It's hard to find good help these days!
A grassroots approach
Shaana Way, DBA Grassroots Honey Co., Honey Joy Farm
Shaana has been a beekeeper for a decade - and it was love at first sting. With a passion for farming, gardening, and ecology, beekeeping brought together many aspects of Shaana’s interests into one sweet package.
In addition to producing honey, she breeds queen bees, makes candles, and provides pollination services to fruit growers. She also teaches beekeeping workshops and offers private consultations for managing and maintaining healthy hives.
Shaana has done two volunteer beekeeping education assignments abroad: in the Dominican Republic in 2018 and Jamaica in 2022.
Shaana has a farm in Galesburg where she cultivates native plants and trees that encourage a diverse and healthy diet for pollinators. She and her partner Matt also have two dogs, chickens, ducks, guinea fowl, a big garden, and a couple of goats. They are also slowly working on restoring an 1870 farmhouse. On the farm there is never a shortage of projects!
In recent years Shaana has become more of a "snow-bee" and has been migrating some of her colonies to the south to prep for almond pollination in California.