Today we’d like to introduce you to Blake Shook.
Blake, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Two things fascinated me growing up: the outdoors and starting my own business. I experimented with every business I could dream up as a kid living in rural Texas. Lemonade stands, (not much traffic on country roads) raising and selling vegetables and fresh eggs, (hard to grow things in dust) painting the farmer’s fences next door, (ran out of the wall), but nothing was ever quite the perfect fit. My big break came in 2002 at 12 years old. I had never been that interested in beekeeping before, because, bees sting right? But, my parents convinced me to sign up for a scholarship that offered kids all they needed to get started in beekeeping. I had never won anything for free, so I was super excited when, to my surprise, I won a free beehive, and classes to help me get started in beekeeping. Two classes in, I fell in love with beekeeping. I’ll never forget the thrill of watching my bees work to gather honey or the amazement of tasting honey from my beehive! Everything they did fascinate me!
I built my first building by cutting down trees for lumber on my parent’s land and using recycled sheet metal. It had no electricity, water, floor, or air conditioning, but it was perfect. I spent days and nights building new beehives and planning for the future. I decided in high school that I wanted to share my passion for bees with everyone else and began growing my business and selling honey to a few friends and family. A local health food store called “Mike’s” was the first real customer I had. John Talbert was in his 70’s, and was my hero & mentor who inspired me to become a commercial beekeeper and helped me grow in the early days.
Back then, every label on every jar was hand applied and I delivered every case of honey in person from my grandfather’s 1988 Ford truck. All of a sudden, everyone wanted more and more honey! I added beehives to my operation, delivered honey every morning before sunup, rushed through school, and worked late into the night again with my bees. When I was 17, I became the president of the local beekeeping club that gave me my first beehive. I was honored by the opportunity to give back to the people that gave so much to me. By the time I graduated high school in 2008, I had several hundred beehives and was selling honey all over my local area. I upgraded to a 1995 pickup, and worked bees all day, and bottled and delivered honey by night.
But, I had a choice to make. Do I slow down the bee business, and go to college, or do I continue with my success, and put college plans on hold? As I was attempting to decide, I also become the president of the Texas Beekeepers Association and a director for the American Beekeeping Federation. I didn’t know it yet, but I had also met my future wife two years before. By the time graduation rolled around, she didn’t know it, but I was convinced she was the girl I had to marry. So, I decided beekeeping was already my passion, and I knew I could make a living doing it, and chose to give it 110%. I never looked back. At 20, I married Kathleen. We spent ten days on our honeymoon- the longest I had been away from bees since I was 12.
Since then, the company has grown to several thousand beehives, and I still care about each jar and beehive like they were my first. I don’t get to hand deliver every jar to each customer now, but I do get to work bees every week during the busy season. I’m still amazed by them every day. I get to serve on the National Honey Board to help promote honey in the USA, and the American Beekeeping Federation to help promote beekeeping. Bees & beekeeping have been a part of me almost as long as I can remember. That’s why, even as we grow, we are always beekeepers first.
Has it been a smooth road?
There have certainly been struggles along the way! I like to say that my knowledge and business have been built by a thousand mistakes. The key is that we learn from those mistakes and emerge better and stronger in the end. Whether we grow or not, mistakes are an inevitable part of life and growing a business.
For me, personally, many of the greatest challenges have simply been learning how to run a growing company. Cash flow, hiring and firing, smart investing, etc. I falsely assumed that as the company grew larger, many challenges would fade away… But they don’t, they just evolve.
Since we are partially an ag company, anytime we deal with live animals, there are absolutely challenges there. Learning to keep our honeybees alive and healthy when the annual average loss is up to 44% is a real difficulty. We’ve had to learn how to go above and beyond in the care of our bees, and how to recoup our losses when we do lose 44% or more of them.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
In the early days, when I was in high school, the company was almost exclusively a beekeeping company. I would package and sell some honey on the side, but my primary focus was raising bees, pollinating crops, and producing honey to sell to other packers. As time has progressed, the company has focused increasingly on not only raising our own honeybees but packaging and selling all of our own honey in retail. We are pretty thrilled to be carried in most major retailers in Texas, including Walmart, Central Market, HEB, Market Street, Tom Thumb/Randalls, Amazon, and of course, our website, etc. We are known for producing real, raw and unfiltered Texas honey. One thing that makes us incredibly unique is we actually raise the bees, package the honey, and sell it. Almost every other honey brand on chain store shelves just purchases bulk honey from all over the US, or more commonly, the world, and blends and packages it. Carefully reading labels is critical, as the actual origin is often very difficult to find. Our honey essentially brings the farmers market to major store shelves.
A few years ago, I started a sister company in partnership with my parents called Texas Bee Supply. The industry, and my parents, have given so much to me, we wanted to create a way to give back. So, through Texas Bee Supply, we have retail locations in DFW and Houston where we teach beekeeping classes almost every weekend and help people get started in beekeeping. We sell all the equipment, supplies, bees, and give away all the free advice anyone could ever want.:) We like to think we are helping save the bees one beehive at a time.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
DFW is an awesome place for people to get started in beekeeping! We have frequent rains, abundant flowers, and an environment that is welcoming to honeybees. We have hundreds of customers that keep bees in suburban backyards, or rooftop gardens, or out in rural areas. The abundant population of people also provides ready source customers for anyone who wants to sell their excess honey.
Contact Info:
- Address: Texas Bee Supply:
14665 County Road 633
Blue Ridge, TX 75424 - Website: www.texasbeesupply.com www.desertcreekhoney.com
- Phone: TBS- 469-500-1473 DCH- 214-578-3327
- Email: info@texasbeesupply.com info@desertcreekhoney.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/desertcreekhoney www.instagram.com/texasbeesupply
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/desertcreekhoney www.facebook.com/texasbeesupply
Image Credit:
All photos taken by Desert Creek Honey
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