Our Commitments
At B.M. Dooney Farms, we are committed to making our business SUSTAINABLE through our practices, our products, and our packaging.
We believe COMMUNITY OUTREACH is an important pillar of our business, and strive to stay connected through service.
Our RETURN POLICY ensures customer satisfaction. We want our customers to have a great experience with our products & services – if you are not satisfied, we’ll make it right!
Want to know more?
Then check out the details of our commitments by clicking on the links below.
Our Story
B.M. Dooney Farms, LLC is 100% veteran owned! Owner, Arden Haynes served in the US Army, twice. After a combat tour in Iraq, Arden completed a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Biology at the University of Montana. While there, Arden met Marnie, who was completing a Ph.D. in Ecology.
One morning in 2013, while drinking coffee, Marnie said,
We're getting bees, but you'll have to be the beekeeper because I just don't think that I can do that part!
Well, one hive led to another, and now we are a business. Arden and Marnie have been happily married over a decade now, and work together at B.M. Dooney Farms as well as on outreach through their non-profit organization. Oh, and yes, Marnie is now “doing that part” she just didn’t think she could.
As we learn beekeeping together, we are constantly reminded of the benefits of bees. The flowers around the farm are more prolific each season. Our bees provide us with delicious honey. Our business connects us to our community. And thanks to the bees, this veteran’s quality of life is greatly improved.
Our Bees
Chemical Free Beekeeping
Routine use of synthetic chemical treatments to manage pests and diseases comes at both great financial and ecological costs
As scientists, at BM Dooney Farms, we feel that regular medication regimes are not the answer for long-term management or health of honey bees. Most commercial beekeeping operations use a combination of chemicals like Amitraz, Fluvalinate, Coumaphos, or Fenproximate for Varroa Mite treatments, Fumagillin for Nosema infections, and antibiotics Tylosin or Tetracycline for Foul Brood. With routine chemical treatments, a beekeeper runs the risks of developing pests and diseases that are resistant to these treatments. When that happens, there are no alternatives, and will likely lead to absconding or death of the colony. Therefore, we strongly recommend reserving these chemical treatments as a last resort.
With our background in science, we focused on bee genetics. This has led us to a strain of honey bee that exhibits tolerance and/or resistance to common pathogens. Using the tools of peer-reviewed literature combined with research into queen breeding operations, we discovered a strain of honey bee that is resistant to diseases, and suitable for organic beekeeping practices. The strain of bee that we found displays Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH) and Excessive Grooming Behaviors (EGB) as documented by USDA Managed Pollinator Coordinated Agricultural Projects (Hunt et al. 2007; Oxley et al. 2010; Arechavaleta-Velasco et al. 2012; Hamiduzzaman et al. 2017). These bees use extensive grooming activities to hunt down parasites, pathogens, and diseased bees (even inside capped cells) to expel them from the hive. These hygienic behaviors are observed in the bees at BM Dooney Farms. We maintain VSH & EGB bees in our apiary by selecting bee hives that exhibit these traits to be used as parent colonies for each new hive we produce.
At BM Dooney Farms, we strive to use sustainable practices that are mutually beneficial to the bees and our farm. We have developed an apiary management plan that is natural-selection-based and promotes Varroa resistance. Our goal is to respect the natural process of honey bees, while benefiting from reasonable and healthy honey harvests. For more information on sustainable beekeeping we suggest reading The Lives of Bees by Thomas D. Seeley.
Having recently relocated to upstate New York, our apiary is in the growing phase and we are currently capturing swarms of northern adapted bees that will be part of our team. Once our apiary is reestablished during the summer of 2022, our honey will come from the nectar of millions of wildflowers that are in the Adirondack region and surrounding countryside. If you want to follow our journey as well capture swarms in the North Country, check out our blog link!
Our logo is a fictitious creature, the raccoon-honey bee named after our friend, Big Man (B.M.) Dooney, the first raccoon that came into our lives. B.M. Dooney inspired us to advocate for wildlife rehabilitation. We assisted with area wildlife rehab facilities to rehabilitate and release numerous injured and orphaned wildlife, including gray foxes, opossums, prairie dogs, white tailed deer, bobcats, several bird species and many raccoons. We expanded our passion for wildlife conservation into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to provide public access to knowledge through understanding of science, technology and environmental conservation issues. You can view all of our education, conservation, and community outreach work at ecoVerdant.org.
