“How God has made everything in nature so perfect, if only we would utilize it more,” said Maria Wright, when asked to talk about her family’s beekeeping and honey harvesting business.

Maria, along with her husband, Harold and son, Gary and his wife, Angie own a small beekeeping operation that produces the highest quality, 100 percent raw, uncooked and unheated honey in Fayette and Coweta Counties. Their honey is pure, meaning that it is never blended with honey from other sources.

Gary Wright was sitting at home one day reading about bees and was fascinated to learn of the many healing properties in honey. He came to realize just how good honey and bee pollen were for allergies, many of which his children and family were plagued by.

Not long afterwards, in 1998, Gary started his hobby of beekeeping to help his family and it soon expanded to help others with their own allergies. Their customer base quickly grew as more people learned about their local business. People even drive from far away to purchase some of their products.

Gary’s father, Harold, was brought into the operation when Gary wanted to move some of his beehives from his Coweta County home to his parent’s home in Fayetteville. The business currently operates from both Gary’s and Harold’s homes and this is how they are able to serve both Fayette and Coweta Counties.

“Harold thinks this year is going to be a really good year for honey,” said Maria, “We may be harvesting between 200 to 250 gallons.”
The Wrights estimate that in the past two years they have harvested approximately 150 to 200 gallons of honey each year.

“You can never know what the honey is going to be like until it is harvested,” she added. “We cannot follow the bees, so we are not responsible for what flowers they choose to bring back nectar from.” The color of the honey, which may be light or dark, depends on what flowers or blooms the bees visit. Maria stated that a lot of the honey comes from the Tulip Poplars, which produces light honey.

Wildflowers, Blueberry and Blackberry bushes, as well as Kudzu, are also very popular among the bees. “In fact, anything that has a bloom on it the bees go after for pollen,” said Maria.

Extracting the honey is a four to five week process. Honey robber is first applied to a fume board and put into the hives to drive the bees away temporarily since they don’t like the smell. This must be left on for no longer than ten minutes, otherwise the bees will not return to clean house. Harold and Gary, the beekeepers, then take the supers (frames of honey), remove the robber, close the hives back up and this is how the whole process begins. The bees then return to resume their housekeeping and continue making their honey.

“What is amazing is that the hives maintain a constant 93-degree temperature all year around.” To cool the hives, the bees bring in water and to warm it up they vibrate their wings. “Watching the bees work is truly fascinating,” Maria said.

The frames of honey are then taken to Gary’s house and put into a dehumidified room for three days so that all the moisture is removed. This prevents the honey from crystalizing. The frames are then stacked for extraction. The next weekend more hives are robbed and the frames that have been sitting in the dehumidified room are then extracted and the honey is strained, bottled, labeled and stored. Approximately 10 hives are “robbed” each weekend out of their 25 to 30 hives. Extracting the honey from the supers is the longest part of the process. Once all the honey has been extracted from all of the hives, the whole process starts over again.

The Wrights’ honey is completely raw and natural. Three years ago they completed the switch over to totally organic hives. No chemicals whatsoever are used during the honey flow.

“Being completely natural is of the utmost importance to us,” said Maria. “With our honey we have been able to help so many people get off their allergy medications. Truly, it is a blessing. Just by eating two teaspoons of of our raw honey a day, many people have been helped getting cured of their allergies.”

According to Dr. William G. Peterson, an allergist from Ada, Okla., raw honey is an effective treatment for allergies. “It must be raw honey,” he says, “Because raw honey contains all the pollen, dust and molds that cause 90% of all allergies. What happens is that the patient builds up an immunity to the pollen, dust or mold that is causing his or her trouble in the first place.”

“A friend of ours has a daughter who suffered from chronic fatigue,” stated Maria. “Since taking some of our honey and bee pollen on a daily basis things have turned around for her and her energy levels have soared. What you include in your diet certainly makes a significant difference to your overall health.”
Aside from raw honey and bee pollen, the Wright family also makes beeswax candles, beeswax handcream (body balm), beeswax soap and various natural beauty products.

The Wright Family farm is located at 716 Ebenezer Road in Fayetteville and can be reached by calling 770-401-4266. Customers need to call first before arriving to pick up the honey.
Created as a convenient way for customers to buy their products, Beeswright.com is the online presence of the Wright family and Wright Family apiaries.

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