Thrive Honey is a story of perseverance on the way to some sweet success in pollination services and honey production.
The Coaldale, Alta., business was showcased at a recent Farm to Table Tour sponsored by Alberta Sugar Beet Growers, as there were some bumpy roads when it switched owners.
Coming off the heels of a previous business that did not work out, co-owner Landen Stronks was looking for other opportunities, and joined forces with three brothers of Witdouck Farms to purchase what was previously Kiwi Brian’s Honey back in 2008. Already versed in the leaf-cutter business, the group added on honey bees, but the experience was not sweet — at first. Leaf-cutter bees are more solitary, picking up nectar (and pollen along the way) to feed their larva. Honey bees need colonies to work together.
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“We started wanting to buy 1,ooo bee hives. Unfortunately, there’s a parasite called Varroa, and it was at a level that was kind of difficult to manage,” said Stronks, managing director of Thrive Honey.
“In the spring, when we went to buy the business, the majority of the bees were dead, and that was attributed to Varroa. That was a real rough start. We had to manage the relationship with the previous owner, and we wanted to continue to buy the business. But, we needed to get the bees.”
Very few countries allow the export of bees, with Thrive Honey eventually buying its start-up hives from New Zealand. Those initial stumbles now have a 12,000-hive capacity at Thrive Honey which employs around 25 people at its max, with the majority being seasonal workers. The main driver of the business is hybrid seed canola which emerged in southern Alberta in the late 90s which created a high demand for pollination services.
“From my understanding, there’s upwards to 80,000 honey bee hives that are brought in during the pollination season. The pollination season for hybrid canola would start anywhere around June 15, and until about this time of year (late August), things are starting to slow down,” said Stronks.
Thrive Honey gets its production season starting in late February/early March with early spring checks, feeding the bees pollen patties. There is the synergy of the sugar-beet industry with liquid sugar from the beets fed to the bees. It serves as a lifeline to the bees, where the honey that is produced can crystallize to a point that when it gets cold it makes it hard for the bees to consume and digest it. In April/May, Thrive Honey starts looking at the condition of the queen bees and monitoring disease. Days can have 24-hour shifts when hives are moved at night.
“If we move them during the day, then obviously all the forage bees that are out in the field are going to stay at the property,” said Stronks, adding Thrive Honey has winter hives as far as an hour-and-a-half away, with honey from the Prairies having a nice creamy texture, while the mountain areas in B.C. like Fernie have a more floral flavour.
Even with Thrive Honey being secondary to pollination services, the company fires out numerous 600-pound drums of honey weekly with between 500-600 bees required to produce one drum of honey during production season. Workers get a work out with some honey boxes reaching 140 pounds depending on density where heating rooms reach up to 30-35 degrees Celsius extracting honey that makes it flower easier from frames. They are spun for five to seven minutes using their extractor machines, which eventually makes its way to the drums.
According to Stronks, 90 per cent of the honey is exported to eastern provinces or down south in the United States through brokers. Although post-COVID and current trade unease with Canada’s neighbours to the south have had consumers seeking out locally-sourced product. Canadian honey often competes with lower-quality adulterated honey from China and India at lower price points.
“With the relationship with the U.S. right now, there’s lots of talk that they don’t want Canadian honey. The U.S. does not produce enough domestic honey, so they are a net importer. But, now what they’ve done is the U.S. has rallied really well for their domestic producers, and they pay them quite well. So if they’re getting $3 a pound, and then they supplement the rest with the cheapest honey they can find, which I would argue, or wonder if it’s even honey, and then they blend it to get the price point,” said Stronks.
“And so Canadian honey is high quality. It’s still cheaper than what the American beekeepers are getting paid, but it’s still higher than in India or China.”
Thrive Honey usually starts marketing its honey in thirds, near the end of summer, around Christmas and post-Christmas sales.
Although honey only accounted for 0.4 per cent of Alberta’s farm income in 2022, honeybees contribute billions to the agriculture sector on a national scale with its pollination services. According to a 2024 CBC article, interest has been climbing in beekeeping in Alberta, with 620 beekeepers in 2008, climbing to 1,950 in 2023, the vast majority being commercial beekeepers. Alberta produces approximately 40 per cent of all honey from Canada.
