About us
I am Fogarasi Szabolcs, from Târgu Mureș, producer and processor of organic honey.
The main goal of my company is to make honey specialties. I am directly involved in the production of cream honey and other honey specialties such as cocoa mint cream honey, blueberry cream honey, honey containing dried fruits and various seeds.
All BeeHappy products are organic certified.
Our goal is to make premium category products paying special attention to both the production process and in the packaging!
I’m a beekeeper, I take care of bees. And yes, I consider it as a vocation. I am one of those who not only want to take advantage of them, but want to help them to stay alive on Earth. Through pollination they play a very important role in our lives. Their organization is amazing, they live their days in maximum order, right from their birth. The initially hatched worker bee works indoors: it feeds, cleans, then guards the entrance, processes the nectar and only after then he flies outside, orienting itself and participating in outdoor work. It’s very interesting that bees are so organized… We might ask ourselves: we humans. Why don’t we work like that?
No one in our family did beekeeping. In the late ‘90s, I met a passionate young beekeeper. He called me to see his work and encouraged me to start too. I didn’t even like honey, only later did I discover its goodness and beneficial effects. I was afraid of bees, so they wouldn’t sting me. Slowly I realized that they don’t hurt me, I should not be afraid of them, they really started to like me. My beekeeper friend offered to teach me the trade, if I help him too. I started working with him, helping him with his daily work, I became a kind of apprentice, meanwhile learning the trade. He gladly explained to me, taught me, and offered me books from which I could gain theoretical knowledge of the things I had already learned in practice. I got my drivers license for the truck. Since bees can only be transported at night, without my help it would have been difficult for a single person to drive several hundred kilometers in one night. I bought the first bee colonies on credit, from my friend’s father, because as a student I didn’t have the necessary money. I bought them in the spring and paid for them only at the end of summer, from the honey sold. It was a very pleasant feeling to see the bees that summer, knowing that they are mine.
The job cannot be learned in a few months. It is the result of a lifelong learning process and practical experience. I wandered with my friend for three years as I expanded my own apiary. Unfortunately, he lost his life in a tragic accident. Then I came to a crossroad and I had to make a decision. Either I choose the bees, as a nove beekeeper, or I start looking for a safe job… I chose the bees. Suddenly I had to get my own feet. At the time, my father also started helping me in the apiary, starting to roam together. My friend’s father, a very good beekeeper, also helped me with advice, as well as my fellow beekeepers with whom I used to travel. In beekeeping there are always new things to learn, it is a challenging job. We must keep up with the ever-changing weather, with treatment options for diseases that destroy bees and with continuous changes that restrict bee habitat.
There is a calm in the hive that often helps me. If one day I go to the bees stressed, I feel the feedback immediately through the multitude of stings received. I got used to it so much that I go down to them, put down my phone, and work with them, at their own pace, with the same calm, and that is transmitted to me as well. I’m actually calming down. I am influenced by their buzz and the beautiful, organized work they do every day, without being bothered by anything. Even if the weather is not their best, they can still accept it and continue their activity inside the hive with the same calm. They also give me this peace of mine, and then I can work without stings all day and return home much calmes. Many times, acquaintances ask me: What’s wrong with you being so calm?
Yes. It is enough to sit down and watch them. And to inhale the scent that comes from the hive: the smell of honey, pollen, propolis and beeswax greets me when I open the hive. It’s pure therapy. Bees help me learn to live freely, to be calmer, to think clearly. I used to be a very temperamental person, a nervous guy, I shouted easily at anyone. I’ve changed. I don’t suddenly get nervous and I resolve situations much more calmly. Thanks to my bees and my faith. The bees also brought me closer to God, thei life helped me to deepen my faith, these two things somehow coming “in a package”.
After several years of wandering around and working on the development of our apiary, my father and I were disturbed by the wholesale market and the fact that the fruits of our labor are enjoyed by buyers from abroad. That’s why we started to create a customer base at home, where we could sell honey to local consumers at a better price.
Over the years this circle of customers has expanded, while increasing the demand for special products. So, we started to make more types of honey, wax figures and honey mixed with dried fruits and different seeds. The recipes were sometimes developed together with my wife (she being a pharmacist) over several months.
As there is growing demand for honey specialties, respectively we wanted to supply our products to larger stores and, implicitly, to a larger circle of customers, it became necessary to open an official factory for processing and packaging the honey.
After several months of preparations and obtaining all permits, it was successfully launched in May 2019. Our hive was certified organic from the beginning, so in our processing station we also focus on the production of only organic products. In addition to regular honey, we also introduced new products, such as cream honey and its various flavored variants, with dried fruits or spices. We also offer several types of honey specialties.
We started the sale of cream honey at fairs to raise public awareness of this special dish. Meanwhile, business relationships and sales opportunities have also developed with stores.
This is how the BeeHappy brand was born. With the help of our processing space, we managed to turn the apiary into a business with a secure income, even in spite of falling prices and increasingly capricious years in terms of honey production. Nomadic beekeeping slowly turned into permanent apiaries, divided into several small territories. This helps to produce organic honey for processing. The sale of honey produced at a better price and the possibility of introducing new products gave us a new impetus and a new vision, giving our apiary a new direction.
We hear more and more often in the media that bees are on the verge of extinction, several families of bees can be killed simultaneously by using different chemicals. Given this, I feel that I am a person who, by taking on a role in the survival of bees, can protect nature. Even if it is a tiny activity, taking care of bees, I feel that we can slow down their disappearance and we can offer people healthy products – honey, pollen, propolis, etc. And that’s the most important thing for us. Yes, the happy bee: BeeHappy – this is one of the goals :).
