About Mill Run Honey
Mill Run Honey is a hobby ‘sideliner’ beekeeping operation with apiary locations in Fishers and Noblesville, Indiana. We began in the Spring of 2007 with just one hive, and then expanded a bit each year to our current size of twenty hives. We typically harvest honey at the end of summer (August/September) and then use the extracted comb wax ‘cappings’ to make our lip balm and skin care products along with 100% beeswax candles.
Our Philosophy
We became interested in bees because we believe it is part of our great privilege and responsibility to care for natural creation—and because bees are in trouble. Fairly recently, honeybees have been greatly stressed by parasites (the worst being the invasive ‘Varroa Destructor’ mite) and also the appearance of colony collapse disorder, where a hive mysteriously loses a majority of its worker population (they fly off and ‘disappear’) and subsequently dies. The cause of CCD is not totally clear, but studies seem to indicate exposure to neurotoxic pesticides (mainly from agricultural use) along with the stress from parasites and other pathogens to be the most likely explanation. Regardless of the cause, the effect of losing bees touches each one of us, as bees are responsible for pollinating at least a third of our fruit and vegetable crops, as well as pollination of many trees, shrubs, and flowering plants that are part of the invaluable web of life. We can all help the bees by taking up beekeeping—or by supporting the efforts of local beekeepers as consumers of their bee products.
Mill Run Honey is committed to natural beekeeping methods. We can’t control where the bees get their nectar and pollen since bees may fly as far as three miles in their foraging, but we are fortunate that our hives are sited in naturalized areas near Conner Prairie and the White River floodplain of Fishers or to the Stoney Creek watershed in Noblesville. These areas have an abundance of wildflowers and trees and almost no commercial agriculture activity. We can keep our hive management practices natural and holistic by not using chemical pesticides and feeding supplements that may affect the bees long-term health. By working with nature we try to keep the parasite stress lessened and the bees with the best adapted genetics thriving.