Sweetwater Bees LLC

06/19/2026

Good afternoon! It’s a sunny honey of a day in Sweetwater! ☀️ 🍯

We’re pleased to offer free tastings of both our spring wildflower honey and smoked hot honey at both Sweet Fannie Maes and Noble Curiosities. Rob and I hope that you will visit these shops and help yourself to a free taste, and do some shopping while you’re visiting. 🙂

📍 Sweet Fannie Mae’s, 305 N. Main Street, Sweetwater

📍 Noble Curiosities, 511 N. Main Street, Sweetwater

🥄 6” honey dipper $1
🌶️ 12 oz smoked hot honey $14
🐝 5 oz spring bee pollen $15 (limited availability)
🍯 10 oz creamed honey $15
🍯 10 oz cinnamon creamed honey $15
🍯 1 lb squeeze bottle honey $16
🍯 1 lb glass jar honey $17
🍯 2 lb glass jar honey $30

🍞 We also offer beeswax food wraps in a variety of sizes, ranging from $6 - $24

📖 My UnBEElievable Life - a beautifully illustrated children’s book about what honey bees do and how they do it $20

📌 Sweetwater Bees self-serve honey stand, 496 Fish Hatchery Rd, Sweetwater

Visit our home honey stand for:
🥄 6” honey dipper $1
🌶️ 12 oz smoked hot honey $14
🍯 1 lb squeeze bottle honey $16
🍯 1 lb glass jar honey $17
🍯 2 lb glass jar honey $30

Cash and Venmo are accepted right at the honey stand.

Thank you!!

Rob & Melissa

06/16/2026

Y’all, we’re trying something new! We have set up tasting stations at both Noble Curiosities and Sweet Fannie Maes - you are welcome to stop in the shops and try our spring wildflower honey and our smoked hot honey! 🍯

Today was also restock day, so both shops have creamed honey and cinnamon creamed honey available. If you’re looking to pick one of those up, don’t wait - they sell out fast! 😋

📍 Sweetwater Bees self-serve honey stand, 496 Fish Hatchery Rd, Sweetwater; pay by cash or Venmo right at the stand (it is too hot out to stock creamed honey in the stand - please visit the shops for our creamed honey)

📍 Sweet Fannie Mae’s, 305 N. Main St, Sweetwater

📍 Noble Curiosities, 511 N. Main St, Sweetwater

At each of these locations, you will find:

🥄 6” wood honey dipper $1
🌶️ 12 oz smoked hot honey $14
🍯 1 lb squeeze bottle honey $16
🍯 1 lb glass jar honey $17
🍯 2 lb glass jar honey $30

Also available at Sweet Fannie Maes and Noble Curiosities:

🍬 Old fashioned hard candy $7
🕯️ Hand poured beeswax candles (various sizes and shapes), prices range from $6 - $12
🍯 10 oz creamed honey $15
🍯 10 oz cinnamon creamed honey $15
📖 My UnBEElieavable Life children’s book $20
Hand cut beeswax food wraps in various sizes, prices range from $6 -$24

Garlic infused honey should be ready in about two weeks. 🧄

Thank you!!

06/16/2026

UPDATE: The cucumbers are all gone - until we pick again! 😄

There’s something FREE at the honey stand!! But no, it’s not the honey. 😄

FREE CUCUMBERS! We have a box FULL of cucumbers we picked tonight - please if you want one or some or all, come on by and help yourself to cucumbers!

📍 496 Fish Hatchery Rd, Sweetwater 📍

06/15/2026

After several long days and a very late night, we have bees up in Coker Creek to hopefully be able to harvest some sourwood honey this year! 🤞🏻

Yesterday morning we had a major restock at Noble Curiosities, on our way to a vendor event at Tsali Notch Vineyard. We enjoyed our time out at the vineyard - SUCH a lovely place, and we got to speak with many new folks about bees, pollen, and honey. Once we got home from the event, final preparations for the sourwood chase kicked into gear.

First up was to retrieve some of our larger production colonies from the second bee yard. We brought those colonies back here to the home yard, and started loading more production hives. Moving bees in the dark is tricky - they’re super defensive and not at all happy about any interference! We had one colony that was particularly angry, and it slowed us down considerably.

When they were all finally in place, we began to wrap the trailer with the shade cloth (keeps the bees within the trailer, while providing ventilation so they are less likely to overheat). And this is where we ran into the Big Problem. The hives were too tall to be able to encapsulate everything properly with the shade cloth we had on hand. At that point, it was after 2:00 in the morning, and we had no choice but to back off and regroup. The bees were locked into defensive mode, they needed a break from the activity and honestly, so did we.

After showering and sleeping for a few hours, we were back at it just after 6:00 am with the fix: we had to pull the honey supers off to bring our height down, so the shade cloth wrap would work. We needed to get it done very early, before the forager bees started their work for the day. We were able to get the 36 supers down, all the colonies re-strapped into place, and the wrap secured. After a quick breakfast break, we were on the road bound for Coker Creek, at an elevation of 1700 feet.

Set up of the trailer of colonies went smoothly, the bear fencing installed, trailer unwrapped, and honey supers reinstalled. We took a moment to watch the girls start to orient to their mountain retreat, and came home to Sweetwater.

Will weeks of preparation and yesterday’s grueling 18 hour day result in a sourwood honey crop for us? Only time will tell. It didn’t work out for us last year but who knows - maybe this year will be better?! We’ll let you know.

Meanwhile, many HUGE thanks to our friends in Coker Creek who have graciously welcomed our bees again this year! We are beyond grateful for your hospitality! ❤️

06/13/2026

Come see us today at Tsali Notch Vineyard for the pop up event! Noon to 3:00, a wide variety of vendors with hand crafted and home grown items! 🪴 🍞 🍯

06/12/2026

📣 Restock today, new look, and more products added today! 📣

✨ Smoked hot honey - now with red caps! We wanted a new look for our awesome smoked hot honey - it really stands out! 12 ounce squeeze bottle, $14.

🔔 Bee pollen - limited supply of spring bee pollen now available in the shops. We will also have some with us tomorrow at the pop up event at Tsali Notch. 5 ounce jar, $15.

🔔 Creamed honey - limited supply of creamed honey and cinnamon creamed honey now available in the shops! It is too hot out for us to keep creamed honey in the honey stand, but we will have it at the pop up event. 10 ounce jar, $15.

🐝 Beeswax food wraps - currently available in 8”, 11”, 14”, and a three pack with one of each of those sizes. Right now we also have a new size that folks have been asking for - an extra large 17” x 21” wrap suitable for your bread loaf or boule! 🍞

And of course, your favorite local wildflower honey 🍯 is available:

🍯 1 lb squeeze bottle honey $16
🍯 1 lb glass jar honey $17
🍯 2 lb glass jar honey $30

Check out our favorite shops Sweet Fannie Maes and Noble Curiosities for these items and more!

06/09/2026

We were pleased to welcome the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture Master Beekeeping Program to our apiary today! The class is presented by Jennifer Tsuruda, State Apiculturist and State Apiarist Mike Studer, with John Goddard, Loudon County Extension Agent.

Our apiary was used for the hands-on portion of the basic class today, and the class attendees were able to get into colonies, practice queen marking, handle frames of bees, and do mite checks.

We are thankful for the opportunity to assist in beekeeping education!

Here is a link to the class - there is still availability for other counties, and an interest form may be filled out to request another class in your area:

https://epp.tennessee.edu/masterbee/

06/09/2026

Another great bee club is meeting tonight! 🐝

RHEA COUNTY BEEKEEPERS: What an amazing lineup we have for tonight’s meeting. I hope you are planning on attending.

Surviving Summer is the topic and its harder than you might think with Dearth, weather, robbing as well as spring mite buildup. If you want to know how to keep your precious and expensive investment thriving through the summer, plan on attending.

The Lineup:

We have Greg Gentry, president of the TBA,

Lee Rogers, Regional Vice President for the TBA

Tracy Melton, from TLC Apiaries

Rick Sharp, Our Treasurer, Hive Grant Coordinator and Swarm/Cutout expert as well as Master Beekeeper.

Moderated by Ron Kness.

Our Meal and fellowship starts at 6pm, Please bring a dish if you can and come have fun with us tonight!

From John Garrison, Club President
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