About Bees & Trees

A Gift Created by the Bees and Trees for You

From the Remote Hillsides of Taranaki, New Zealand

Each detail of our company reflects our passion for the environment. From the all-natural processes we use to create our small-batch Mānuka honey to the development of region specific, Taranaki, New Zealand honey, we are dedicated to creating a product that you can trust.

Where Does the Honey Come From?

Mānuka Honey is honey made when bees forage on the nectar of the flowering Mānuka tree, which is native to, and grows mainly in New Zealand.

New Zealand has a worldwide reputation as a "clean & green" place, and by world standards, much of New Zealand has been only lightly touched by the impact of human development.

Research performed in New Zealand & in Germany in the 1990s identified a unique and potent antibacterial property of Mānuka honey which stimulated worldwide interest and markets. Methylglyoxal (abbreviated MG or MGO) directly correlates with this antibacterial property. Active Mānuka honeys contain varying degrees of dietary methylglyoxal. Mānuka honey has been termed a "superfood" for its overall health and wellness properties.

How We Make Our Honey

Our All-Natural Hive-to-Jar Process

Flowering Mānuka Trees

Mānuka Honey is made from the flowering Mānuka tree, native to and found growing naturally predominantly in New Zealand. The Mānuka tree has a white flower, sometimes tinged with pink. In the Taranaki region where we operate, the Mānuka trees are typically in bloom during January and February each summer.

Honeybees Transform Mānuka Nectar into Mānuka Honey

We place our hives into areas with a high concentration of wild Mānuka trees in some of the most pristine wilderness of New Zealand. Our bees forage nectar among the native trees in these areas to create our Mānuka Honey.

Harvesting - Processing - Packing Mānuka Honey

We harvest and extract the honey in small batches. Each batch relates to one of our specific cropping areas. Each season we hand select certain batches to be packed into our glass jars and display the Bees & Trees label. Our honey is raw, natural, and minimally processed, we call it "hive-to-jar” honey!

How Do We Know It Is Mānuka Honey?

After our Mānuka Honey is extracted, an independent laboratory tests each batch for 4 chemical and 1 DNA marker used to authenticate that it meets the standards set by the New Zealand government to rate as a mono-floral Manuka honey. The honey is further tested for the level of MG or dietary methylglyoxal which correlates with the honey’s healing and wellness properties. Higher MG levels means better antibacterial properties of the honey.

Our Company
Story

How Bees & Trees Began

Bees & Trees Honey was founded while my family and I were living in New Zealand from 2009-2012. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, I continue to carefully manage all aspects of the business with frequent trips to New Zealand and lots of time video conferencing. The pristine environment of New Zealand is world renowned. Our cropping sites are mostly surrounded by native forests, and they are remote even by New Zealand standards.

Our honey comes from the Taranaki region and we believe that the microclimate of this region contributes to the superior taste of our honey. Our bees are looked after carefully to maintain the health and strength of each colony year round. All this is done so they can do one thing especially well—produce for you, our customer, one of the world s best tasting, and most amazing all natural health beneficial products, Bees & Trees Mānuka Honey.

-Mike Everly, Founder of Bees & Trees

Our Values

We uphold our values in every aspect of our honey making process and company practices.

Authenticity and Transparency:

We are small and family-owned and take pride in educating our consumers as if they were in our own kitchen. In addition, our retailers are independent, local health food stores where you can learn and engage with people who are knowledgeable about Mānuka honey, and are typically passionate about natural approaches to wellness and healing.
Respect and Care:
We believe in the idea that if you take care of and respect nature, nature will take care of you, too. The ecosystem in our region of New Zealand is a critical partner in our work there. The health of the native forests and our operations there combine to create what can only be described as a gift from nature. We are actively involved in programs for invasive pest control, native forest restoration, and re-population of threatened and endangered native bird species in the region.
Natural Wellness:
We believe that the majority of our healthcare routines should come from natural, safe sources like Mānuka honey. Mānuka honey can have a positive impact on wellness from immune support to supporting digestive health and infection prevention.
Trust:
We take pride in creating a product you can trust. We are transparent with each and every batch we produce, backed by independent lab test results and labeling. Our product is always pure, small-batch, and the best-quality possible. We do not cut corners in our beekeeping operations, our honey extraction or honey packing. We focus on quality down to how each jar of honey is packaged to ship and arrive safely at your home.