SALEM — One of Salem’s newest tenants on Artists’ Row isn’t your typical candle shop. Beverly Bees, currently opened in stall two at 24 New Derby Street, has more than 100 beehives around Massachusetts, all home to tiny workers that make the unique wax candles, the delicious honey and other products so special.
“We make all our candles by hand and it’s the healthiest candle you can burn,” said Anita Deeley, who started the business and runs it with her husband Brian. “We use molds and just pick the ones we like. We want to do a witch-hat candle, that will probably be the next thing.”
Those molds range from things like skulls, frogs, birds, pine trees and other designs. While Beverly Bees may have just set up shop in downtown Salem this month, they’re no strangers to the city itself.
“We’ve been doing the Salem Halloween market for a while,” Deeley said. “We do awesome in Salem. Last year we did a lot of farmers markets and art shows, about eight a week. We’ve always done great here, and it’s another reason why we wanted to come here.
“We applied for the Artists’ Row program a couple years in a row, and we got in this year so we’re really excited,” she said. “It’s a really great program to help your business grow.”
Anita’s business has grown substantially in a short time, and it all started with a visit to the Topsfield Fair.
“I went to the fair with my son, and we were in the bee building there rolling a beeswax candle,” Deeley said. “I started asking them questions about bees and they told me I should sign up for their beekeeping class. I did just to learn about bees. I didn’t want to keep bees or do anything like that; I didn’t want to get stung.”
Now bee stings are like mosquito bites for Anita and her family. Since that class, she started keeping bees and even served as a state bee inspector for several years before Beverly Bees grew big enough that it consumed all her time.
“We have an old house that we’re fixing up. It’s in Beverly Farms in the woods. You wouldn’t even know it’s there,” Deeley said. “We have a bunch of hives there.”
Hives are also located across the state, even in Salem, thanks to the Farm’s host a hive program. Anita, Brian and their staff work with exterminators and anybody dealing with bees in their house or trees, vacuuming them up safely, rehabilitating them and finding them a new home. All the different hives make for some unique tasting honey.
“Our mission is saving bees, literally,” Deeley said. “We’re all about educating people and our honey. Our honey has won national awards. We microbatch all of it, and every bottle can be traced back to the hive that made it. We have 50-plus locations. Sometimes you’ll see honey from Beverly, Salem or Arlington, and it all actually tastes different. You really get to taste the local flavor.”
Right now you can get some of that honey, a handmade beeswax candle or other products on Artists’ Row. Once they can, Beverly Bees is hoping to bring even more product and education to their new home on New Derby Street, where they’ll be for two years.
“Our candle-making workshop is going to move here hopefully by September 1,” Deeley said. “We have a humongous order with Whole Foods finishing up right now, so we can’t move the workshop until that’s done. Once we move that over here people will be able to see how we do the candles. Our bees won’t be here but were going to have an observation hive on display.
“One in three bites of food we eat depends on bees, and bees are struggling,” Deeley said. “There’s three reasons. There aren’t enough flowers, a mite that attacks bees, and pesticides. If you want to help bees the best thing you can do is not spray any pesticides.”
