The History behind "Sister Love Bee Balm"

Life as I knew it changed after reading “The Secret Life of Bees”

There is an unexplained amount of joy in beekeeping. I love pulling the honey-laden frames from the beehives and spending the day in the sanctuary of my bee shack with a hot decapping knife and smelling the beeswax as it drops into the screened container bin. Then the frames are spun in my extractor where I can have immediate access to the best honey I’ve ever tasted. Things taste better from your own backyard. So I was very excited about the “simple” life of selling and eating my honey until my husband dropped a piece of sizzling steak fat on the top of his foot.

I decided to make him a balm from the by-products of the beehive. Honey is known as an excellent healing proponent for skin ailments. But I had been researching more about propolis. The honeybees make propolis from tree resin. It has multiple uses in the beehive. They use it primarily to seal cracks in the hive against sunlight and also the cold. The girls (bees) are immaculate home keepers and propolis has strong anti-bacterial components. Propolis has been used for centuries by the Romans, Greeks and Egyptians. A short list of its attributes is: antibiotic, healing of burns, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and anticoagulant. It has a high amount of flavonoids which is linked to the strong antibiotic effects.

I had several ingredients in my shack that had similar healing properties so I mixed them up in a little bowl and approached my new favorite guinea pig husband with the bum foot. I have to say he was in a lot of pain and would barely let me place my balm on his burn. We left it on overnight with a bandage and the next morning it had healed the burn completely. I kept poking his foot with more pressure and we were both amazed at the results.

So hoping it wasn’t just a one person wonder, I then spread the balm to anyone with a cut, burn, chapped lips, cracked knuckles, scraped knees, paper cuts and the results were truly remarkable. Josh’s foot was a very fast heal and I used a high amount of propolis for him. Propolis has its own tricky attributes that make it impractical in too high of a percentage in general skin healing balms. It is referred to as “bee duct tape” or “caulk” for the hive and is the stickiest, most difficult product to deal with. I learned there is such a thing as too much propolis, too many essential oils, and too much wine. (It was fun experimenting back then).

Since then I have found my favorite combination of shea, mango, cocoa butters along with honey, beeswax, propolis, lavender, lemongrass, tea tree oil and many other delightful healing ingredients. I suggest googling “Helichrysum” for an amazing essential oil in anti-aging treatments.

I have seen how quickly a cut heals, how quickly the pain is relieved, how quickly the redness due to inflammation disappears and how the skin is rejuvenated with the Shea and mango butters and lavender. The feedback I receive most is the rapid healing of skin without the itchy scab side effects. It is most effective on a cut when wrapped and left on overnight or 24 hours depending on the severity.

I am proud to make all of my balms with only natural ingredients that are treated as organically as possible. I treat my beehives organically but the honeybees can fly up to 5 miles so it is stretch for most beekeepers to make a true organic claim. I use high quality organic unrefined Shea butter that is fair trade certified. It is the top ingredient in all my balms.

Although I’m not claiming to cure the world’s diseases, the ability to share a product that is made from the ingredients I believe so strongly in with the history of healing to back it up, is a new indescribable joy.

For any questions, please contact me at shamrockbeefarms@gmail.com

Our Sister Love Bee Keeper Tami