Today we’d like to introduce you to Dave Noble.
Hi Dave, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
While Red Beard Bees LLC, is a ‘pandemic born’ business that got its official start in the spring of 2020, it was more than 25 years in the making. I started my journey of breeding and keeping bees in the mid-1990s under the mentorship of Sue Cobey at the Ohio State University’s Rothenbuhler Honey Bee Research Lab when I was a student. What started out as a humble work-study position, learning to tend to the bees and the basics of breeding queens, ended up turning into a lifelong passion for bees, beekeeping, and bee breeding, as well as teaching beekeepers and non-beekeepers about bees. I was working as a beekeeper and educator at a Central Ohio Nature Center for just over 7 years when the 2020 pandemic dramatically changed life for a lot of people, including me and the bees. Luckily, my love of bees and years of experience meant that it was an easy decision to turn this work into our own business that could eventually provide a job and a living for both my wife, Devon, and I. Since starting Red Beard Bees in the spring of 2020 Devon and I have been working hard to establish the fundamentals of our new business. This included a 2021 move to a house on a half-acre lot in Whitehall, on the east side of Columbus, that could better accommodate growing a small honeybee business. Almost immediately upon moving onto the new property we began construction of ‘The Rainbows End’; a Honey House that would be the home, heart, and headquarters of Red Beard Bees. The Rainbows End Honey House is a dedicated space where we can harvest and bottle honey, as well as other hive products like honey-based candies, beeswax candles, and beeswax body and beauty products. We have also designed The Rainbows End it so that we can host Open Houses throughout the year that will allow our customers to come visit and see exactly how we care for our bees and how we harvest and create the hive products they love.
Red Beard Bees is committed to producing local products for local customers in a transparent and sustainable manner. That commitment is realized through participation in local Farmers Markets, as well as direct sales from The Rainbows End, and wholesaling our honey to local, small businesses such as The Bexley Natural Market and Clintonville Natural Foods. The use of glass, metal, or paper containers (no plastics!) for our products is an important sustainability standard at Red Beard Bees as well. We even purchased a new hybrid pick-up truck so that even our deliveries, market days, and trips to our many bee yards throughout Columbus will be more sustainable and have a lower ‘footprint.’
The 3 years since the ‘birth’ of Red Beard Bees have been filled with growth and challenges for Devon and I, both personally and for Red Beard Bees as a business. One important lesson that we have learned is that when we work together as a team, manage our expectations, and try to keep ourselves focused on building a solid foundation, we are able to weather both the challenges and the growth.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Just like anyone else starting a small business, we have had many obstacles and challenges, both small and large. But it was never anything out of the ordinary until December 1st of 2023. That was the day we returned home from grocery shopping to find a kitchen fire was filling our house with smoke! Luckily, our beloved puppy, Gracie, went with us on our errands as she usually does. And while the Fire Department was able to save the structure of our home from succumbing to the flames, the entire interior was so damaged by the smoke that we are now faced with a complete gut and rebuild of the interior of our home. This means that for at least the next 6 months (or more) we will be living away from our home and business headquarters. During these six months, our time and attention will be divided between running and growing our business as well as being very involved in the rebuilding of our home. Not only will our time and attention be stretched thin over these next six months, but so will our budget. While we do have insurance, it will only cover so much of the recovery and rebuilding costs. A dear friend of ours set up a GoFundMe campaign to help us meet the shortfall in insurance coverage (https://gofund.me/c572176a). While we have sadly had to put a pause on direct sales to allow us time to focus on the immediate aftermath of the fire, we will be rolling out a ‘Recover from the Fire Sale’ in late January 2024 so that our customers can help us raise the extra rebuilding funds that we need by simply buying our honey and other hive products. Even with this extremely inauspicious and challenging end to 2023, we feel certain that we are going to be able to weather this and come through it with an even stronger foundation.
We’ve been impressed with Red Beard Bees, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
The name Red Beard Bees tends to get a lot of attention, especially when people get a look at my big Red Beard. But there is more to the name than just my beard. I grew up surrounded by stories of the golden age of pirates, and like so many other people, I dreamed of growing up to be a pirate one day. It was the realization that, as a beekeeper, I do indeed steal ‘golden treasure’ for a living that I knew I needed a pirate name. “Red Beard” seemed a fittingly piratical moniker given my facial hair. But the name is more than just a cute nod to pirates; It is a reminder that ‘harvesting’ honey is indeed theft of a sort. Harvests, or heists, of honey, have to be done in a way that accounts for what the bees will need in order to survive and be healthy enough to continue producing their golden treasure. Also, Red Beard Bees does not denote possession; It is not Red Beard’s Bees because the bees are not my property. The bees are my partners; we are working as a team! Red Beard Bees is our team name! A good reminder that we, and the bees, are in this together. Because a successful beekeeper is someone who understands that they work for the bees; the bees do not work for the beekeeper. This relationship model is true of any decent livestock operation. Red Beard Bees also prides itself on being a small, local business because it allows us to focus on the quality of our products rather than looking for ways to increase our expansion and growth. We can provide our “Hive Ripened, Hand Harvested” local honey BECAUSE we are a smaller business. We can wait for our BEES to finish ripening the honey rather than harvesting it when it is convenient for US and then ripening it in industrial dehydrators. We apply a similar philosophy to our beeswax products as well. We handmake our beeswax body products (butters, creams, balms, etc.) in small batches. “Small batch, handmade beeswax body products” isn’t just a slogan; it allows us to control the quality of each batch more effectively as well as allowing us to implement improvements and act on customer feedback more quickly than a large-scale production model would.
Being a smaller business does mean that it can take a little longer for us to bring new items and products to market because it is just Devon and I developing those new products. We often can only work on just one or two new items at any given time. But we believe that the strongest foundations are the ones built on slow, steady growth, not fast, expansive growth.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out.
I am very grateful for the mentorship that I received when I first got into beekeeping. I learned several important basics that, nearly 30 years later, still benefit me on a daily basis. In fact, I still teach these principles to all of my beekeeping students. You work for the bees; they don’t work for you.
Be patient; beekeeping takes time to understand and can never be mastered.
Always remain curious and engaged. Never think that you have learned enough about bees or beekeeping.
Bees know more about bees than any book or person ever will. So always double-check with the bees about any new beekeeping ideas or techniques.
Bees never lie; believe them.
Standardize your equipment. Beekeepers have a ridiculous number of different-sized hive boxes and other equipment to choose from. Pick what works for you and stick to that standard.
These principles will help ensure that you center the bees and their health throughout your beekeeping journey.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.redbeardbees.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redbeardbees
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/redbeardbees
Image Credits
Dave Noble
Devon Noble
Tisa Watts
