When Dave Stotesbury and Vincent Sowa met at a beekeeping course at the University of Guelph’s Honey Bee Research Centre, little did they know they’d become friends and co-founders of the wildly popular honey business – Backed By Bees.
The north Burlington production, nestled on the Niagara Escarpment with Mount Nemo as its backdrop, specializes in raw honey, honey soda, honey-based sustainable alcohol, and more. Its store at 6214 Appleby Line also carries a wide range of local products from a host of area farms, including items such as maple syrup, beeswax candles, and sauces.
“It all started over lunch and an interest in bees,” said Stotesbury, who said he made fast friends with Sowa over common interests: both are married with young children, and care about the natural world.
Easy to spot from the roadside, the bright yellow buildings at Backed by Bees brew honey-based sustainable alcohol and offer a variety of raw honey in the shop. Visitors to the four-acre site can meander their way through the farm’s tour yard, see the beehives up close, sit under shade trees and watch bees pollinate before winding their way back to the shop where the sweet stuff is bottled.
Alcohol made from honey is called mead and is the oldest known alcoholic beverage in history, pre-dating both beer and wine by thousands of years. It’s 100 per cent fermented from honey.
Backed By Bees is the only operating meadery in the GTA and there are only nine in the province.
Burlington resident Sowa, 44, who’s the meadmaker, wanted to inspire people to connect with nature and to help protect the pollinating honey bees that support our global food supply.
Stotesbury, who calls Waterloo home, is the beekeeper, and in charge of a whopping 700 hives scattered across the Halton region at 26 different locations. That equals out to more than 15 tonnes of honey (picture 3,000 gallons of paint).
“Every beekeeper wants to start a meadery,” said Sowa, who enjoys experimenting with different flavours and ingredients in his products that have an alcoholic content ranging from 3.5 to more than 20 per cent. The beverages taste similar to wine or cider coolers, while those with more alcohol content are more of a sipping treat, much the same as ice wine.
Sowa served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 15 years – first in the regular force and then as a Naval warfare officer.
After that, he worked at TD for seven years before he decided he’d be happier pursuing his passion for the environment and getting the public to connect with nature. Backed By Bees does just that, and it’s one of the reasons they chose the name for the business – it's literally backed by bees.
They invite visitors to interact with two million honey bees onsite and witness the fascinating pollination process in the pollinator garden, deepening the connection to nature. They’ve planted a large variety of flowers and plan to add more going forward.
The garden allows visitors to peek into the busy life of bees as they work together to produce raw honey and pollinate much of the food supply.
Stotesbury, 33, meanwhile, has long been a beekeeper. At 18 years old, he started out in Ayr with hives at his parents' house.
Stotesbury has two youngsters, aged four and two, and another is on the way. Sowo is also a father to three, 14, 12 and 10 years old.
In addition to the 30 hives on site at Backed By Bees, they’ve also got remote locations set up at the rooftop of the Burlington Centre, as well as IKEA and Oakville Place. A remote camera is set up at the Burlington Centre location so visitors can see what’s happening in the hives from inside the mall at a kiosk. They’ve got additional hives at Hillfield Strathallan College and Mohawk College in Hamilton, as well as Delmanor Retirement Living in Oakville.
“These hives are for an environmental service,” Stotesbury said. Two hives can provide 1,200 acres of pollination, so it’s a community service.
The tour yard at Backed by Bees, Bat Land, Butterfly Land, Bird Land and of course the beehives, provide an educational place for anyone to learn more about pollination and how important bees are to food production. It’s a popular spot for families as well as school groups.
And yes, to answer everyone’s question, Stotesbury gets regular bee stings.
“Four to five a day - that’s not a great day,” he said, but noted he’s built up an immunity over the last two years. While it still hurts, the pain and itching that newbies feel is much less intense.
“I’m not going to wear that hot ‘astronaut’ suit,” he laughed.
They’ve limited their environmental footprint when it comes to the shop, the honey processing, and mead-making area. Using two retired shipping containers, and their own handyman skills, they turned it into a fully-functioning retail store, complete with taps. During weekend events, they also have a large barbecue on site to offer food.
Stotesbury, who’s also the vice president of the Ontario Beekeepers Association, said he sells bees from the farm, since there is enormous interest in beekeeping as a hobby (under 50 hives is considered a hobby, he states).
Honey soda takes all the nutrients from their farm fresh wildflower honey into every batch to make it a refreshing, tasty craft soda.
Their mead products include BeeSippin Maple - 14 per cent, or Beehaven, MissBeehaven and Hey Honey (hibiscus berry) seasonals.
All of the meads are naturally gluten-free, with no added sugar and start with a base of fermented honey from hives on the farm.
Products are available online through backedbybees.com or honeysoda.com, and at Marylou’s in Burlington.
The retail store is open for drop in or pre-orders, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Friday from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Go to backedbybees.com to learn more.
