Producer Profile:

Energy Bee Farm

6951 S. Sepulveda Bl, Los Angeles, CA. 90045
310-670-5760

Jeff Erb, brother Ron and his wife Sue, and mother Phyllis.
Also ably assisted by Rose Rennie and other friends.

Bringing you the finest unprocessed honey and bee products,
and offering pollination services and bees for Apitherapy too.

We are currently in all 5 of the Harbor Area Farmers Markets:

Huntington Park on wednesdays,
Long Beach East on thursdays,
Long Beach Downtown on fridays,
Cerritos on saturdays,
and Long Beach Southeast on sundays.
Floral flourish with bee.

OUR PRODUCTS:

Honeys, various NATURAL flavors.
Jeff and Ron Erb nurture a total of 8,000 hives in many different locations in several different counties where they produce honey from many different floral sources:

Wildflower, Orange Blossom, Sage, Buckwheat, Blackberry, Eucalyptus, Avocado, Alfalfa, Cotton.

The locales are not owned by the Erbs but by friends who appreciate the value of honeybees to their property. They also get free honey!
Energy Bee's honey is extracted and bottled in its raw and natural form. This means it still has all the good things left in it. The enzymes, proteins and anti-bacterial properties have not been damaged by heat or removed by filtration.
We sell our honey in various-sized jars up to 12 pounds, as well as cute bear squeeze bottles, honey packed with comb . . . and honey sticks (5 "sticks" for a buck, for immediate satisfactions).

A couple of notes on honey production
and marketing issues of today:

There are mites that attack honeybees and would kill all our bees if left untreated. Twice a year we put mite strips into our hives: once in the Fall after we pull the honey, and once in late Winter before we put the honey supers (where honey is made) back on. This eliminates any chance of honey contamination but keeps the population of mites very low so we can keep our bees alive. This treatment is very expensive and has really hurt beekeepers everywhere.
We decided to sell at farmers' markets because the wholesale price of honey is too low on which to make a living. Large packers buy imported honey at below-poverty-level government-subsidized prices which keeps the price of wholesale honey suppressed. If we didn't sell at farmers' markets, we would be out of business. Energy Bee Farm now participates in eleven farmers' markets per week. We are proud to be able to keep our prices well below that of supermarkets for comparable quality honey.

Candles.
Candles are produced seasonally as wax is available.

Bee Pollen.
With the addition of roughage and water, the human body can survive on honey bee pollen alone. This is because it is the only food which contains, in perfect balance, all 22 known essential nutritional elements (and others yet to be identified), which humans require to achieve and maintain optimum vitality. That's why it has rightfully been called the "Ultimate Survival Pack."
Ours is completely untreated, raw, pure and available fresh throughout the year.
NOTE: Please do ask for the bee pollen at our farmers' market stand, because we do not display it on the table, but keep it protected in a cooler.

Royal Jelly.
This richest of foods, reserved for the very young and the Queen alone, is available in limited supply throughout the year.
NOTE: Please do ask for the royal jelly at our farmers' market stand, because we do not display it on the table, but keep it protected in a cooler.

Propolis.
The potential for disease to spread inside a hot crowded hive is high. Millions of years ago, bees solved this problem by gathering the sticky resins, which we know as propolis, from tree buds and bark. The trees exude this resin in order to heal and repair damage and prevent disease. The bio-flavonoids in propolis have powerful antibiotic, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial effects. The bees use it to varnish the cells of the honeycomb and as a glue to seal up cracks. In biblical times propolis was known as "Myrrh" and was highly prized then as now for its medicinal properties.
Our propolis in small jars is available in very limited supply several times per year: toward the end of February; and likely two more times toward the end of Spring.
NOTE: Please do ask for the propolis at our farmers' market stand, because we do not display it on the table, but keep it protected in a cooler.

FARM INFORMATION:

    Jeff Erb started Energy Bee Farm in 1970, after visiting his brother Ron Erb in Gold Hill, Oregon. Ron had just begun his own bee business and showed Jeff the basics of bee work. Upon returning home to Los Angeles, CA, Jeff took a position as apprentice beekeeper with James Ingram, who was Los Angeles County Bee Inspector and had several hundred beehives of his own. Here Jeff received more knowledge about building and maintaining hives.
    Having been stung early on by a desire to serve his community and develop his own niche in the world's marketplace, Jeff started building beehives in High School. There he could buy wood cheaply, receive an "A" in Woodshop and later sell the honey to friends and classmates!
    Gil Erb, Jeff's dad, arrived home one day to find his son using his table saw. Gil himself enjoyed woodworking, and had quite some time ago already been infected by his young sons' enthusiasms. He was soon learning to work with Jeff, building hives, painting hives, and making Energy Bee Farm into a true family enterprise. With manpower now doubled, the honey business began growing fast. More equipment was purchased, so the business was moved out of Jeff's backyard clubhouse to Gil Erb's warehouse in Inglewood. Gil started selling honey to several food cooperatives in town, and also in farmers' markets.
    Along the way Jeff's mom Phyllis Erb was recruited to stamp labels, to label jars, and to clean up anything that needed cleaning up! It didn't take long for Phyllis to take a shine to marketing, along with Gil.
    Not long after the parents got more involved in Jeff's bee venture, Ron Erb and his wife Sue moved to California and helped expand the production of the Erb bee business even further. With Ron and Jeff producing honey, beeswax candles, bee pollen and royal jelly, and Gil and Phyllis bottling and selling, the business thrived, and does so to this day.
    Energy Bee Farm is now being operated by Jeff, Ron and Sue Erb. Rose Rennie sells honey at many markets, along with several other friends of Jeff.
    Gil Erb passed away January 2001 at age 83. He helped as much as possible right till the end! He is missed greatly.

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