in our own yard. Me, being a "why" person, needed to know more. After talking with my neighbor, I learned the secret of his success were mason bees. The following year I experimented with a backyard bee garden of my own and watched my apple trees flourish. I was hooked! Years later, my passion took over and I decided I had to find a way help these amazing pollinators thrive. So, I converted my garage into a work space and in 2008 Crown Bees was born.

Over the years, we've outgrown the garage. And, while we're still a small company, we've had a big impact. Through collaborations with researchers, peers, and community groups, we've set the standard for best practices in solitary bee raising and have helped thousands of people across the United States and Canada grow fresh, healthy food.

That desire to know "why" still drives Crown Bees. It's what keeps us informed on current challenges facing our bee populations and brings us together to find sustainable solutions. We hope you join us in asking why. You never know, your curiosity might just bring awareness and change to the world!

— Dave Hunter, Founder of Crown Bees

We Put Bees Health First

Our criteria for safe and healthy bees rests on meticulous harvesting techniques to remove pests and pollutants, educating our bee raisers on research-based best practices, bee-safe products, and sorting our cocoons by ecoregions to give the bees a better chance of survival when they emerge in the spring.
Commitment to Food Security

Growing food in community and home gardens can provide people with more access to healthy fresh fruits and vegetables. Our Community Garden Pollination program builds awareness and provides information about cavity-nesting bees to visitors of the gardens, while also providing spring and summer pollination to increase garden yields.
In Balance With Nature

We are continuously updating our business practices to be more environmentally responsible and look to nature first for inspiration. We are committed to being transparent about our sustainability goals and progress towards our targets.
Collaborative Community

We work and partner with beekeepers, landowners, researchers, K-12 schools, universities, nonprofits, and government agencies to stay informed on the current challenges facing our bee populations and to bring together the best practices for solving those challenges.
Innovate and Inspire

Our success - and much of the excitement - stems from the innovative ideas that are generated within our collaborative community and our passion to share that knowledge to inspire others!
Our Goal is Your Success

Our goal is to help people help bees. Through educational and community programs, school resources, our evidence-based online knowledge base, newsletters and blogs, and our self-service support center, we aim to help people address food insecurity, sustainability, and solitary bee conservation.