Jen Swearington has been keeping honeybees in her back yard since the spring of 2015. JennyBees 100% pure, raw wildflower honey is produced by Jen’s “little girls” in her two-hive apiary on James Island, South Carolina. Jen extracts the honey from a comb using a “honey slinger” centrifugal extractor and strains it though screen printing mesh right into the jar. No heat is used to cook the honey and no chemicals or fillers are added. It is available in limited quantities at jennythreads.etsy.com.
Growing up in Indiana, Jen’s grandfather, Martin “Bee Man” Hoernig, kept beehives near her house. He sold honey off his front porch and educated the public about honeybees at fairs and schools for over 60 years. Compelled to continue her Grandpa’s legacy and fascinated by the wondrous complexity of honeybees, she studied and became an NC certified beekeeper, kept hives in her back yard in Biltmore Lake, NC, and moved them along with her home, studio, and pets to the coast of South Carolina this spring, where she continues to tend “her little girls.” She has just become a South Carolina Journeyman Beekeeper: a tested, certified leader and educator in contemporary beekeeping.