Julie Thorn
The Beefarmer’s Wife, Sudbury, Suffolk
In 2016, following 30 years in Banking, I decided I wanted a change! My husband, Kevin Thorn, had been offered early retirement 6 months previously and I was no longer enjoying getting up at 530am and commuting. (There wasn’t much housework being done either while I was in the office!)
Kevin was expanding his Bee Keeping hobby into becoming a Commercial Bee Farmer and suggested I help him market his honey and do a bit of book-keeping. I knew nothing about Bee Keeping but I knew I had a lot of different skills from my time at the Bank, working with Small Businesses in London and leading a team of Business Relationship Managers in Norfolk.
2017 grew into a busy and successful year of marketing and wholesaling our honey and I was also enjoying having some time being quiet and creative with our Beeswax. Our honey & bees wax products are now sold in over 90 outlets and distributed through 3 Milk Dairies in Suffolk. Kevin now looks after our 140 Hives on 20 Apiaries and is focused on breeding healthy happy bees and producing pure Suffolk, Essex & Borage Honey. If you are interested in Bees, Kevin regularly shares his video experiences on our Stour Valley Apiaries Facebook page and he will be pleased to answer any Questions posted.
In 2018 I started Busy Bees Cosmetics using our natural beeswax products to make and have licensed our Lip Balms with essential oils of Geranium, Rose, Spearmint and Wild Orange, Some of my Lip Balms were used on dog’s paws and I produced a Pet Paw Lotion, to protect pets from dry and cracked paws. I practised and mastered making our reusable Beeswax Wraps, as a better alternative to clingfilm, to wrap food and cover bowls of leftovers. The wrap will hold its shape, seal when it cools and when wiped gently with cool water and soap, can be stored in the fridge for next time and reused up to 12 months. We love using our Beeswax Wraps at home and storing our food without using plastic.
We had seen lots of mixes of seeds for Bumble Bees and Butterflies and my husband Kevin, the Bee Farmer, really wanted to find a mix of seeds specifically for Honey Bees. We were delighted to have sourced Wild Flower Seeds and packaged these into lovely linen gift bags. The 20g of mixed seeds contains Borage, Red Clover, Phacelia, Crimson Clover & Birdsfoot Trefoil and when planted in Spring is designed to provide season long pollen and nectar for Honey Bees.
Next was our natural Wood Polish and during Lockdown made lots of our scented Beeswax & Honey Soap. My first Soap, safely assessed, was Bergamot & Lime with Turmeric added to our Beeswax & Honey and we now make and sell all of our Soaps with Lemongrass & Eucalyptus, Rose Geranium & Pink Peppercorns, Lavender with Propolis, Tea Tree & Rosemary, Mint & Chervil, Pine & Patchouli with Morning Detox Herbs and one Unscented.
I love personalising lots of colourful Gift Box sets with our Beeswax products.
In 2022 we designed and hand poured our Luxury Beeswax Melts using the natural beautifully filtered beeswax from our Beehives, together with coconut oil and essential oils. We have a choice of 5 to fill your home with beautifully balanced fragrances. Lemongrass, Fresh Linen, Juniper Berry & Vanilla, Sweet Pea & Lavender, Lime Basil & Mandarin. We also sourced some beautiful bee themed Wax Burners.
We are now helping Beekeepers around the country, supplying our beeswax products to sell on their Honey stalls at markets nationwide.
White Labelling is available and easy to arrange.
If we can help with personalised Wedding Favours we love being creative and have added photos to our dedicated page.
It’s amazing how our little business grows each year and we love hearing about happy shop owners and happy customers. My husband Kevin is busy with our Bees, making equipment in the Winter and then collecting Swarms in May & June and pouring honey for me! We Gift Wrap lots of our Jars with colourful seasonal ribbons and honey spoons. We are delighted that we have an amaxing lady Roxie join our team. Roxie helped out Christmas 2019 adding our labels and ribbons to everything we made and now works with us every week making our beeswax recipes with such enthusiasm. I love helping customers and being organised and organising everything and everyone …. so I am happy!
January 2023 and I am working on our Handcream recipe and making Candles. We are exhibiting at the Beekeeping Show this year to talk to other Beekeepers and we are also looking to see who we can help in London with our new English Honey. It’s going to be another busy year!
You’ll find me posting photos on Busy Bees Cosmetics Facebook and Instagram and if you have any questions please message me or email me hello@busybeescosmetics.co.uk
