Our Values

We see wild bees as essential to our wider ecosystems and honey bees as essential to our food systems. Supporting small beekeeping operations in local communities reduces our reliance on industrial agriculture, lowers the environmental footprint of our food, and enriches local economies. Likewise, Catacomb centers the wellbeing of the bees in all our strategic decisions. If those priorities mean we can’t harvest as much honey or keep as many hives in one area as we’d like, that’s okay. We maintain a diverse array of services to ensure we’re not overly dependent on any one of the bees’ many gifts.

Honey bees inspire and delight us endlessly, but we know they’re just one species among thousands of essential pollinators. Habitat loss, climate change, and pesticides threaten the survival of all pollinators, but wild pollinators don’t benefit from nearly the same level of research and advocacy as honey bees. As beekeepers, we ensure our bees are healthy and responsibly monitored to reduce the likelihood they might spread parasites or pathogens to other bees. The best thing the average person can do to support all pollinators is cultivate biodiverse, pesticide-safe habitats full of flowers, and advocate for policies that do the same.

The bees remind us that we’re all connected in complex webs of interdependence. As a collective, we make decisions cooperatively and with care for how our business impacts each other and our broader community. We prioritize the dignity and wellbeing of people over profit. We believe that pollinator stewardship, to have a meaningful impact, must happen collectively across broad and diverse networks of people. At our apiary & learning center, we hope to cultivate a space for people to connect, learn, celebrate, and organize—with the bees as our role models and guides.