Introduction:

We believe food looks and tastes better when it comes from a mason jar and that every home should have a well used cast iron skillet. We believe in starting where you are in being a good steward, and that homesteading is a mindset first. We believe that our great grandmothers were right about almost everything and that the best conversations happen around The Coop.

Anna Sakawsky:

Hello, hello everybody and welcome to this month’s episode of The Coop, where we have live conversations with some of the folks that are at the forefront of the modern homesteading movement. So before we get into it, and before I introduce our guest today, I’ll just quickly introduce myself. My name is Anna Sakawsky and I am the editor in chief of Homestead Living Magazine, which is a monthly print magazine dedicated to helping readers like you live healthier, more sustainable lives. So if you are not yet subscribed, then I implore you to do that today. You can actually use the link below the video to subscribe, and if you do subscribe today, you will still be subscribed in time to receive a copy of the May issue. And we are actually featuring our guest today on the cover of the May issue, and she’s sharing her story, her full story in there.

So our guest today is Kaylee Richardson from The Honeystead. And Kaylee is an herbalist, a beekeeper, and an advocate for holistic health and whole body wellness. And so we are going to be talking today about a whole bunch of different things because Kaylee wears many hats. So we are going to be talking about bees and the medicinal magic of bee byproducts like honey and propolis and pollen and all sorts of things. We’re going to be talking about why beekeeping is a cornerstone of a thriving homestead and how you can integrate that on your own homestead. Simple herbal remedies to support holistic wellness, how bees and herbs can work together to support your health and the health of your land and other lifestyle choices that are not to be overlooked in creating a foundation of holistic health. So before we get into it, well first of all, I’m just seeing a whole bunch of people in the comments here.

People are joining us from all over the place. So thank you to everybody who is able to make it live today. I would love to know if you could put it in the comments what actually brought you here today. Is there something in specific that you are most interested in learning about? Is it the bees? Is it the herbs? Specifically, what exactly are you hoping to learn from this conversation? And of course you will have a chance to ask questions as well. So as we go throughout this conversation, please feel free to pop your question in the comments box there and we will get to some questions near the end, but we might take a few questions from the audience too as we go. So, alright, so starting bees, beekeeping, herbs, mostly herbs. For now we just got our first hive and want to learn as much as possible before we get the bees, all of the above.

Perfect. Most interested in herbs. So there’s a good mix here. And that’s perfect because like I say, we’re going to be talking about how these two things can work really seamlessly together and how they can actually support each other. So not just the medicinal properties of bees and their byproducts and how they can support our health, but how herbs can actually help to support the health of bees, which is a really interesting conversation as well. Perfect. Alright, so before we get into it, I just want to thank the Homestead documentary for sponsoring this episode of the Coop. So the Homestead documentary is your ticket to modern home setting inspiration. With 20 episodes across two incredible seasons, you’ll meet 50 real life homesteaders that are turning their dreams into reality, from growing your own food to raising livestock and starting a profitable homestead business. This series covers it all.

You can instantly binge season one and two for just $59 and start your homesteading journey today. So you can head over to homesteaddocumentary.com right now to subscribe. That again is homesteaddocumentary.com. Alright, so Kaylee Richardson, as I said, is an expert herbalist, a beekeeper, and the heart and mind behind The Honeystead where she blends her Appalachian mountain upbringing with her passion for natural living. She was raised in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains and grew up foraging herbs and roaming free. She’s a self-described feral child of nature, and today she tends over 30 Bee colonies on her family farm, teaches herbalism and shares her knowledge and wisdom through her YouTube channel, The Honeystead, and of course through her upcoming feature article in Homestead Living magazine. So she is also a former surgical assistant turned holistic healer and herbal medicine practitioner. Kaylee’s journey led her to study at the Green Comfort School of Herbal Medicine and she’s also the author of the upcoming book The Beekeeper’s Apothecary: A Foundational Guide for Becoming Your Own Herbalist, which will be published by Homestead Living later this summer. Alright, so welcome Kaylee.

Kaylee Richardson:

Thank you. Thank you. And yes, feral I think is probably appropriate and that’s an inside family joke. But yeah, I am now sharing that pretty much with everybody. But yeah, feral, that is something I can relate to.

Anna Sakawsky:

Yeah. Well, so you do have a really interesting story. You kind of started out, you had this—a little bit of a magical childhood where you actually were exposed to some of these things, to the herbs and to the bees and to this natural way of living and got to kind of run wild and free so many of us want for our own children. And you got that experience growing up and then you actually transitioned into the more modern western medical system as a surgical assistant in the operating room and then made this transition back to herbalism and natural living. So can you just give us the kind of 50,000 foot view of your backstory and how you came to be doing what you do today?

Kaylee Richardson:

Well, in short, I do really enjoy trying to figure out how things work, and that’s kind of just my brain, but I also know that even as a young child, I really wanted to be a nurturer. I wanted to care for whether that’s animals, whether that’s bugs. I mean, I had a pet turtle that I would take to school with me all the time. Nobody would know about that, but so I was always caring for something and I ended up marrying my young high school sweetheart and we moved to Kansas. He was stationed in the army there. And I started my schooling there as a CNA and kind of grew into the medical field, but doing various tasks, working in an Alzheimer’s and dementia unit to even going and working and doing hospice. And I really value all the lessons that I learned there because there’s a beauty in every phase of life and some of the people that I was blessed to be able to take care of kind of reminded me of how important it is to kind of follow your heart, follow your passion, and when you’re seeing somebody’s life end in front of you and if they have a smile on their face that they did something.

And so that was kind of my, okay, I have to keep going, but I’m still wanting to find my roots. My husband and I came back to Virginia, which is home, and we started a little homestead up on the mountain and I had this tiny little garden that I absolutely loved, but we foraged for a lot of our mushrooms. We foraged for a lot of the pawpaws, the fruit. So I was able to kind of get that again. But at that time I became a mother of two children and my kids, they were my little forager buddies, they were perfect height to find all the morel mushrooms. So taking them with me and then also my husband, I think it really just ignited that fire of like, okay, we need to do this. And so long story short, we got our farm. I fell in love with honeybees when I was a child.

I always wanted to become a beekeeper and I just had to kind of wait. And so fast forward, continued into the medical field, a trend of, I just started seeing a trend and it’s like there has to be some better solution for certain things. And so I started studying for myself. I started realizing that when you’re working with anything, whether it’s herbalism or the holistic approach, you do kind of have to be your first client. And as a mother, I’m on call, I was doing so much and I had my farm, I was hurting myself and going to the bees and doing my hive inspections is kind of where I started finding my own inner peace. And I had to just quiet everything.

And then during Covid, right when covid hit my husband and I decided that, hey, maybe it’s time to kind of pull back. I was doing a lot and I needed to listen to my body, which is part of holistic health. And I went down from full-time as a surgical first assistant down to just as needed. And then covid happened and I was home and I was able to get the little glimpse of raising my children and being back here. And in the midst of everything, I started documenting and sharing more on YouTube. And I started realizing that there were a lot of people that were living vicariously through my channel. And it kind of has evolved into this thing. It’s been a journey. There’s been a lot of bits and pieces that I learned growing up that I’m bringing back, bringing back from my childhood for my children, but now for thousands, hundreds of thousands of people who are wanting to do this for themself. And so maybe it’s a little bit of permission, go out, go get feral, go into the woods, and really it does contribute to the holistic approach for your own health, all of it. So in a nutshell,

Anna Sakawsky:

Yeah. So before we get into some of the specific topics that we are going to touch on in this conversation, I find it really fascinating this kind of transition from very, very much in the modern western medical world being literally in the operating room, which is a very sterile environment to this more back to the land natural living. And I think a lot of people would assume that these are completely different worlds. They’re like two polar opposites. And yet when we had our conversation for your feature article, you talked about that there’s actually a fair amount of overlap between the two. So can you talk about that first when you were still in the operating room, some of the things that you were noticing when it comes to actually how we can use herbs and different types of natural remedies and blend the two worlds together?

Kaylee Richardson:

Well, that really was something amazing. I specialized in neuro and ortho and one substance that we use to help with bleeding of the bone is actually bone wax. And so that was kind of my aha moment of how remarkable honeybees are because it’s actually a sterilized bees wax that they use to help stop the bone from bleeding. So again, I was already a beekeeper at this time and I’m like, that’s just amazing. That is something that we use in the operating room. And then two, I think the harder picture is when you see things that could have been preventable when you see people who they’re not helping themself. And I think that was hard for me because it’s like, oh, well, maybe a simple fix of, hey, let’s cut soda from your diet, maybe that’ll help with stomach pain. And so later, I mean there have been herbs that people have found that, oh wow, that simple fix of introducing this herb completely helped my ulcers, my stomach ulcers.

So without going all the way into it, I mean there are so many things that could be used as a preventative and herbs kind of follow in that category. But yeah, it is listening to your body. And so I think talking with a few people that I know that maybe I wasn’t in that operating room, but hearing their story of how they chose to break a cycle and make a better decision for themself, they feel amazing now. And again, I had to do it for myself. I had to nourish my adrenal glands. I was spent, I was spent. But listening to yourself is a huge part of it.

Anna Sakawsky:

And given your experience and knowledge in both of these areas, would you say that you are more kind of integrative medicine? Do you think that each of them has their place? I know some people get very much like they’ll go to one side and then they leave all of that other end of the spectrum behind and they’ll go completely all natural. Do you think that some of this modern medicine still has its place in certain circumstances?

Kaylee Richardson:

I do. Yeah, I do mean I’ve seen some amazing things happen. I mean, modern medicine definitely is here because of where we came from, and a lot of our plant medicine really kind of contributed to how modern medicine works depending on the field. But I think nutrition and the food that is the start, you look at what you’re putting into your body. I think the best way to describe it is if you have a vehicle and you pour poor gasoline in it, it’s not going to run properly. We’ll look at what we’re putting into our body to fuel ourself. And so trying to pick the best ingredients that you possibly can and home cooked and as if the food goes bad, that’s okay. Not everything has to have a shelf life stable in a box for a couple of years. So those are huge with food. But yeah, I do think that modern medicine absolutely has a place, and I actually am finding more and more and more people who are going into modern medicine with the approach of herbalism and nutrition, and I’m like, I’m here for it. I think that’s awesome. I mean, deep down in the next couple of years when my youngest graduates from high school, depending on where she’s going to end up in life, I’m probably going to go back to school. I really want to go and finish, become an ND and naturopathic doctor, and we’ll see if that’s where I end up. And if I’m not supposed to be there, well, I’m happy as the clam here in our little apothecary, but yeah.

Anna Sakawsky:

And so when you left the OR for good, so you ended up actually going to school at that time or you ended up studying to become an herbalist, right? The Green Comfort School of Medicine. Now, just to kind of ease anybody’s concerns here, who might think, oh, I’d love to do this, but I don’t have the time or the money or whatever it is to go to school to become a certified herbalist. Do you need to do that in order to practice herbalism on a home scale?

Kaylee Richardson:

I would say anybody who first, if anybody has any desire to get into herbal medicine, it doesn’t have to be as scary. And I think that there are different types of herbalist and that is the bigger picture. It’s such a broad term, but herbalism is in your kitchen, herbalism is in your spice rack. And yes, I have a certificate. It’s not required. And so it’s a piece of paper, it’s on the wall. But I spent almost four years of training. The one beautiful thing about herbal medicine is no matter how long you’ve been doing it, you still will continue to learn. My herbal school instructors, I think she’s going on 40 years now of herbalism as an herbalist, and she’s like, I’m still learning. Which that’s the beauty of it. But I think if you are cooking with the herbs, if you are making a broth with thyme and oregano and adding in your garlic and a little bit of ginger, a little bit of cayenne, depending on if you need a little heat that is herbalism, I mean that is using the herbs to help support your health.

And I’ve seen a lot of herbalist, they claim this title and that’s cool, but don’t let their, I don’t know how to say it without sounding harsh, but don’t let their extra shine make you feel less than because anybody can do this even if you’re only going to a handful of herbs at a time. I mean, I have my core staple herbs that I’m like, yes, I love these herbs, these are wonderful, but just I guess don’t let it intimidate you because it can just like anything else, but the things that you have in your spice rack, you’d be surprised at what they have to offer medicinally.

Anna Sakawsky:

Yeah, I think that’s just a really good point to make because I think we do live in a world where if you haven’t gone to school for a certain thing, we see this all the time, even online or whatever, where it goes, well, what are your qualifications? Who are you to say this? Or what’s your background and expertise in this field? And I think just have just the experience of living and doing this and integrating it into our daily lives. It’s the same thing as if you’re homeschooling and parents have this trepidation that, well, I didn’t go to school to be a teacher, so I don’t know what I’m doing. Well, you’re teaching your kids all the time. That’s just part of life. And I feel like herbalism is very similar in that sense that we’re all using herbs already, most likely, like you say in our kitchen, if you’ve got a small herb garden, even if you’re not consciously doing it, you are integrating these things already and that’s all you really need to start and you can kind of learn from there.

You don’t necessarily need to go to school to know how to do all these things, but you did, which is fantastic. That kind of gives you that extra level of expertise. So let’s backtrack for a minute before we get too much more into the herbs. Let’s talk a little bit about the bees. So you had a lifelong dream to become a beekeeper and you finally did. How did you get started there? What was the learning curve? What would you recommend to others who are looking into getting into beekeeping? That can be another one of those things that’s a little bit intimidating. What do I even need to get started? Do I need to go take a course somewhere? What did you do? How did you actually get started?

Kaylee Richardson:

The first, my first go around, I self-taught and I did everything by the book, but I still lost my bees. So the second go around, I did take one class and it was very textbook style as in regiment, and you feed, treat, do this. And again, that might work for some, but even me as a beekeeper, I’m the type of beekeeper that I’m going to tell you like, Hey, you’re going to find what works for you. Because there are so many just herbalist, there are so many different ways to use herbs. There are so many different ways to be a beekeeper. And so my main education from being a beekeeper was actually just sitting and being observant and watching what the bees were doing. In the beginning I was too focused on learning how to be a beekeeper, that I was kind of missing what the bees were actually doing. And once I started to figure out, oh, this is this time of year, the bees are now doing this and just sitting and watching them, they kind of teach you exactly what they’re doing. And I’ll be the first, I mean, we are probably not the first to admit this, but humans can sometimes really mess things up. That’s a really beautiful thing. So for me, I mainly learned from the bees and not how to ruin something that was already beautiful.

Anna Sakawsky:

So it does look like we’ve had quite a few people in the comments saying that they’re getting into beekeeping now or they’re wanting to get into it. So you said you did everything by the book and you still lost your bees. What were some of those things that in the end you’re like, oh, actually that wasn’t the best path for me to follow with mine, and what were some of the solutions that you found?

Kaylee Richardson:

So the first thing that I think I definitely did was I fed sugar water to my bees because that’s what everybody else was doing. And then again, I started watching, okay, yeah, it helped them a little bit, but what does sugar do to our gut and is it messing up their gut? So essentially the less I did, the better I got at being a beekeeper. The more I was in there, the more I was messing things up. But some of the things that I’ve done to be a successful beekeeper, which this year I’m actually getting ready to go and do a hive inspection here in the next couple of weeks when the temperature warms up. But this is going to be one of our first, I believe one of our first year of having a hundred percent survival rate with our colonies. And so that is huge.

But again, it takes listening to them. So this last year I didn’t do a honey harvest where we would normally get a thousand pounds of honey. I actually chose not to do a honey harvest because all those fires that were up in Canada, all that smoke that was coming down our area, I mean I feel like we had a month straight of just smoke in the air. And again, what bees do whenever they are, why beekeepers use a smoker, it’s to distract ’em. So it doesn’t necessarily calm ’em down. It makes them think like, oh my gosh, my house is on fire. I’ve got to get as much of the stores, the honey, and if I have to leave, then they at least have a full belly. So I made a quick decision of like, Hey, I’m not going to harvest this year.

Was it a financial burden on my homestead a little bit. That was a decent amount of income that could have supported my family, but again, by me not harvesting it allowed them to have everything that they need and coming out a winter, they’re all flying. So I think with beekeeping, yeah, there are things to follow in a book, but they are not textbook. There are so many things that could alter whatever decision you make. The other thing that I do is I plant a lot of herbs around our farm. I mean that is the huge aspect to why I feel like our survival rate is so high is because of the herbs. And I have a little experiment that I’ve been working on for a couple of years and I’m making note, and at some point maybe I’ll pitch it to somebody and see if it turns into a beautiful study. But I’m using herbs outside of our colony. So when the bees enter into the colony, they’re rubbing through the herbs which have the volatile oils on them, which is thyme and oregano are the main two. But those volatile oils, that’s a mite treatment that beekeepers will put into their colonies to help with the vir mite. So I’m trying to use the natural plant medicine for them to help.

Anna Sakawsky:

Right. Yeah. So actually we had a question from Sarah that asked if you’re not feeding them with sugar water, do you use, how are you feeding them? So do you use any essential oils or so what are you doing instead? Are you’re just letting them forage for their own food?

Kaylee Richardson:

Yes. The other thing that’s a good question because I will say I’ve only purchased four nuke boxes. My entire beekeeping career, which I feel like is nine, I feel like I’m nine years going on 10 years I think. I can’t remember exactly, but I bought four nukes, which is essentially an established, it’s an established colony. The queen is already in there, she’s already laying, everybody knows everybody. There’s honey, there’s pollen, there’s nectar. Those are the best for if you’re purchasing bees. I’ve never actually purchased a package, our survival rate with people who purchase packages of bees, which essentially is a box of bees and the queen is kept separate and you feed ’em a heavy, heavy sugary syrup. Everybody I know in this area really has not been able to successfully over winter or a package of bees,

I think too. And the other thing too is the climate. So if you’re up north and you’re getting bees that are put together in a package down south, they’re shipping it up. Those bees are not necessarily acclimated to this area. So nukes are my favorite, and swarms are actually swarms. Catching swarms is definitely my favorite and that they tend to be the heartiest. And I will go out and catch up to, I think last year I caught 20 swarms within a 10 day time period. But that’s essentially is if you get good genetics, it’s going to help your overall survival rate. But when you catch a swarm, you don’t really need to feed. They’re ready to build, they’re busy. A nuke is already established and you really don’t need to feed. But a package, you do a package requires a little bit of TLC.

Anna Sakawsky:

So starting with kind of good healthy stock and a good foundation, which ties into what we’re going to talk about with our own health as well. And then from there, so you noticed, because you were kind of doing this at the same time, you had started beekeeping, you had started then going back to school for herbal medicine and you were doing both of these things, but maybe not integrating them right at the beginning. And you started noticing some of these connections between the two. Is that right?

Kaylee Richardson:

Yes, absolutely. That is a hundred percent.

Anna Sakawsky:

And so what was it that made you think, oh, well, I’m going to just plant some more herbs around here and see if that helps to keep them healthier. Where did that idea first come from for you?

Kaylee Richardson:

Definitely the thymol researching what people were using for the var mite treatment, understanding that that constituent is what’s in time and oregano. That was a huge start. But I also closed up one of our colonies later in the fall, which basically I put a mouse guard down to keep the mice from getting into the colonies during the wintertime because what ends up happening is a little mice is like, oh, this is like 95 degrees in this colony. It’s nice and warm. We’re going to build a nest in there. Well, I closed up the colony a day after I did my last hive inspection and check and came back the next spring and realized that I had a completely mummified baby little mouse like skeleton covered in propolis. Well, the propolis is from all the tree resins that are in our area. And so I started doing a lot of research about what propolis was and come to find out that I think scientists have only been able to identify up to 300 different plant species in one colony based off of the propolis, which is remarkable because really the honeybees are the original herbalist.

I mean, they’re the one going out and they’re foraging for plant medicine to come back to their colony to keep them, to keep them healthy. But propolis is antimicrobial, it’s antiviral, it’s antifungal. And so what that colony did by coding that mouse in the propolis, it actually kept their colony healthy because they already knew like, oh, we have to coat this because if not the death in the colony, it gets a little nasty. But for me, it’s like watching how the bees are so hygienic and seeing that they’re going out and doing this already instinctively they’ve never picked up an herbalism book. And so I think that was like, oh, wow, okay, I need to do a bigger deep dive into all of this and really learn from the honeybees. So it was one of those aha moments while I’m observing them and learning what the bees are doing to only make me a better beekeeper and also an herbalist. So seeing them go out and harvest was amazing.

Anna Sakawsky:

And so just kind of giving them what they need to thrive naturally in their environment. And now you’re integrating the herbs, they’re bringing that back to their colony, they’re thriving. And then now we’ll get into some of the medicinal properties of some of these bee byproducts. So you mentioned propolis is one of them. Honey obviously is another one that we’re all familiar with. And most people know that honey has a lot of medicinal properties, but there are different types of honey as well. And actually I’ve seen, we’ve had a couple questions come in about honey specifically, but what are the health benefits of honey? A couple people have asked specifically about manuka honey, which is actually something that we discussed. I was curious about this too, because you always hear about, oh, something like that, Manuka honey, is it better for you than other types of honey in our area we have, I can go buy a jar of wildflower honey or fireweed honey. So first of all, just honey, in general, what are some of the major health benefits of honey and are there differences between the different types?

Kaylee Richardson:

Yeah. Yes. So honey, huge antimicrobial. Some of the ways that we use it are on our skin. I actually use it on my face. I will crush the rose powder into it and make a facial rose mask facial. If you do have bees, I don’t recommend you going outside with the rose on the honey.

Anna Sakawsky:

 Do you just put the honey? This is just straight honey. That seems like very difficult to, 

Kaylee Richardson:

Yep, I just put the honey in. But I am in my last couple of years in my thirties and I feel like, hey, it, it’s actually last. I’ll be 40 before I know it, but putting the rose and the honey on my face every so often is wonderful, especially for wrinkles and all of that. But other than that, putting it on burns, putting it, I actually put honey on bee stings as well. It’ll help take the sting out, not the stinger, but it’ll help take the pain out. Definitely for my gut health, I think for me, part of my whole issue was I was not really nurturing my foundation of my body. I mean, I was in the operating room standing from 6 45 until whenever somebody would let me out. And so my gut really took a hit on that and trying to eat as much as I could when I could. So I really had to just go back to the foundation of my own health. And taking raw honey on an empty stomach was probably a huge aspect to helping the inflammation and helping a really unhealthy gut.

Anna Sakawsky:

And so it’s got some anti-inflammatory properties, I guess.

Kaylee Richardson:

Yeah, you can use honey in so many different ways. I mean, honestly, you can take it by the spoonful raw is best. I try not to get filtered or pasteurized, honey, focus on the raw. This does kind of go into your local area as well. So when you look at Manuka honey, yes, I’m sure it’s remarkable. I think there was a little bit of some issues at some period where people were saying, oh, it’s Manuka, but it really wasn’t. But I am a hundred percent the best. Honey is I’m more for the people that are raising bees in your area.

Because really when you look at that, I mean the bees are exposed to all the plants that are in your area, which is what your body could benefit from. So seasonal allergies are a huge one. I mean, I try to make sure my local people get stocked up first. I have a couple of families that get our honey and every year, I mean they can’t breathe because of the pollen is so much, and they’re constantly experiencing bloody noses. And one season of them using my honey on a daily basis, they’re no longer getting sinus infections, no longer getting bloody noses, and their allergies have been like, perfect, so try to get as stressful.

Anna Sakawsky:

Right. Okay. So that’s interesting because our conversation on last month’s episode of The Coop, we spoke with Doc Jones who’s also an herbalist, and he was recommending certain herbs for spring allergies and this and that. But he said, first and foremost, look at what is growing local to you because that is going to be acclimated to your environment and to whatever you’re allergic to is obviously something coming from your environment. So you should be looking to your local plants first and foremost. And I would assume that then it’s the same with honey. So if somebody’s not raising their own bees and harvesting their own honey, what should they be looking for? Can somebody confidently go into Costco and buy some honey or should they be looking, because you said that some of it can be tampered with as well, right?

Kaylee Richardson:

Commend your best bet. Nowadays with technology, it’s a lot easier. There are a lot of Facebook groups I’m sure that probably will share, Hey, there’s a Virginia beekeeping Facebook group. So for me it’s like, oh, I look in that area if I ever needed to get any, which I don’t, but as local as best go to your local farm, like a farm store. Because yes, some of the honey that you buy from stores could be tampered with. And there’s so many loopholes on getting honey from all over. But really the foundational aspect of it is you do want to support your community as well, because that really supports your community’s foundation. So try to find a good group. Your local extensions office might also have a list of beekeepers that are in your area that you could easily contact and say, Hey, nowadays the farmer’s markets are getting trendy.

So make friends with the farmer’s market, make friends with the beekeepers there. And a lot of times they’ll have a good substantial amount that you can get through a year’s worth if you’re willing to invest. I mean, we have some people that want a five gallon bucket of honey, and if I have it, yes. But yeah, local is best and the plants that are growing around you, if that’s what’s causing your seasonal allergies, I mean the bees are going to those plants for a reason. They’re getting that nectar, they’re getting all of that. And then when they’re coming in and turning the nectar into honey, I mean that is right, a perfect source.

Anna Sakawsky:

And so that is why some of these different honeys have different properties because it depends on the plants that they’re actually foraging from. So some of that plant medicine is actually getting right into the honey and the bee byproducts themselves.

Kaylee Richardson:

Oh yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, again, the bees are the original herbalist. They’re the ones going out and doing it and just it putting it in a perfect little frame for us to be able to harvest.

Anna Sakawsky:

So we’ll talk in just a second about now because that on its own, I think is really cool that you don’t even need to necessarily be using herbs yourself. If you’re taking some of that honey in, you’re just by default taking in some of that herbal medicine. It’s just coming via the honey. But then we can do actually combining the honey with herbs to create different medicinal remedies and that sort of thing. Before we dive into that, there are a few beekeeping specific questions that we’ve had come in. So I want to touch on some of those. So the first one that we had Star asked, “hi, Kaylee, do you have issues with predators getting into the hives? And if so, how do you deal with that? It sounds like you’re very, you try to be quite hands off for the most part, right? For the most part. What type of interventions do you do? Where do you step in?”

Kaylee Richardson:

So because that is my farm business, I do have to be very mindful of this, but I would definitely look at a very nice, very strong electric fence to put around your bees, put around your apiary. And then also too, I’ve seen some fails where people will put it around, but they’re putting it too close to their colony, so a bear could reach in easily and just kind of knock it over. I had to learn that one the hard way. We did have a bear come and it was about a 600 pound black bear that came into our A area and took out a couple of our colonies, and that was devastating. I mean, I had worked so hard and seeing that the bear came in, which I’ll be the first, Winnie the Pooh is a liar. The bear does not eat the honey. The bear really goes towards the brood, which is the main protein source. So it is kind of devastating.

Anna Sakawsky:

Is that the bees themselves?

Kaylee Richardson:

Yeah, the larvas, the little larvae. So that can be rough, but when we had that happen, I was able to actually find both of the queens, well, yeah, both of the queens, and we were able to revive that colony. So I mean, it’s one of those things. The other predator that you could possibly face is skunk. Skunk tend to get in there, but we keep ours about 18 inches off the ground. So if a skunk does try to get in, they’re standing up, which is exposing their underbelly, and so the bees are able to kind of defend themselves. We did have that happen as well. All of a sudden I was like, why do I smell it? And are the dogs inside? But it was a skunk trying to scrape into, scrape into the bottom of the colony. Other predators, or not really predators, but nuisance again are the little mouse. So you do have to just kind of prepare for that. Put a little a mouse guard up, which is a hard wire, a little hard wire screen so that the bees can go in and out, but the mice can’t. But yeah, I mean it kind of comes with the territory. If you have it, just kind of be prepared. Electric fence does help though for the bear.

Anna Sakawsky:

Right, right. Okay. And so Gwen asks, “how do you catch a swarm?” I’m interested in this. How do you just go out and catch a swarm of bees and bring it back? What does that actually look like? What does that process look like? 

Kaylee Richardson:

So every swarm is different. Some are very easy. Some I have to MacGyver. I have plenty of videos on YouTube where I’m actually, I think I have a whole playlist of swarm catching videos. But if I get a phone call, typically I went ahead and reached out to all the exterminators in our area and I was like, Hey, I’m here. If you ever get a honeybee, if you ever get called, I can come and take ’em. And now the county knows. So I have a whole bee tree essentially. So if I can’t come and get the bees, then I’ll call another beekeeper and say, Hey, there’s bees here. Can you go and get ’em? But I’ve had boxes that I’ll go underneath the swarm and just kind of plop it and the bees will all fall in and I’ll close the box and take it back.

I’ve used a mesh bag before, like a laundry, one of the laundry bags. I’ve cut tree branches to walk the swarm into a box. I have also had an electrical cord and a OD duct tape that I had to MacGyver and fling it up over the branch to pull the branch down. I was just missing the pineapple and the paperclip, if anybody is a MacGyver fan. So you have to be a little bit inventive. I think some of my favorite ones though, is if I put a white sheet on the ground and I’ll put my box in and then I’ll just shake the branch and the bees will kind of fall down into the box and they’ll smell the queen and where she is. So they’ll literally follow her in so many, many videos out there, and they’re all,

Anna Sakawsky:

Okay. Well, that’s good to know. So if anybody’s interested in catching a swarm check out Kaylee’s YouTube channel, which is also under the name The Honeystead. I find that really fascinating. I wouldn’t even know where to start to catch a swarm of beans. I think that’s really cool that you can just do that though. So we had a question coming from Nicole about if you’re not say catching a swarm or purchasing bees, she said, I have wild bees pollinating my gardens as many of us do. I understand bees are territorial. Is there a way to put up a hive for these bees instead of introducing them and risking a new hive of bees so that I can get honey? They’ve been such a loyal population to my pollination. So you, I think of, we have mason bees and we actually keep them now, which there’s a process to that, but a lot of people will just put up a little mason bee house and they’ll just be attracted to that. Are honeybees the same? Can you just put up a hive and you could?

Kaylee Richardson:

Yeah, you could. I’ve actually had swarms catch me before where I’ve had an empty box, empty hive. I always keep a few empty colonies out there just in case. But the old nasty wax, the old comb, it’s really dark and gross that has all the pheromones, all the smell from the bees. So what will end up happening is the original colony will set out scout bees and they’re looking for a new home. So the scout bees will come out and they’ll smell it, they’ll inspect it, they’ll go back to their original colony and they’re like, Hey, hey, we found an empty apartment fully furnished, let’s go.

And so half of that colony will then take off with the old queen. A new queen will stay back with the bees and everything too. And that’s essentially how they swarm. That is a swarm. A swarm is just their way of just reproducing and dividing. And so you can easily set traps up. I have done that. I’ve used lemon lemongrass, I’ve used a lemongrass essential oil. I’ve used fresh lemongrass too, because smell that, and it’ll kind of trick them into thinking that’s the pheromone smell, and they’ll go right into the colony. So yeah, essentially you can,

Anna Sakawsky:

But I guess there’s just, it’s a bit of a risk involved because you don’t know for sure if they’re going to,

Kaylee Richardson:

You don’t know. But if beekeeping can be extremely expensive, and if you want to save money and set up traps, you can do that. 

Anna Sakawsky:

So you mentioned that planting certain things like lemongrass. So I don’t think we’ve ever grown, I don’t even know if we can grow lemongrass up here in the Pacific Northwest, but somebody did actually ask what zone you’re in and what types of herbs you are growing on your property. So what are some of the main herbs, what gardening zone are you in? And then what are some of the main herbs that you’re growing?

Kaylee Richardson:

So 6B, I believe is now the new zone, or yes, I believe that is 6B is where I think changed it at one point. But right in the northern area of Virginia, we grow a lot, but I also forage for a lot as well. But some of our staples that I grow on a regular basis are, oh gosh, holy basil, chamomile, lemon balm, skull cap, mint passion flour is one of my favorites. I also grow oats themself. Oats is a lot of people think oats for eating. But no, I actually actually tincture the premature oat top.

Anna Sakawsky:

Is that the oat straw? Is that what the,

Kaylee Richardson:

You can use the straw too, but the actual green oat when it’s still premature, that is probably one of my favorite. That is a nerve tonic. I absolutely adore that plant, but I grow, gosh, valerian root, I grow wild rose. That is kind of all around. There’s a lot.

Anna Sakawsky:

Yeah, I bet you’re doing a lot. And obviously you’re, we can see behind you, you’ve got your little apothecary set up, so you’re not just growing a lot, you’re actually turning those herbs into medicine. So let’s talk a little bit about that. What types of medicines you’re making for other people that might want to start making their own herbal medicines at home, where is maybe a good place to start? What are some good herbs to start with and what are some of the different types of preparations?

Kaylee Richardson:

I always tell everybody first before you go to start stocking your apothecary or before you go to start growing herbs, look to your reason why. For me, again, my apothecary, and this is by far my apothecary in my house is a little China hutch little cabinet where I have all of my herbs separated and I’ll blend them together to make a tea depending on what we need. But for this space up here, I am a community herbalist. So this is not a requirement for everybody to have unless you want to, and I’m all for it. But when you are looking at the herbs that you want to grow, look to the reason why, what are the issues whether you have possibly a small child who tends to have stomach issues or that nervous, anxious belly catnip is a wonderful herb for that. That settles the stomach.

If you want to boost your immune system, what does that look like? That’s possibly echinacea, possibly the elder, whether it’s elder barrier, you can use the elder flower to help reduce fever as well. So I think looking at why you want to, why you would want to, and then start pairing it with the herbs that you would want to grow if there’s an inflammation issue. Okay, turmeric, you could easily grow turmeric. I’m sure it’s hearty depending on the area, but turmeric is wonderful for inflammation. So I think you don’t have to grow ’em all. But

Anna Sakawsky:

Yeah, I was going to say, or turmeric, that might just be a spice that you’re keeping in your spice cabinet. Or buying fresh if you’re not growing it, because I’m only on a quarter acre, and I know a lot of people out there are limited in the space that they have to grow everything. In some herbs you always hear, oh, an herb garden is a great place to start. You can actually do that on a pretty small scale, but once you do get into some of these more medicinal herbs, they can get quite large. I planted things like Mullen and Kinia and Mugwort and Mother Wharton, all those things a few years back, and I was like, holy, I didn’t expect everything to get this big. So sometimes you can be a little bit limited in the space that you have. Do you have a supplier or somebody that you recommend if people are wanting to maybe bring in some more of these medicinal herbs and start playing around with these, but maybe don’t have the space to grow all of them?

Kaylee Richardson:

Yeah, absolutely. Definitely. Look in your local area, there might be somebody that specializes in growing certain herbs that I love, because again, they’re able to harvest. You can probably get it fresh and then you could end up drying it or use it fresh right there. But there are bigger companies if you’re ever interested in looking at ’em. I think the top ones that I like are Pacific Botanical is a nice one that’s a farm that they’re growing a lot of the herbs and you can get it shipped to you. You can also buy in large amounts

For me because we also host workshops here on our farm. So sometimes we do have to get a larger amount, or if I’m blending up a specific protocol for somebody and they need a whole month’s worth. So it’s nice to have a lot of the resources. But Frontier co-op is also a great one. You could also look at Starwest Botanicals Mountain Rose, but also too, instead of buying a full pound right away, you might look and see if you have a little health food store in your area that has a little tea shop or a little herbal section, you can get a couple of ounces and try it because that is another thing. Herbs sometimes have a very strong taste and you might not like it. I know for me, like Valerian root, I love the plant that’s growing outside. I love it. I think it’s beautiful. I bring it in here. And although I like it in a tea, I’ve kind of been told I’m not allowed to brew a cup of valerian inside my house because it makes the whole house smell like stinky feet. So I will instead take that and I’ll tincture that and that’s extracting it with an alcohol. So there are so many fun ways to use the herbs essentially, and that’s where you can just be extremely versatile. And Azure standard also has herbs as well. I haven’t purchased from there, but I’m getting ready to get my order together. But I do know that I have tried their honey too, and I think

Anna Sakawsky:

It’s great. And so I know that you do actually combine a lot of your herbs with honey directly. That is one method of extracting some of these herbal properties. So what are some good, if somebody wanted to play around with that, what are some good herbs to try maybe infusing into honey, or how are some ways that you can bring both of the medicinal properties of both these things together?

Kaylee Richardson:

Oh, there are so many different ways, but yes, infusing, essentially, you’re taking the fresh herb. You can do dried herb too, but honey likes to pull out the moisture. So just be mindful of the ratio. So some of my favorites that I love to do is I’ll take golden rod and I’ll harvest the golden rod and then I’ll infuse that, chop it up and infuse that in my honey. So I’m now harnessing all the golden rod’s, medicinal properties, which is also another lovely plant for fall allergies. Golden rod tends to get a bad reputation because everyone’s like, oh my gosh, it’s yellow. That’s why I can’t breathe. That’s actually a ragweed. But golden rod is a good offset spring. My favorite thing to do for spring is I actually powder stinging nettle. Stinging nettle has a natural quercetin in it. So again, that’s seasonal and antihistamine action.

So what it’ll do is essentially help your seasonal allergies, especially in the spring. So I powder that and I’ll mix that in with my honey. And I make what’s called an electuary, which is basically a spread. And so I’ll have a spoon of my powdered herb with my honey, and I sometimes will just take it straight or I add a little bit more extra powder into it and roll it around as in a psha form. And that’s called a pastille, so you’re making a honey pill for it. But I also very much love als, which is essentially an apple cider infused an herb that you blend with apple cider vinegar. And then I like to let mine do mine separate just to, I know there’s some controversy, some people put it all together. I keep mine separate because honey is way too valuable for me. So I’ll infuse an herb in apple cider, strain it out, and then add in my raw honey or possibly an herb infused raw honey and make that with salad dressing, add that, use that into cooking. So that’s what I love about plant medicine is that there are so many different ways that you can use the things, the different herbs, but the one thing I would say is if it doesn’t taste good, you’re probably not going to take it.

Anna Sakawsky:

Yeah, honey definitely helps with that.

Kaylee Richardson:

Right?

Anna Sakawsky:

I do that with my fire cider, which I guess would make it into an oxyl in the end. If you’re making the fire set and extracting or straining those herbs out and then mixing it with honey, I find it’s a lot more palatable to take it or chase it with a little bit of a spoonful of honey right now when it comes to using herbs and honey and that sort of thing, are you doing this all the time? Almost as a preventative? Because again, I think we get very much in the mindset of medicine is for when you’re sick, and then that’s when we’re very reactionary and then we take it because we’re already feeling like we’re run down or we have some sort of an issue. Do you recommend just taking this kind of stuff all the time, or how do you decide, because there are so many different types of preparations too, what are the things that you’re taking on a regular basis versus some of the things that you’re kind of keeping on hand just in case?

Kaylee Richardson:

On a regular basis, one of my main things that I’ve really found to be extremely helpful along with the honey is immunomodulators. So mushrooms are my thing. I actually blend. I have my own formula out, which has been a wonderful surprise. We just launched it this past October. I’ve been blending it myself for about four years now, and then I ended up working with an organic mushroom grower and having it now packaged and lab tested and all the credentials to be able to ship and have into grocery stores and all of that. But mushrooms are definitely my main thing that has worked for me. So I take lion’s mane, I do lion’s mane, Turkey tail, Rishi and Cordyceps. So those three combined, and I’ll even mix that into an electuary with my honey, and again, take a spoonful or put in something that I’m drinking. But for me, my adrenal glands were so all over the place because of stress and I wasn’t nurturing myself.

And since having and using the mushrooms, I am not getting sick the way I was. So what an immunomodulator does is basically if you have an overactive immune system, it’ll lower it. If you have an underactive immune system, it’ll raise it. So it’s very much balanced. So mushrooms, a hundred percent honey every day on an empty stomach. Then bone broth, that is also another thing that helps with gut health. But milky stage oats is probably my go-to because it is a nerve tonic. So that’s my front pocket herb that I use before I go into a public place grocery store. I am just taking a little bit, not a big fan of going into Costco.

Anna Sakawsky:

I hear that.

Kaylee Richardson:

But yes. So the difference is there are, if you look at herbs as categories, so you’ve got herbs that are nutritive herbs that are going to offer nourishment, those can be taken every single day. Then you have herbs for your acute onset. What is that? If you have a cold, if you need to lower help, break a fever, those herbs you would need, you would, if you’re going to your medicine cabinet and you’re grabbing a DayQuil. So kind of that mindset. And then there are herbs more for chronic situations, which is a combination of nutritive herbs along with herbs that will help build back and restore. But all of that together, that’s more for disease. That’s more for a diagnosis, which don’t discredit, but it really comes down to your foundation when you make a conscious decision of, Hey, I really need to make some changes. I need to break a cycle. Herbs are wonderful, but they’re not the main. Don’t use them as a bandaid. Right.

Anna Sakawsky:

Yeah. Let’s talk about that a bit. So you are a big proponent of holistic whole body health as well. And again, I think sometimes because of our culture, we have a tendency to look to, even if we decide to go all natural, we look at herbs as a bandaid solution, right? Oh, I’m going to take this herb and it’ll help me to feel better. But if you’re not doing certain other things, that might not be enough. So what are some of the foundational things that you think we should be putting into place to build a solid foundation of health?

Kaylee Richardson:

I will start with gratitude, and that is something that I’ve learned way early on in life is that you really do have to have a foundation and gratitude. You really do have to wake up and have that mindset of just being thankful, positive. Our mental health is extremely linked to our physical health. I mean, you can see it in an animal. When an animal’s not feeling good, you can see it’s depressed. Well, we are too. And gratitude sometimes doesn’t just slap you in the face and it’s like, oh, I’m thankful for this, you kind of have to take that intention, be a little more intentional and look to it. So a hundred percent gratitude. That’s where I start. And then what else? That’s getting outside, that’s getting fresh air, that’s just trying to find beauty in everything. There’s so much noise sometimes that happens in the world, and so it’s choosing to say, yeah, okay, that noise is over there, but what can I do right here? So that goes more into the mindset and just getting outside, getting your hands dirty. Even if you have a little balcony and you can grow a little plant. That little act of, I don’t know, joy I think really can do a huge number. So mindset, sleep, allowing your body to sleep when we go to bed, it is our natural way of resetting and that when we are asleep, that’s how our body actually starts restoring itself. So unplugging, turning off your phone. I mean, as a mom, as a mom, when my children were little, we had a beautiful routine. It was dinner, then cleanup, then bath, then book, and it was just this wind down process. And at what point, at some point I realized like, oh, I was doing this wonderful for my children, but I forgot to do a routine for me. What does my wind down routine looks like? So setting that the food, food is huge. Again, if you’re putting bad gas in your vehicle, it’s not going to run. It’s the same concept of putting not great food in our body. So food is huge. And then obviously getting out and doing activities and finding something that you love. I mean, I think sometimes too, we forget to actually have something that we love in life. So finding it or—

Anna Sakawsky:

I know from home setting and doing this all myself too, sometimes this to-do list can start to stack up and it is a chore, which it is sometimes that’s the reality of it. But sometimes I feel like the joy can get lost in that we forget our reason for doing this, right? And we forget that we don’t have to do it all. We can choose the parts that kind of bring us joy. So I think a lot of it is you’re right, mental, right. And I’ve actually got a question about that that I’ll ask in just a sec, but I know you’ve also mentioned gut health quite a few times. Did you say that that’s a really foundational, I’ve heard that from other people too.

Kaylee Richardson:

Oh yes.

Anna Sakawsky:

That’s becoming more mainstream now that we’ve got to fix our guts first and the rest will kind of fall into place, right? Yes. Is that something that you’d say is one of the first things you should look at?

Kaylee Richardson:

Yes, absolutely. I mean, if you’re, again, I know if I’m on the road and I eat something that I’m not typically preparing, my gut hurts and I am sluggish for the rest of the day. And I mean, listen, sometimes we have to, and that’s that balance. Sometimes I can’t travel with my homestead all the time, but what could I do? And that’s just trying to make as best of a decision as possible. But for me, the processed foods definitely did a number and eating too fast did a number. So slowing down, eating, not looking at your phone while you’re eating, there are a lot of different practices, but your gut is very much part. I mean, everything has to go through that first and then it starts to disperse through your body.

Anna Sakawsky:

Right? Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, so on that topic, so Haley had asked, she said, I am a mental health therapist and a lot of my clients are interested in holistic alternatives to symptoms for sleep, depression and anxiety. Any suggestions? Now, I know you’ve kind of mentioned a few of the foundational things here. Are there any particular herbs or remedies that you would recommend? This is something that I think across the board, a lot of people are dealing with these issues, lack of sleep. Again, it’s easy to say we’ll get good sleep, but if that’s something we struggle with, how can we maybe support that?

Kaylee Richardson:

So you want a good routine and being diligent about the routine, turning off the phone because once you pick up the phone, it starts stimulating everything. So very much a good routine. I’ll tell you what I do, and I’ll light a candle. I will have a good candle with maybe a little lavender, brew up a cup of tea. My morning routine and my evening routine are just very intentional and we always forget your morning routine. You got it, you probably have it down pat, you get up, get your coffee go. But the nighttime doesn’t always follow suit. So just being a little intentional about that very much is a great start.

Also, there are some great herbs. Catnip is a great one. We say it’s for the whiny, cranky baby, but that also is the whiny, cranky adult. Passion Flower is another one that’s a great sedative too, that’ll help kind of calm… There are surprisingly a lot of beautiful herbs that help with sleep outside of chamomile. I mean, chamomile is probably my favorite. It’s sweet, like honey. Skull cap is another one. If you have that chattery, if you’re the type of person that you go to bed and your mind is racing about everything else that you have to do, one, get up, write everything down that you have on your mind so that you’re not going to forget that and have a little skull cap. That definitely calms everything down. But the hard part is also looking at what is causing it. So how much caffeine are you drinking?

How much sugar are you taking into your body? That all really plays a huge role into anxiety. I’d also look at hormones too, especially for depression and sleep too, depending on the type of time of life, if it’s a woman, I know when we start to change, everything kind of starts to change. So looking at different plants that might help. But yeah, I mean there are some beautiful, beautiful herbs, but pairing them along with a good, healthy routine. And again, what time are you eating dinner? Is it a late dinner? Are you giving your body enough time to process? I try to eat dinner fairly early and then if I can, I’ll go for a walk. So little things like that definitely do contribute a lot to the overall. But yeah, healthy, good routine.

Anna Sakawsky:

Yeah, I know so much of it is about that, and I think these are the things that we know deep down, but sometimes it just helps to hear it. It almost gives us permission to go, I know that and thank you for telling me that, because now I feel like I can have permission to go do that. Such a funny thing. But I know that I’m probably not the only one that almost feels guilt around that we feel guilt around sleeping because I should be doing something, I should be more productive or whatever it is. But taking a step back and getting back to nature and the way that we should be living that can actually then help us in the long run to be productive and to wear all the hats that we do have to wear in this modern day and keep up with the fast pace of the world. We really do need to intentionally take that time to slow down. Otherwise that’s not that I’m an expert, but what causes a lot of the anxiety and it’s overwhelm, right? There’s just so much that we feel like we’ve got to keep up with.

And usually it is those things. It’s those foundational health things that end up suffering, right? It’s like I’ll grab something quick and easy to eat because I don’t have time. I’ll cut my sleep short. I won’t go outside because I’m too busy on the computer, whatever it is. And we just have to be really intentional about building those things in.

Kaylee Richardson:

I think too, the other aspect of it, I mean there was something, this was kind of my lesson. I look at the decisions that I’m making in my life as an investment for my future, but also to not just for my future, but at some point my family is going to have to take care of me. I mean, at some point, let’s just face it, we’re all going to get to a point where we’re going to need a little bit of help. I hope that God’s like, Nope, I got you girl, and I’m out and it’s great and I don’t have to require as much care, but I want to be the best that I possibly can be when I am of that age that I am going to be when my children might have to take care of me. They’re not going to be children at that point. They’ll be grown adults. But for me, that foundation is something that I want to offer to them, and I don’t necessarily want to be a burden on them. Not saying that I’ll be a burden, but it is the reality. And that was something that I learned taking care of people during hospice.

That was what they kind of struggled with is feeling like they were a burden. And I’m like, no, you are not a burden. Some people were extremely healthy, but sometimes anything could happen. We don’t know. But I just want to do what I can now so that when my children are older, they can see that I’ve done a good job trying to take care of myself now, so that later in life we’re going to be good. I mean, right now we’re a caregiver to my grandmother. She’s 93 years old, and I’m telling you what, that woman is remarkable. I mean, I have her out in the woods with me on foraging, because she took care of herself, so–

Anna Sakawsky:

Yeah, for sure, I love that idea of looking at it like an investment. We do. We make all these investments into other things in our life, but for some reason we don’t always think of our health the same way. So making those investments now so that we can benefit from them for years to come, I think is really important. And the people around us benefit from those as well. So we will get into a few more questions before we wrap up, but I do want to talk a little bit about your book, because everything that we have talked about today is basically what forms the foundation of the book that you wrote. A lot of this information is in there, what we can be doing to support our health now, but also for the future, making those investments. So tell us a little bit about your book. What’s in it? What can people expect to learn from the book? And do they need any type? Is this for everybody or do they need to be beekeepers? No. Who was this book written for?

Kaylee Richardson:

If I were to put a picture, I mean, honestly, it’s hard to pick a specific age person. I know sometimes when they say, who is this for? Well, I mean, I wrote it for me, this book essentially is my entire notes of everything, my formulas, my protocols, my time as a surgical first assistant with anatomy and physiology and understanding how the body works. Again, I had to learn from myself how to take care of myself, but I wanted to put something together that would help people figure out how to put their puzzle pieces together to learn how to use plant medicine and what to do and all the different ways that you can use herbs. You don’t have to have, if you avoid alcohol, hey, here’s an alternative. You don’t need alcohol. You can use this if you want to blend your own tea. I mean, I don’t know how many recipes are going to make it, but it was quite a big book.

But some of my favorites, learning, sharing about electuaries and mixing powdered herbs with the honey and making pastels and salves even again, like this bees wax. Like, Hey, I get that I’m here. That’s how I’m using these herbs. So really it’s for the person who wants to learn and for the person who wants to learn how to help themself or possibly somebody else. And yes, this is the beekeeper’s. Apothecary because I am a beekeeper and I use a lot of wax and honey and propolis. And for me, that’s just, again, if it doesn’t taste good, you’re not going to take the herbal medicines. But yeah, I mean it’s for the person who wants to learn how to help themself. And as an herbalist, even though I work with people, my way of working with somebody is to not, it’s to kind of break that cycle, the cycle of being dependent on another system. I don’t want somebody to be dependent on me to help them. I want to give them the tools that they can help themself. And really that’s what it’s about.

Anna Sakawsky:

Well, and that really is so much of what homesteading in general is about and why there is such an interest in all these topics. All kind of looking to ways that we can empower ourselves to take care of ourselves and not have to be dependent on some of these outside systems or just even medicines that maybe we can’t always get our hands on, but maybe we can be growing ourselves or supporting ourselves with things that are already in our pantry. And so yeah, I think that’s fantastic. And I know you do go into quite a bit in the book when it comes to these gratitude practices and just ways that you can kind of build this foundation of health and then bring in some more of the herbs and actually get really into the specifics of recipes and how to create your own herbal medicine at home. And so if somebody’s a real beginner, this will be fairly accessible for them.

Kaylee Richardson:

Yeah, yeah. I would say beginner, intermediate, even expert, because we all have to start somewhere, and a lot of the times it might be in your pantry, so what do you have?

Absolutely.

Kaylee Richardson:

But yeah, it does dive deeper.

Anna Sakawsky:

Right. Okay. So we’re a little bit over the hour now, so I do want to just get to a few more questions. So somebody, Gina actually asked, has anybody used homeopathy with bees? Do you have any experience with homeopathy or how does that, because I don’t know much about it, but is that different from just regular herbalism or what it is? 

Kaylee Richardson:

It is a little different. I mean, definitely. I’ve never done that really together. I mean, the only homeopathy product that I’ve taken on a regular basis, and actually in the operating room, some surgeons would actually recommend this specifically like plastic surgeons, but Arnica as the little tablet, not Arnica as a tincture. Arnica is mainly external, but they do make a homeopathic tablet that you can actually take, which has been very helpful. But I mean, other than that, no. I mean, I try to focus strict with the herbs.

Anna Sakawsky:

Okay. Okay. Alright. I think we had some more beekeeping questions in here as well. Actually, a few people brought up hops. Do you work anything with hops as far as using them as an herb or with your bees?

Kaylee Richardson:

So I don’t like it.

Anna Sakawsky:

No? Okay.

Kaylee Richardson:

Okay. Yes, you can grow hops for the bees. They do actually produce a beautiful pollen. I have hops here, but I’m not a big fan. I’m not a big fan of it. As a sedative, they’re great. But I’ve done a few hops in with my tea blends at night and I’m like, I feel like I’m drinking a hot beer. So if it doesn’t taste good, you’re not going to take it. But yeah, you can actually brew. And I do have some, and they’re beautiful flour, and you can see the pollen just pouring out. I have grown some hops, but I’m just not, me personally, I’m not a huge fan, so it’s not one that I’m going to necessarily grow. I will source that one. But yeah,

Anna Sakawsky:

Diane had asked, she said there’s a mite treatment that uses hops in some form. So do you think that that would help with mite reduction?

Kaylee Richardson:

Oh, I have to look at that. Let me do some research on that one. I mainly focus on time and oregano. And then I actually started this last year, I started putting catnip around the entrances as well. So still run.

Anna Sakawsky:

Yeah, because that’s another thing that you said you do is you don’t just grow the herbs, but sometimes you’ll actually take little sprigs of thyme, for example, and put them right at the entrance of the hive so that they walk over them and get that all over. That’s really interesting. And those are some herbs. I mean, thyme and oregano are ones that you can grow on a patio if you needed to or something. These are and use easily in your kitchen. So if you’re new to using herbs or new to beekeeping, these are some easy herbs to add to your property.

Kaylee Richardson:

Yeah, I mean too, the bees are going to go, they’re going to travel in a two mile, two and a half mile radius around where the colony, where you have the colony. There are so many fun things, and that’s exciting. I mean, they’re a feral livestock, which maybe is probably why I gravitate towards them. You can’t tame.

Anna Sakawsky:

Yeah. Okay. So back on, we talked about predators a bit, but we talked about some of the larger predators, bears and skunks and that sort of thing. What about Candace asked how to safely deal with yellow jackets? So what about wasps and yellow jackets and insect predators? Any suggestions for that?

Kaylee Richardson:

So there is a, hold on. I’m sorry, I just had to, there is my computer just acted up a little second. Okay, sorry. I just had to make sure that we are good. Okay. Hive beetles. So that is a little bug that likes to get in there and make a mess of all the things. But I found that if I actually keep my colonies out in the open, not in the shaded area, the hive hive beetle population diminishes. A colony will have it, yes. But a good, healthy, strong colony can defend itself and overcome, but it’s when that colony gets a little bit weak, that’s when the things kind of start happening. But yellow jackets, again, if your colony is strong, you don’t need to do anything. The main thing is just focus on a good strong colony. I have set up yellow jacket traps. You can take a two liter bottle, cut it, flip it up, flip it upside down, and then put cut cat food like meat. They’re attracted to meat,

Anna Sakawsky:

Right? Yeah. We all know that from camping and

Kaylee Richardson:

The gnits

Anna Sakawsky:

And the wasp being everywhere,

Kaylee Richardson:

You can do that. But for the most part, if your colony is good and strong, and then wax moth is another one too. It’s a little moth that comes in and she’ll lay the eggs and then the little caterpillar larva will go in there. And I mean, it can be really horrific, but if your colony is weak is when there’s an issue. So keeping the colony kind of small, if you give them too much space, it’s kind of like a castle. If a castle is too big and there’s not enough guards, then predators—things are going to come in. So if you kind of keep them in a smaller night, smaller area, they’re going to be able to defend themselves.

Anna Sakawsky:

I like that analogy and just the analogy of having a really strong hive. It is almost like the same thing with humans having a strong immune system in general. You’re going to be able to weather a lot more issues and challenges that you might face. Overall.

Kaylee Richardson:

It’s all about the foundation. And really that’s essentially the book with the bees. I mean, even though it’s the beekeepers, apothecary, it’s the analogy of just having a strong, healthy foundation. But yeah.

Anna Sakawsky:

Well, I love that. So we’ll wrap up in just a sec here. I do want to just ask one more question that we had in, because I think this is an interesting one, and I hadn’t thought about this, but Mary asked, what if your neighbors spray roundup is the honey safe to eat? So this is something that we strive to be as organic as possible and do right by our bees or our livestock and our own health. Do we have to be concerned about what other people are doing around us? How does that affect using the honey?

Kaylee Richardson:

That’s hard, but that’s where you become neighborly. And it’s this education, Hey, I bring ’em a jar of honey, say, Hey, I got bees. If you’re going to spray, do you mind letting me know? And maybe I’ll close my colonies up for a day. But depending on how far away they are, again, the bees are literally going to travel around a two mile radius. So I mean, it’s hard. You can’t tame them. I mean, they’re the only considered livestock that you can’t keep in a fence.

So they are going to go, and unfortunately even for me, I had the tree company spray within about a half a mile from us. And it is the most devastating thing when you have a healthy, strong hive that’s flourishing, and then you go in a couple of days later and then your colony is done. I mean, that’s the saddest thing in the world, but I think that’s where we just have to really start educating and teaching like, Hey, look at what you’re putting on these plants. Why are they trying to kill? And that could be a whole deeper conversation. Why are they trying to kill the actual weeds that offer the most medicinal property? I mean, some weeds have so much more than, so much more medicinal property than what you can actually grow. Like dandelion, dandelion is a huge one. I mean, you can start going down that rabbit hole, but it’s again, let it grow. So not everything has to be perfect in rows

Anna Sakawsky:

And we can’t control everything. But I think you’re right. And I think just kind of leading by example. And we hope that our neighbors look to us and see that we have thriving gardens and homesteads and everything, and maybe take a cue and stop using some of those harmful chemicals. But again, yeah, I think we can’t control everything and we just have to do the best we can.

On our property and for our own health. And I think that everything that we’ve talked about today are really good ways to do that and to get started. Alright, so let me just double check and make sure, because coming up on an hour and a half, so I do want to wrap up, but I want to just make sure we haven’t missed any. I know we’ve got some more questions and I’m sorry if we were not able to get to everybody’s questions, but that is where Kaylee’s book comes in. So definitely if you haven’t pre-ordered yet, you can pre-order. Actually, I don’t know if we’ve got a link below the video, but maybe I’ll just ask my support team here to pop it in the comments, the link that they can go to pre-order the book. Oh, there we go, right there. So it’s just homestead living.com/the beekeepers APO care.

So you can check that in the comments. It’s the dash beekeepers. There we go. Perfect. That’s right up on the screen there. So you haven’t pre-ordered your copy yet. Make sure to do that. And of course, make sure, oh, and it’ll also be in the email with the replay. I know we had a few people asking about whether or not there would be a replay. There will be a replay if you want to revisit any of this as well. And then of course, remember that Kaylee is going to be featured on the cover of our May issue. It is a beautiful cover, by the way. I don’t think Kaylee’s had a chance to see it yet, but very excited for that to come out. So if you haven’t subscribed to Homestead Living magazine yet, make sure you do that. That link is below the video. And so thank you so much for taking time out of your day to be with us here today, Kaylee, and to everybody who was able to attend live.

Kaylee Richardson:

Yes, thank you guys for having me. And I hope that I answered a good bit of the questions. I’m sure there’s going to be plenty more, but yeah,

Anna Sakawsky:

Definitely. And I think we’re already looking forward to another book. There is so much information, not just on the herbalism and everything, but about the beekeeping aspect. I know there’s a lot of people that are really interested in that as well.

Kaylee Richardson:

That book is in the works, don’t worry.

Anna Sakawsky:

Yeah, yeah, we’re still talking about book number two. And of course Kaylee’s YouTube channel is The Honeystead, so make sure you check that out as well. She’s got lots of great informative videos there for anybody that is interested in beekeeping and using herbs and just living a healthier life. So thank you so much everybody, and we will see everybody next month for next month’s episode of The Coop. We will be back with John and Molly Chester next month from the biggest Little Farm documentary. So, looking forward to talking to them. Thank you so much everybody, and we’ll see you then. Bye for now.

Kaylee Richardson:

Bye guys.