Our Family

We are Michael and Tanya. We have been married for over two decades and are parents to two sons. Our older son is in the United States Marine Corps. Our younger son is currently in high school. He helps with the business and has even helped us with the bees. We work together to keep our bees healthy, to keep our farm blooming, and to make our high quality products. Keeping bees has brought us closer together as a family as it is something that we do together. We share the work and reap the benefits together.

Our Farm

Apiculture has helped us turn our mountainous farm in Vernon, New Jersey into an environmentally friendly haven for pollinators. We purchased our 14 acre farm in 2010 from the wife of my husband’s childhood Boy Scout leader's family. We have a large garden and a beautiful stream on our property. Our town is a resort town. It contains hotels, spas, golf courses, a water park, zip lines, ski resorts and several other amenities that allow people to enjoy being outside. Living in a nature-oriented resort town is a unique experience. You have country folk alongside city people daily. This also allows for numerous opportunities to educate the public on the importance of honey bees and the importance of ridding your household of harmful chemicals.

We grow seasonal produce, flowers, herbs, and grapes on our property. Because we are on the side of a mountain, the soil can be a challenge. It took my family a few years to cut out a large garden space and liberate the soil from all of the rocks. For the first 8 years, we tried to keep a variety of animals on our farm. Most notably, we kept goats. After being called at his day job too many times, my husband grew tired of collecting our goats from a nearby golf course. We needed to find another way to make our farm more profitable.

Our Apiary

Our apiary at Black Creek Farms NJ, has two main styles of beehives. We have traditional Langstroth hives as well as an American take on a Slovenian AZ Hive Beehouse. Both styles provide us with honey, beeswax, pollen, and propolis. We use these items to make our all natural products in small, handmade batches. This allows us to control the quality of our product. We love to watch our “girls” flying about and taking a little nectar from the flowers that grow on our farm. We take delight in watching them bring in brightly colored pollen too. Honey bees are gentle and very graceful.

Our Company

Lees Bees NJ grew out of my family’s appreciation for our planet and a desire to remove harmful detergents and chemicals from our everyday life. It can be very difficult to accomplish this task. It took a few years for my husband, Michael, to talk me into taking a class on beekeeping. Once we took the class, we were both hooked on the idea of keeping bees. We immediately began attending the meetings of our county beekeeper meetings. At first, we wanted to keep bees so that I could have a source of local, raw honey to help with my seasonal allergies. We were also excited to help the environment by raising pollinators. Soon, we discovered how magical bees really are. 

I soon began making cold process soaps using our honey and beeswax. These soaps were specifically designed for my family to use. My husband was constantly getting poison ivy on his hands and arms. We bought different types of washes to help “remove” the oils that cause the rashes. We weren’t thrilled with the end results. I turned to making our own soap using a combination of jewelweed infused oils and tea tree essential oils. This produced the best results for him. 

In our beekeeping club, we had a member do a demonstration on how to make some of her products from her book, Honey Crafting. Her name is Leeann Coleman. Michael and I approached her to make a trade which involved her teaching me some of her recipes. Well, it turned out that she was ready to retire and move off of her farm. Michael bought the business from her for me. Truthfully, I wasn’t thrilled at first. I quickly found enjoyment in making the products. I experienced true joy in hearing from happy customers how effective they felt our products were for them.

We sell our products at local events and farmer’s markets. We get to go out and talk to people about the importance of bees. It is such a pleasure to help people understand the role of honey bees and all pollinators in the health of the planet. Keeping our planet, and its inhabitants healthy is a priority for us. 

We appreciate the support we have received from our local community as we continue to learn and grow our business. Recently, we purchased a property, near our farm. We hope to be able to build a retail store with an education classroom attached to it. Sharing our love of bees and our knowledge of how to make high quality all natural products is a future goal of our company. We thank you for taking the time and interest in getting to know us a little and hope that you can join us on our journey to help save the honey bees and create healthier homes for our family.