Wisconsin Natural Acres

Keeper is sweet to his bees, and that pays off

Posted: April 15, 2008

As he follows the advance of colony collapse disorder that is afflicting so many beehives nationwide, Doug Schulz watches his healthy bees and keeps his fingers crossed.

He has not lost a single bee yet to the mysterious epidemic, which has produced major losses of bee colonies across the country and has entomologists scratching their heads.

A self-described artisan beekeeper, Schulz produces his premium Wisconsin Natural Acres honey using old-fashioned, labor-intensive methods. The Chilton resident can't help but believe that has something to do with his luck so far, if it is luck at all.

"Do I know that for sure? I'd be lying if I said I did," said Schulz.

Schulz's is not just a story of producing honey for money. It's a story of ambitions diverted. Of an octogenarian mentor and his younger charge. Of keeping alive time-honored, generations-old methods dating to the 19th century. Of making deals and keeping secrets.

The product of a dairy farm in Manitowoc County, Schulz said he always had a thing about bees.

"I was a nature nut, very inquisitive about the beehives up on our neighbor's land," he said. "So I spent time watching them as a child, we're talkin' 6 years old and up. I would follow bumblebees until I found their nest. I could keep up with bumblebees but not honeybees."

At 17, as a high school junior, Schulz had plans to attend college, with medical school as his ultimate goal. That summer he worked for a migratory beekeeper. He got hooked.

He scrapped his college plans and went to work. He met his future wife, Susan (at the county fair honey exhibit, no less), and together they invested in a few bees and built up a business, mostly extracting honey for others. At its peak, Nature's Nectar Corp. had four corporate warehouses and contracts with dozens of other beekeepers.

One of those beekeepers was Warren Otto. Otto was a teacher and coach in Two Rivers but in summer he managed about 300 hives. No one else Schulz worked with could compete with Otto for the quality, volume and color of his honey.

"One day he took me aside and he pulls out his wallet and shows me a picture when he was 6 years old," Schulz recalled. "He's next to his grandfather and father at a beehive. That's all his father and grandfather did (for a living). He turned out to be my mentor."

Otto set out to teach Schulz everything he knew - most important, how to keep his bees happy and healthy. How to handle them, to never kill or squish a bee because, as Schulz says, "They're your friends."

In 1996 Schulz began testing nectar sites and planning for his own full-time beekeeping business; in 1998, the Schulzes sold their original business. In January of 2007, Wisconsin Natural Acres honey was born.

Following Otto's lead, Schulz handles his bees exclusively by hand - no machines or forklifts in this operation. The only exception is the use of a machine to extract the honey.

Schulz uses no chemicals. He drives the bees from their hives by a much gentler method, with smoke produced by burning organic applewood and bark.

When it's time to prepare the honey for the market, the Schulzes don't heat it, they merely warm it (finding just the right temperature to liquefy the honey - which is one of his secrets - took some doing). And rather than force the honey through a 50-micron filter, as they once did for clients, they merely strain it. This keeps the honey, according to Schulz, "more natural" and better tasting.

"At the top of our jars you'll see a real light, whitish color," Schulz said. "That's natural beeswax and pollen."

Schulz would like to call his honey organic, but with bees gathering nectar in the open, no beekeeper can guarantee that.

However, to come as close as possible, he's made deals with nearby farmers and canning companies. In exchange for honey, they agree not to spray within a mile and a half of wherever he keeps his clusters of beehives.

Where spraying needs to be done, it is scheduled before daybreak or after dark, when the bees are in their hives; this gives the morning dew a chance to wash the chemicals off the plants before the bees set out.

All of these efforts seem to have paid off. Schulz has his honey tested every year not just for moisture, color and sugar content - but also for pesticides, insecticides and herbicides, "and it tests out completely chemical-free," Schulz said. "That's a big facet of who we are."

Schulz's honey is a blend of alfalfa, basswood and clover. He spent 11 years searching for the locations with the best nectar sources that were also free of noxious weeds and flowers that can interfere with the flavor. (This, too, he learned from Otto.) Those locations, specks on a map throughout five counties, are a secret.

With a focus on quality, not volume, Schulz harvests his honey only in summer, which is when the flavor is best. "We don't pull any spring honey - that's for the bees." Fall honey, he says, is inferior, so that, too, goes to feed the stock. In another departure from the norm, his bees are fed only honey - no corn syrup.

His honey is sold online (www.wnacres.com), in most Sendik's stores in the Milwaukee area, at Outpost Natural Foods stores and at Whole Foods in Milwaukee and Madison. As premium honey, it also commands a premium price. A 1-pound jar typically sells for $12.99 to $13.99.

Schulz is to the point where he can almost give up a day job in business development and make a living exclusively from his 100 or so hives. In the decade while he was testing sites, he sold his honey from his home and donated much of it to charity while gathering consumers' reactions.

As he works, he often thinks of Otto, now 81, who grew up with 300 or 400 hives in his backyard, and of Otto's father and grandfather. "I'll never learn everything he knows," Schulz said.

As we spoke a few weeks back, Schulz's bees were "wintering" indoors in a building built in 1933 by Otto's grandfather for that purpose. In winter, the bees cluster around the queen, vibrating to keep her warm and rotating positions to stay warm themselves.

Now out of hibernation, they're doing well, Schulz said; just this week they started to bring in pollen.

Schulz has grown so confident around the insects that he no longer wears a bee veil. The "head bee wrangler," as he calls himself, believes that the methods they practice with their bees keep problems - i.e. stings - at bay. "They trust us," he said of his bees. "They're very docile."

While he doesn't claim to be the only beekeeper in Wisconsin drawing from old-fashioned artisanal methods, Schulz said he'd be surprised to learn of another large-scale beekeeper who does it this way. So would Otto.

It's a lot of work, Otto said, adding: "His organic methods keep him as busy as the bees he keeps."

Nancy J. Stohs is food editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. E-mail her at nstohs@journalsentinel.com

Press Release Source: Market Wire

Wisconsin Natural Acres Expands Into Chicago Market

Wed March 19, 2008 11:09 am ET

2008 Kicks Off With Independent Lab Results Confirming Pureness of WNA's Honey

Wisconsin Natural Acres (WNA), producer of all-natural honey and home to millions of healthy and thriving honeybees, today announced the availability of the company's premium honey in Treasure Island Foods' seven Chicago-area stores.

A Chicago-area staple for more than 40 years, Treasure Island Foods was founded to combine the conventional with the best of specialty, imported and domestic products. In fact, Julia Child called Treasure Island "The most European supermarket in America." The markets' buyers travel throughout the U.S. and Europe each year to find the newest and best-quality products available.

Deep in the heart of Wisconsin, there's a place where clean air and sunshine are prevalent. Where fields of bright-white clover and deep-purple alfalfa stretch for miles, and off in the distance, a lake that stretches as far as the eye can see reflects the sun's bright rays. This is a place that some very lucky honeybees call home, and it's a place where Wisconsin Natural Acres is using centuries-old beekeeping secrets to produce the most pure honey in the world. WNA's bees are intentionally placed in areas away from crops that require heavy use of any farming chemicals/fertilizers. As a result, WNA's bees are much healthier and not one bee has been lost to Colony Collapse Disorder.

In addition to Treasure Island Foods, WNA's premium honey can also be found at each of Sunset Foods' four Chicago-area stores. Family owned since 1937,Sunset Foods places a high value on carrying organic and healthy products that are locally raised.

"With seven Treasure Island Foods, and four Sunset Foods Chicago-area stores, local residents now have the opportunity to taste what honey was meant to taste like. Lightly sweet with an intense, deep-honey flavor; our product is all natural, never heated and rich in antioxidants," said Doug Schulz, proprietor and head bee wrangler of Wisconsin Natural Acres.

About Wisconsin Natural Acres

Located in Chilton, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Natural Acres runs its day-to-day beekeeping operation with more than one-hundred years of experience and knowledge passed down from friends and family. Using all-organic processes with no chemicals, the bees feed off of the alfalfa, basswood, and clover which are plentiful in Wisconsin. Once collected, WNA's honey is never heated or filtered, as this can kill the immune system-building antioxidants which are prevalent in honey's natural state. For additional information on Wisconsin Natural Acres or to order, visit www.wnacres.com.

Contact: Media Contact: Joshua Levitt,

McKinley Reserve Media Group

(940) 852-8604

Email: jlevitt@mckinleyreserve.com

Press Release Source: Wisconsin Natural Acres

Wisconsin Natural Acres Launches "Honey with Integrity" Campaign

Monday January 21, 2008 1:23 pm ET

2008 Kicks Off With Independent Lab Results Confirming Pureness of WNA's Honey

Wisconsin Natural Acres, producer of all-natural honey and home to millions of healthy, happy and thriving honeybees, today announced the launch of its 2008 Honey with Integrity campaign. The Honey with Integrity campaign will span the 2008 year, promoting the health benefits of honey, and ways it can be incorporated into a healthy lifestyle.

To launch this campaign, Wisconsin Natural Acres commissioned S-F Analytical Laboratories to test its honey for insecticides, chemicals or other foreign substances. SF Laboratories is one of the Midwest's largest environmental, industrial and food analysis facilities, serving the testing needs of more than 4,000 clients throughout the US and Canada. Test results were overwhelmingly favorable, with no detectable amounts of organo-phosphate, chlorinated insecticides or antibiotics being found in WNA's honey.

Deep in the heart of Wisconsin, there's a place where clean air and sunshine are prevalent. Where fields of bright-white clover and deep-purple alfalfa stretch for miles, and off in the distance, a lake that stretches as far as the eye can see reflects the sun's bright rays. This is a place that some very lucky honeybees call home, and it's a place where Wisconsin Natural Acres is using centuries-old beekeeping secrets to produce the most pure and best flavored honey in the world. WNA's bees are intentionally placed in areas away from crops that require heavy use of any farming chemicals/fertilizers. As a result, WNA's bees are much healthier and not one bee has been lost to Colony Collapse Disorder.

"Utilizing the best nectar sources, such as basswood, clover and alfalfa, leads to the most tasty honey," said Doug Schulz, proprietor and head bee wrangler of Wisconsin Natural Acres. "We're utilizing time-tested natural techniques to care for our bees, and as a result, we're being rewarded with the best-tasting honey in the world. It's truly Honey with Integrity."

About Wisconsin Natural Acres

Contact: Media Contact: Joshua Levitt

McKinley Reserve Media Group

(940) 852-8604

Email: jlevitt@mckinleyreserve.com