Ross Rounds & More with Ben & Kimberly Carpenter (S4, E6)

In this episode, we talk with Ben and Kimberly Carpenter of Hungry Bear Farms, current owners of Ross Rounds Honey Supers and Sundance Pollen Traps.

Ross Rounds Honey Supers were created by Tom Ross several years ago, then the business was purchased by Lloyd Spears, who then developed the Sundance Pollen trap to increase his business. In 2017 he sold his business to Ben and Kimberly Carpenter, who run Hungry Bee Farms in New England as commercial honey producers, a bee supply business and now these very unique pieces of beekeeping equipment.

Ben and Kim do an excellent job in describing what a Ross Round Super is, and better, how to assemble, manage, harvest, and market Ross Rounds Comb Honey. Comb honey doesn’t have the built-in marketing advantage that a one-pound jar of local honey does, so initially marketing can be a challenge. Kim has developed several ways of introducing new customers to comb honey that you will want to take advantage of. Samples at farm markets, meat and cheese plates, and more will get folks introduced to these. And, she has several ways to use unfilled combs that will make you money.

Ben discusses colony management to produce Ross Rounds, what time of year, honey flows, population requirements and more to make a good product. Not difficult, but you’ll need to know the timing of honey flows in your area so you have the right population at the right time.

Lloyd Spear developed the Sundance Pollen Trap and Ben and Kimberly have perfected the techniques for collecting and marketing the pollen you collect with these. Days on, days off, and more are important, but not critical because these traps are designed to not collect 100% of the pollen that comes back to the hive.

Kimberly does a lot of collection and will check them at least once, often twice a day, to make sure the pollen collected stays fresh. Once collected, it is usually very clean, but is inspected, then frozen in open containers until sold. This dehydrates the pollen so it will not mold.  Once you have a ready supply, marketing is easy to folks who claim it helps local allergies, athletes who look for the protein, and queen producers who use it raising queens.

Both of these devices can easily pay for themselves the first year you have them, so they are worth looking at as an added dimension to your business.

Links and websites mentioned in this podcast:

• Ross Rounds - https://rossrounds.com
• Hungry Bear Farms - http://www.hungrybearfarms.com
• Bee-ing Diverse - Bee Culture October Event: https://store.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping-october-2021/
• Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com

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We welcome Betterbee as sponsor of today's episode. BetterBee’s mission is to support every beekeeper with excellent customer service, continued education and quality equipment. From their colorful and informative catalog to their support of beekeeper educational activities, including this podcast series, BetterBee truly is Beekeepers Serving Beekeepers. See for yourself at www.betterbee.com

Thanks to Strong Microbials for their support of Beekeeping Today Podcast. Find out more about heir line of probiotics in our Season 3, Episode 12 episode and from their website: https://www.strongmicrobials.com

This episode is brought to you by Global Patties! Global Patties is a family business that manufactures protein supplement patties for honey bees. Feeding your hives protein supplement patties will help ensure that they produce strong and health colonies by increasing brood production and overall honey flow. Global offers a variety of standard patties, as well as custom patties to meet your specific needs. Visit them today at http://globalpatties.com and let them know you appreciate them sponsoring this episode! 

We want to also thank 2 Million Blossoms as a sponsor of the podcast. 2 Million Blossoms is a quarterly magazine destined for your coffee table. Each page of the magazine is dedicated to the stories and photos of all pollinators and written by leading researchers, photographers and our very own, Kim Flottum.

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Podcast music: Young Presidents, "Be Strong"; Musicalman, "Epilogue". Original guitar background instrumental by Jeff Ott

Beekeeping Today Podcast is an audio production of Growing Planet Media, LLC