Honey Lake Bee Co. planning store, ‘bee experience’ in Lake Barrington
After years operating online and at farmers markets, suburban purveyors of honey and related products are planning their first brick-and-mortar store.
The family-owned Honey Lake Bee Co. got approval from the Lake Barrington village board this week to tear down a vacant house on the 22000 block of North Pepper Road and build a store that also would have space for the storage, processing and packaging of merchandise.
Honey Lake Bee Co. owners and operators Brian and Karen Thomson also intend to offer customers the opportunity to look inside active hives to see how honey is produced.
Brian Thomson called it “a bee experience.”
The Thomsons hope to have the shop open next spring. They have been running the business out of their North Barrington home.
The Thomsons have been manufacturing and selling honey and honey-based products such as candles, lip balm and soaps for about 10 years online at honeylakebeecompany.com and at farmers markets in Buffalo Grove, Palatine, Schaumburg and other towns.
They also offer beekeeping classes for newcomers to the hobby.
Brian Thomson took up beekeeping as a child, volunteering at the Cranbrook Institute of Science in Michigan. When he was 16, he launched Thomson Assembled Beehives, a company that sold beekeeping equipment.
Both Brian and Karen Thomson have professional backgrounds in horticulture. They started Honey Lake Bee Co. with two hives and expanded to eight within a year.
The Honey Lake Bee Co. now has more than 200 hives in about 20 locations, including at the Pepper Road property.
“By spreading them around, the bees do better,” Brian Thomson said. “They have more area to forage.”
The Lake Barrington village board on Tuesday voted to rezone the Pepper Road property from residential to business so the Thomsons can build their facility. It’s in an area off Kelsey Road that’s largely commercial.
A roughly 8,000-square-foot, single-story structure resembling a country store is planned.
Barrington-area residents Sam and Geralyn Cecola own the land and applied for the rezoning, village documents indicate. They’re selling the 5-acre property to the Thomsons in a deal that should conclude this week, the Thomsons said.
The house has been vacant since 2012. The Thomsons have had beehives on the property for about five years.
More than half the site is wetlands. The abundant prairie in the area make it a good site for honeybees, which can travel a mile or two in search of nectar and pollen, Brian Thomson said.
Honey Lake Bee Co. will continue setting up at farmers markets even after the store opens. The couple enjoy seeing customers at the venues, Karen Thomson said.