July 2017 (Part 2)
Continued from Part 1...
For those of you who may be finding us for the first time, allow me to give a very brief history of our little company. After returning from the mission field of Honduras in 2010, God opened doors for us to begin (2012) making and selling beehives made of local eastern red cedar. Sales continued to grow, we refined the process, either located or made machines, and built a shop where it all happens. Much of the time, I (Bob) am the only one working. Kathy helps when she can as well as family from time to time. Erin is not only the mother of the two best grandsons in the world, but does a fantastic job on the web page. We have hired seasonal help in the shop which is a huge help. Special neighbors(Carl and Diane) take the cut out parts to their home and do the bulk of the assembly work.
The actual wood process is basically: pick up the rough sawn cedar from a local sawmill, stack it under roof to dry for a few months, then run it through the jointer, table saw, planer, and miter saw. Then, depending on which piece, each board is worked with a variety of saws set for special cuts. Finally, the assembly work. After it gets back to the shop, the hive bodies and supers are sanded and ready to spray on sealer.
I should mention that cedar trees do not grow very large in diameter. The widest boards I can get (7”) will make medium supers, but for deep hive bodies we have to glue two boards together. Cedar also has many blemishes in the wood, so we are throwing out many many boards. Sometimes as much as 25% of the lumber is culled out. So, we have lots of raised garden beds around our place. Anybody need boards for raised gardens? I can fix you up if you come by!
Again we thank you for choosing our hives and really enjoy giving you personal attention. We hope that you will grasp that our higher goal is not to sell hives but assist people in their life endeavors. We earnestly pray that in this interaction, Christ will be glorified and each of us will seek more and more of His presence in our lives. A constant thought I have had lately is that no matter what the question in our life might be, Christ is the Answer.
