Each year as the holiday season rolls around, there’s an absolute flurry of shopping and purchasing that occurs as people try to find gifts for each other.
There are more options than ever, and yet, it often seems like it is harder than ever before to find something meaningful to give.
Luckily, we’ve compiled an entire list of awesome holiday gifts below that you can give that are sure to impress your recipient and you’ll also contribute to the world-wide efforts to help save honey bees!
Let’s take a look.
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For Aspiring Beekeepers
To start off, we’ve got a list of gifts that you can give to any friends or family that aspire to take up backyard beekeeping.
Backyard beekeepers need a number of supplies in order to be successful and any of the gifts below can go a long way to helping with that success.
Beginner Beekeeping Instruction
There is a lot to learn in order to be a good backyard beekeeper.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot of incorrect or confusing information floating around online (thank you Facebook) including from many people who have never even done backyard beekeeping.
Understandably, this makes it difficult for new beekeepers to know which resources are reliable and which are not.
Enter the perfect gift for beginning beekeepers that you can trust to be accurate: beekeeping instruction offered by experienced beekeepers.
Many local beekeeping associations, beekeeping supply companies, and experienced beekeepers offer classes designed to help new backyard beekeepers get their footing.
These classes are typically held on the weekends and usually only happen once or twice per season.
You can expect that the trustworthy instructors will have an absolute minimum of 5 years (preferably 10+) of recent beekeeping experience and will charge anywhere from $100-$350 for their expertise.
$100 - $300
Beginner beekeeping instruction is one of the most valuable gifts you can give to an aspiring beekeeper. The best instructors will be experienced beekeepers with at least 5 years of recent beekeeping experience and will likely cost somewhere in the range of $100 - $300+.
*Clicking the button above will scroll you down to our training resource interest list signup form.
But there’s a new, much more flexible training resource that is coming to backyard beekeepers very soon offered by none other than your’s truly 🙂
We've developed a one-of-a-kind online beekeeping course for new and aspiring backyard beekeepers.
We call it Backyard Beekeeping Launchpad.
This course seriously blows every other beginning beekeeper training resource out of the water and, yes, you can give it as a gift!
If you want to give Backyard Beekeeping Launchpad as a gift, look for a small button that says "Is this order a gift?" during your checkout process.
Click "Yes" and you'll be prompted to specify who it is for.
This is sure to be a gift that will delight your giftee and help you score major brownie points.
Bee Packages
Without a doubt, the most exciting purchase a backyard beekeeper makes throughout the whole season is their bee packages (or nucs).
You, as the gift giver, can really make their day by covering this expense for them. Depending on availability, where you’re located, and many other factors, you can expect a standard, good quality 3 lb. bee package to cost $150+.
$150+
A 3 lb. bee package contains enough bees for a backyard beekeeper to successfully start one hive. Bee packages are typically pre-ordered from November to mid-March (perfect timing for giving these as a holiday gift) and arrive in late April or early May.
*Please note that our bee packages are local pickup only (Utah or Salt Lake Counties) & are not available for purchase year round.
*Clicking the button above will redirect you to our Bee Package Pre-Order page.
If you’re concerned about which specie of honey bee to gift, we recommend either Italian or Carniolan bees (our favorites are the Italians). We’ve got a post comparing these two bee species here if you’d like additional information.
Starter Kit Items
Once bee packages are purchased, the next items backyard beekeepers turns their attention to are woodenware and other beekeeping supplies.
The bees need a hive to live in and the beekeeper needs a suit for protection + the tools needed to work inside the hive.
All of the essential items a backyard beekeeper needs are included in most Starter Kits offered by beekeeping supply companies. A good, quality kit will typically around $500.
$500+
Starter Kits contain all of the essential items backyard beekeepers need to get started. As a gift to your backyard beekeeping friend or family member, you can either provide the entire Starter Kit or just individual items from the kit.
*Clicking the button above will add this product to your shopping cart.
Whether you purchase the entire kit or a few individual items, I can guarantee that your friend/family member will be forever grateful for your support.
Other Beekeeping Supplies
Piggy-backing off of gift idea #3, you can also gift other beekeeping supplies that your beekeeping friend or family member may need.
Some common tools beekeepers need throughout the season include:
$10 - $300
In addition to the standard backyard beekeeping supplies, there are a number of other items backyard beekeepers frequently use. Any of these additional items make great gift ideas.
*Clicking the button above will redirect you to our Beekeeping Supplies category page.
The benefit to providing these tools and supplies as gifts is that there are many options that are far more affordable than the first 3 ideas list, but will be greatly appreciated nonetheless.
For The Non-Beekeeper
We’ve given a great list of gifts you can give to an aspiring backyard beekeeper but what about your friends and family that aren’t beekeepers?
Perhaps they can’t be a backyard beekeeper for medical reasons or maybe they just don’t want to take care of bees.
No problem. We’ve got a great holiday gift list specifically for non-beekeepers as well.
Raw Honey
A favorite holiday gift, no matter where you live, has always been raw honey straight from a beehive.
Raw honey provides a unique way to spread holiday cheer. It goes particularly well with deliciously homemade breads, rolls, or pastries and is all but guaranteed to delight your recipient.
Best of all, raw honey is very inexpensive compared to most gifts you can give during the holidays.
For $35 or less, you can give this super tasty gift to friends, family, neighbors, and acquaintances.
$2 - $30
Raw honey straight from a beehive is one of the easiest, yet most satisfying gifts you can give. It goes especially well with homemade bread loafs, pastries, or other similar baked goods.
*Clicking the button above will redirect you to our Honey category page
If you really want to give raw honey on the cheap, you can get 2 oz. honey bears for just a few dollars and make holiday costumes for them (they make for especially good elves 🙂 )
Adopted Beehive
One of the most unique honey bee gifts you can give also happens to be one of my personal favorites: an adopted beehive experience.
Beehive adoption programs are similar to other animal adoption programs such as the program hosted by our long-time friends at the Alaska Raptor Center.
At the core, beehive adoption programs allow you to contribute funds to helping save honey bees. In return, you’re usually granted a 1-year adoption period complete with an adoption certificate and some honey from your adopted hive.
Though the emphasis is on helping honey bees, the additional perks that come with adopting your own beehive are pretty nice.
Prices for hive adoptions can vary widely, ranging anywhere from $100 to over $2,000 for a 1-year adoption.
At Bear Country Bees, our Adopt-A-Hive packages range from $99 - $499.
$99 - $499
Beehive adoptions feature a 1-year adoption period in which you receive the benefits promised in your chosen adoption package.
In addition to the standard adoption certificate, honey from your hive, and periodic updates, you'll unlock access to several unique gifts only available to our adoptive parents.
*Clicking the button above will redirect you to our Adopt-A-Hive page
Now, if you’re super lucky, you might also get a few additional items with your adoption package.
Nowhere is that more apparent than the items we’ve included in our recent overhaul of our own Adopt-A-Hive program.
If you really want to win points with your giftee, I’ll unashamedly recommend you consider adopting one of our beehives.
In doing so, you’ll get several unique gift items you won’t find in any other beehive adoption program.
Note: To give someone the gift of one of our adopted hives, simply indicate the recipient name and address in the Order Notes section of the checkout process.
You can find the Order Notes section as indicated in the screenshot below.
Christmas Tree Beeswax Candle Set
If you or your giftee celebrate Christmas or simply enjoy the look of the iconic Christmas tree, you can gift a set of beeswax Christmas Tree candles.
This candle set is really affordable coming in at just under $20.
Made from 100% pure beeswax straight from a beehive, these candles are a holiday favorite that have an incredible scent.
As an added bonus, they also have a different melting point than the standard paraffin scented candles. This helps them to not drip and also makes them last longer than other candles do.
$19.99
This candle set comes with a small, medium, and large Christmas tree candle all made from 100% pure beeswax. This set is an especially great holiday gift when paired with raw honey and a loaf of homemade bread.
*Clicking the button above will add this product to your shopping cart.
If you want to go the extra mile, you can pair beeswax candles with some raw honey and a loaf of homemade bread to create a truly memorable gift basket.
Other Honey Bee Related Gifts
Honey bees create a surprising number of opportunities for gift giving outside of all of the things mentioned above.
For example, the following are great options for holiday gifts if you find yourself stuck:
Hopefully, you can see that you don’t have to be a beekeeper or even be interested in honey bees to find a suitable gift for someone who does have that deep interest.
You’ve got a great list of possible honey bee-related gifts you could give during the holiday season…
or for birthdays…
or anniversaries…
or for other celebratory occasions like Arbor Day…
or… 🙂
From this list (or perhaps something that wasn’t mentioned), what honey bee gift would you most like to give to a special friend or family member? What about that gift makes it the perfect match for that person? How do you think/hope they will receive the gift?
What other unique holiday honey bee gifts would you add to this list?
I’d love to hear about your awesome gift ideas, so please leave us a comment below with your answer(s).
Bryce
