Beekeeper's Naturals
For Carly Stein, it all started with a semester abroad in Europe. Four months of sightseeing and wine drinking finally caught up with her in Florence, where her tonsils ballooned to the size of a meatball. Facing the prospect of cutting her trip short for surgery, she desperately searched for a less extreme solution.
With her chipmunk cheeks filled with gelato (her stop-gap remedy of choice) she stumbled across an Italian pharmacy full of wonderful bee products. She somehow managed—between her swollen mouth and broken Italian—to communicate her symptoms to the pharmacist, and he suggested propolis. Skeptical, but willing to try anything, Carly forked over €7 and squeezed a few drops. Within days, her tonsillitis was in retreat and she was taking in the art at the Uffizi Gallery.
After a wonderful propolis-fuelled trip Carly said ‘au revoir’ to Europe and returned home to finish her final year of university. But within a few months Carly’s tonsils flared up again and surgery was looking unavoidable. This time she knew what she needed. Unable to find bee propolis on the shelves of her local health food stores and pharmacies, Carly had to dig deep to find her secret weapon. She sought out a local beekeeper to learn more about everything bees and beekeeping and what the bees have to offer.
This little expedition sparked a passion. Two years later with her tonsils intact, Carly is running Beekeeper’s Naturals and hopes to share propolis and all of its benefits with North America. Our first product is—you guessed it—a propolis spray, created with students, professionals, parents and anyone with a busy lifestyle in mind.
Carly is also a tireless advocate for the preservation of the waning global bee population and, through Beekeepers, supports the protection of hives across North America. Her mission is to improve the health of bees and humans alike.
