USA
Cassidy Green November 5, 2020
Beginning his career at age 12, Blake Shook has always had an interest in bees. After maintaining a successful beekeeping and sustainable, raw honey business throughout high school, Blake had a choice to make when graduation came around. Would he continue his ethical and unfiltered honey business or go to college? Following his heart, he decided to continue with his passion, creating Desert Creek Honey right in the heart of Blue Ridge, Texas.
Desert Creek Honey is known for producing real, raw, and unfiltered honey directly from the Desert Creek property. Ensuring each stage of the development process is ethical and sustainable, Desert Creek raises all their bees, packages all the honey, and sells it themselves. With beekeeping and manufacturing under his belt, Blake has continued his successful journey by creating Texas Bee Supply, a shop where people can begin their beekeeping expedition and expand their knowledge of bees & their importance.
Mood of Living: Where did you grow up?
Blake Shook: I grew up outside the small North Texas town of Blue Ridge.
MoL: Where did you go to school and what did you study?
BS: After building my beekeeping business through high school, when graduation rolled around, I had a choice to make. Do I slow down the bee business, and go to college, or do I continue with my success, and put college plans on hold? As I was attempting to decide, I also become the president of the Texas Beekeepers Association and a director for the American Beekeeping Federation. I didn’t know it yet, but I had also met my future wife two years before. By the time graduation rolled around, she didn’t know it, but I was convinced she was the girl I had to marry. So, I decided beekeeping was already my passion, and I knew I could make a living doing it, and chose to give it 110%. I never looked back. At 20, I married Kathleen. We spent ten days on our honeymoon- the longest I had been away from bees since I was 12.
MoL: What was your occupation prior to creating Desert Creek? How did the skills acquired prepare you to create your own sustainable and raw honey company?
BS: Beekeeping was actually my first career. Before that, I was fascinated with anything outdoors, and worked hard on my family’s farm growing up. Ultimately that taught me one of the most valuable lessons in my life, a good work ethic. That has been a critical element to my success over the years!
MoL: When, where, and how did your passion for bees begin? When and why did you decide to make your hobby of beekeeping a business?
BS: Two things fascinated me growing up: the outdoors and starting my own business. I experimented with every business I could dream up as a kid living in rural Texas. Lemonade stands, (not much traffic on country roads) raising and selling vegetables and fresh eggs, (hard to grow things in dust) painting the farmer’s fences next door, (ran out of the wall), but nothing was ever quite the perfect fit. My big break came in 2002 at 12 years old. I had never been that interested in beekeeping before, because, bees sting right? But, my parents convinced me to sign up for a scholarship that offered kids all they needed to get started in beekeeping. I had never won anything for free, so I was super excited when, to my surprise, I won a free beehive, and classes to help me get started in beekeeping. Two classes in, I fell in love with beekeeping. I’ll never forget the thrill of watching my bees work to gather honey or the amazement of tasting honey from my beehive! Everything they did fascinates me!
I built my first building by cutting down trees for lumber on my parent’s land and using recycled sheet metal. It had no electricity, water, floor, or air conditioning, but it was perfect. I spent days and nights building new beehives and planning for the future. I decided in high school that I wanted to share my passion for bees with everyone else and began growing my business and selling honey to a few friends and family. A local health food store called “Mike’s” was the first real customer I had. John Talbert was in his 70s and was my hero & mentor who inspired me to become a commercial beekeeper and helped me grow in the early days.
Back then, every label on every jar was hand applied and I delivered every case of honey in person from my grandfather’s 1988 Ford truck. All of a sudden, everyone wanted more and more honey! I added beehives to my operation, delivered honey every morning before sunup, rushed through school, and worked late into the night again with my bees. When I was 17, I became the president of the local beekeeping club that gave me my first beehive. I was honored by the opportunity to give back to the people that gave so much to me. By the time I graduated high school in 2008, I had several hundred beehives and was selling honey all over my local area. I upgraded to a 1995 pickup, and worked bees all day, and bottled and delivered honey by night.
MoL: Did you find it difficult to manage being a high school student and a beekeeper at the same time?
BS: Absolutely! It was a constant balancing act. However, I’m so thankful for the flexibility I had, and the ability to do both. It took so much hard work, but I’m very thankful to have been able to get my start while still living at home. I was able to pour 100% of my earnings back into the business, and not worry about living expenses during the early critical years of my business.
MoL: What were some of your biggest challenges when first creating Desert Creek? What are some of the challenges you face now? What have you learned?
BS: There have certainly been struggles along the way! I like to say that my knowledge and business have been built by a thousand mistakes. The key is that we learn from those mistakes and emerge better and stronger in the end. Whether we grow or not, mistakes are an inevitable part of life and growing a business. For me, personally, many of the greatest challenges have simply been learning how to run a growing company. Cash flow, hiring and firing, smart investing, etc. I falsely assumed that as the company grew larger, many challenges would fade away… But they don’t, they just evolve. Since we are partially an ag company, anytime we deal with live animals, there are absolutely challenges there. Learning to keep our honeybees alive and healthy when the annual average loss is up to 44% is a real difficulty. We’ve had to learn how to go above and beyond in the care of our bees, and how to recoup our losses when we do lose 44% or more of them.
MoL: What makes your honey company unique?
BS: In the early days, when I was in high school, the company was almost exclusively a beekeeping company. I would package and sell some honey on the side, but my primary focus was raising bees, pollinating crops, and producing honey to sell to other packers. As time has progressed, the company has focused increasingly on not only raising our own honeybees but packaging and selling all of our own honey in retail. We are pretty thrilled to be carried in most major retailers in Texas, including Walmart, Central Market, HEB, Market Street, Tom Thumb/Randalls, Amazon, and of course, our website, etc. We are known for producing real, raw, ethical, and unfiltered Texas honey. One thing that makes us incredibly unique is we actually raise the bees, package the honey, and sell it. Almost every other honey brand on chain store shelves just purchases bulk honey from all over the US, or more commonly, the world, and blends and packages it. Carefully reading labels is critical, as the actual origin is often very difficult to find. Our honey essentially brings the farmers market to major store shelves.
A few years ago, I started a sister company in partnership with my parents called Texas Bee Supply. The industry, and my parents, have given so much to me, we wanted to create a way to give back. So, through Texas Bee Supply, we have retail locations in DFW and Houston where we teach beekeeping classes almost every weekend and help people get started in beekeeping. We sell all the equipment, supplies, bees, and give away all the free advice anyone could ever want.:) We like to think we are helping save the bees one beehive at a time.
MoL: What are some of the health benefits of sustainable, raw honey?
BS: There are so many! It has been shown over and over that honey is a more effective cough suppressant than any cough medicine on the market, and recently it was show that honey is better at speeding recovery from upper respiratory sickness than medication! It’s also a prebiotic, has antioxidants, is a commonly used to heal wounds & burns, and tastes amazing too!
MoL: How do you ensure the manufacturing process of your honey is sustainable and ethical at all stages?
BS: We work really hard at all stages. Since we do everything, from raising our own bees, to selling to grocery stores, we have the unique ability to make sure every step of the process is sustainable & ethical. We make sure our bees have plenty of food for each winter, and that they are cared for first & foremost. The extra honey we carefully harvest in a way that preserves all the natural goodness found in honey. We use sustainable practices everywhere we can, and our main manufacturing facility is even run from our own solar panel system!
MoL: What SDGs do you implement in your business that are helping in the positive transformation in our world?
BS: All that we can! Some that we are especially focused on are:
MoL: Tell us about your experience on Billion Dollar Buyer. How did your involvement in the show impact your business?
BS: It was a lot of work, a lot of fun, and it was a huge opportunity! When we filmed the show, we were primarily a beekeeping company, and only packaged a small percentage of the honey we produced. Most of it we sold in barrels to other packing companies. Winning a $300,000+ deal with Landry’s really helped propel us to the next level of selling our own product. It forced us, in a good way, to invest in our production capability, and really began peaking my interest in increasing our sales capability.
MoL: What inspired you to create Texas Bee Supply? Do you think more people should look into starting their own beehives? Why or why not?
BS: The industry has given so much to me, we wanted to create a way to give back. So, through Texas Bee Supply, we have retail locations in DFW and Houston where we teach beekeeping classes almost every weekend and help people get started in beekeeping. We sell all the equipment, supplies, bees, and give away all the free advice anyone could ever want.:) We like to think we are helping save the bees one beehive at a time. I do believe more people should start their own beehives. It’s a wonderful way to support bees, and support your own local ecosystem. Plus, it is an absolutely fascinating hobby!
MoL: Do you live a sustainable and conscious lifestyle? If so, how?
BS: Yes! From choosing what food to buy, to what organizations to support, to how my companies are run, I work to ensure all life, but especially bees, are sustained, cared for, and will be here for future generations.
MoL: How can every individual help to preserve the environment?
BS: In my opinion, rather than always feeling compelled to look at the major global issues, and attempting to solve those, it’s often more effective to look at our own lives & communities and focus on how we can make life better. Small choices made by millions of people will change the world. Just you and your neighbors deciding not to use harmful pesticides on your lawns, and plant native pollinator friendly flowers makes a huge difference in your local bee populations! Or even committing to buying local honey, produced directly by USA beekeepers tremendously boosts their ability to care for their bees. Then, focus on doing that with all the food products you purchase. One small personal, realistic step at a time, and encouraging those around you to do the same will bring about tremendous change.
MoL: What advice do you have for someone who wants to start their own beekeeping business or personal hive?
BS: Go for it! You will be amazed at how fascinating, fun & delicious it will be.:) But, there is a lot to learn! Absolutely take a class. We offer virtual and in-person beginning classes through Texas Bee Supply. In fact, our biggest passion for TBS is helping make beekeeping simple and successful for everyone. We have an incredibly robust education system that not only teaches beekeeping, but will help guide you through the process every step of the way!
Photography courtesy of Desert Creek Honey
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