Pushing the Positives

Pushing the Positives

McB’s Bee Apiary started seven years ago with one beehive given to the McBride family as a Christmas gift. Now there are thirty hives that produce enough honey to use in the products that they sell. Heather McBride works with her husband, two sons, and stepdaughter to make the business run smoothly.

“Never in my life did I ever think that we would ever be beekeepers, but here I am,” Heather said.

The primary product that McB’s produces is obviously honey, however, Heather experiments and dabbles in making other things out of the beeswax. For example, at farmers markets you can find lotion bars, lip balm, etc. Along with just raw beeswax.

Heather is the current program director at the Longview Beekeepers Association where she schedules speakers and learns more and more from and about beekeepers in the area. She also works with them on different projects, including grafting queen bees for the Longview Arboretum. The extra projects and classes help Heather know more about bees, plants, and pollination to help McB’s be the most successful it can be(e).

Along with growing the business, Heather hopes that she can mentor people that visit their farm and help them have positive experiences with bees. She wants to show people that nine times out of ten, interactions with bees are positive.

My dream is just more on the educational side and continuing to grow and learn about bees.” - Heather McBride

In addition to selling their products at the Kilgore Farmers Market, they also sell online, and at Three Roots Boutique in Gladewater. They hope to expand to offer their merchandise at other markets and in more stores.

“My husband and I make these bees together,” Heather said. “We are both veterans who served in the U.S. Air Force and we are both constant learners at heart, so we just want to learn more about honeybees and pollination and be able to spread that knowledge with others.