Bring Bees to KC and Funds to Farmers!

In 2022, longtime beekeeper David Friesen started Bee KC, a nonprofit devoted to Kansas City's ecosystem and to supporting urban farmers. Bee KC places honey bee hives around town, mostly on small farms. We cover all costs from installation to maintenance and honey harvesting, and our host partners receive pollination benefits as well as free honey to sell alongside their produce--in our first year we harvested $30,000 worth of raw honey that went straight to our partners! That was with 70 hives, in 2023 we'll be installing 130!

130 hives at their peak population will home over 10 million bees, travelling for miles and pollinating nearly every flowering plant as they go about their work. They are remarkably safe, bees are only defensive in front of their hives and food foragers will only sting if trapped--there's nothing on their minds other than gathering pollen and nectar. More info on our precautions can be found here .

We're honored to help support our host partners, of which a few are:

And more!

Bee KC also engages in outreach and education, visiting schools and hosting free workshops for budding beekeepers; spreading word and love for pollinators is an important part of our mission.

Some of our costs can be viewed on this page. One hive with bees can cost up to $500; add to this the equipment, suits for workshops, wood for hive stands and native bee homes, publicity and informational/educational materials and more. If a queen dies, we can have a replacement mailed for $50 so we can save the whole hive. The hives require weekly checks through the warm months, which means work hours and gas for driving around KC. Your gift will go toward all that and purchasing and maintaining equipment, buying jars and labels for honey, and most importantly will help us move toward hiring staff--more people onboard will let us grow toward our goals of increasing our hives, building native bee homes for the region's many solitary bees, and hopefully even moving toward our dream of rewilding empty spaces and working with other organizations to place native plants around town.

As gratitude for your gift, we'll do the following: for $75, a 10oz jar of raw honey from KC; for $100 and above, a pound of our honey, a homemade candle from our bees' wax, and a t-shirt; for $250 and above, that merch plus a visit to your home or business to consult on setting up your own hives; and for $500, all that plus we'll set you up with your own hives (in and around the KC area) and maintain them with you until you're comfortable taking over on your own.

Thank you for considering a donation to Bee KC, we're privileged to undertake this work and our bees live happily while they make our city a greener and healthier place.

David Friesen, Founder, Bee KC