Biography

"Our aim has always been to make beekeeping our lifestyle,
rather than just a business" - John Van Alten

Legend has it that a honey bee must travel the equivalent of twice around the world to make one teaspoon of honey.

Now imagine how many bees it must take to produce 120,000 pounds of honey. If the weather

co-operates, that's how much honey John Van Alten's 1,500 hives and some 80 million bees will produce this year.

John has been keeping bees since 1981 and business has grown along with the family of six children who have helped in many aspects of raising and tending bees as well as selling honey.

As the business grew, staff were hired to help prepare the sweet rewards of the honey bee hive. Dutchman's Gold’s success is largely attributed to the dedicated employees who have come on board over the years.

Beekeeping may be a warm weather pursuit, but a beekeeper's job is never done. The beekeeping season starts in winter, with the bees clustering safely inside their well stocked hives. Plans for the coming season are made, equipment is tended to, and new hive bodies are built and painted. Once the temperature starts to rise in April, both the bees & their keepers start to work in earnest.

The month of May sees many orchards requiring the pollination services we provide. Young queens are raised to replace older queens in order to keep the hive dynamics at their peak.
June, July and August are crucial flowering months for our honey crop.
August and September our extractors work non stop to harvest the bounty that nature and hard work provide.
October and November are busy tending to the bees, to ensure that they are well fed and healthy before the long winter ahead.

All the while, throughout the year honey is also packaged and distributed for sale, as well as other products of the hive.

Dutchman's Gold’s has shown success over the years (esp. in GTA), and thus creating a specialized registered trademark in the company, “Annie's Apitherapy”, in order to create a better awareness to their customers, as to the therapeutic properties of all the wonderful co-products of the hive. Thus, Bee Pollen, Royal Jelly & Propolis, can be used as dietary supplements on their own, and is also as a ‘value-added’, component when blended together with Honey, which helps maintain their potency. All products are available thru’ out the year.

DISCLAIMER: These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Bee products may cause an allergic reaction in some individuals. The above information is given for informative purposes.

Seek the advice of a licensed health practitioner who is qualified to make diagnoses and recommendations for treatment of illnesses.