Macon Magazine

February/March 2025| maconmagazine.com 29 "For the farmers that need [the bees], it's vital for them. They like to support local people, and we like to support them," Joe said. "They wouldn't have as good crops without the honeybees," Kristen said. While Kristen and Joe have found their footing in beekeeping and now successfully run Money's Honey, it wasn't always easy. They were determined to keep trying, by learning from their rst setback in raising bees. "That's the hardest part, failure. With beekeeping, you just have to keep going," Kristen says. Nowadays, the Moneys have learned to treat their hives for pests, keep the bees healthy, and not take it personally when the bees still leave even after they've created a perfect environment. Sometimes, they just don't like the box they're in or they get too overcrowded. Now, Kristen and Joe account for that loss. "What made me keep going was that I really wanted a sustainable product. I liked honey and we cooked with it a lot. We didn't want processed sugar in our home and liked knowing what's on our table and where it came from," Joe says. "I wanted to succeed, not for anyone else, but for myself, to have a healthy hive and to keep learning." That's also why the Moneys began o ering beekeeping classes. "I wanted to see other people succeed at having a hive because it can be a very expensive and intimidating hobby," Joe says. He is motivated to one day teach beekeeping information, to show others that while it's not an easy task, it is fun and rewarding. "You can't just put a box of bees on your property and expect them to survive, thrive, and give you honey. You have to make sure they're healthy and you need to help them out," Kristen says. Beekeepers like Kristen and Joe support the bees in their vital work, while bees, in turn, bene t us by providing honey in our everyday lives. "It's like a medicine, really. It's nature's medicine," Kristen says. When we consume unprocessed, un ltered honey like Money's Honey, the enzymes the bees produce to make the honey are valuable to our own health. Knowing where that honey comes from is key to ensuring that we can reap the bene ts. The honey industry is unregulated, so some honey can be easily cut with corn syrup and have many other ingredients added to it. "There is some honey in grocery stores that come from local beekeepers, though, so it's good to look at the name and even call the beekeeper to ask how they process their honey," Joe says. Honey helps your digestive health and immune system. It's also an energy booster, to name a few of its bene ts. To keep it exciting, you can go beyond the classic tea with honey and use it in other ways in the kitchen, such as in salad dressing, replacing it for sugar when baking, or topping o fruit with it. "Because it's right from nature, our bodies process it di erently than sugar– it's easier to process," Kristen said. Success wasn't easy for the Moneys, but when their consistent care toward their beehives paid o , it sure was sweet–like honey. Straight from the hive: How does Money's Honey make their product? Kristen and Joe use a rectangular, deep box to hold their hives. The bottom box is the brood box, where the queen bee lives and lays her eggs. The box above it is the honey super, where the bees store their honey. The queen begins laying her eggs in January, bees begin collecting nectar from local crops in the spring, and bring it back to the hive. As they eat the nectar, it mixes with enzymes in their stomach. Then, they regurgitate it back out to make honey! "We take as much honey as we need and leave plenty for the bees as well," Joe said. "It's the rawest form of honey that you can get," Joe said. Find Money's Honey in Macon at Petals and More, Village Marketplace, Yvonne's Natural Market, or Bolingbrook Antiques & Mercantile. They have a number of other locations in Central Georgia listed on moneyshoney.com Joe and Kristen Money work on their hives. Photos courtesy of Money's Honey. "Honey helps your digestive health and immune system. It's also an energy booster, to name a few of its bene ts."

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