He doesn’t have a large stand, but at the Moscow Farmers Market on Saturday mornings, Craig Roberts sells some of the purest honey in town from C.R. Honey Bees. He said he sells his honey and gives his customers some details about what it is like to work with the bees that make his honey.
Roberts was born and raised in the Palouse and Potlatch areas with his mother, brother and father, who worked in the sawmill. He said he has a daughter, Shontelle, who is 37 years old and a son, CJ (Craig James), who is currently 21.
He said he started his journey with honey about seven years ago.
“I was working at WSU and I got talking to the lady that was working with the bees,” Roberts said.
He said he thought working with bees would be a good way to make a little more money, but then it quickly turned into something personal.
“After you see them and get with them a little bit, it draws you to it,” Roberts said.
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He said his passion is in the bees’ work and how they interact with each other. He keeps his bees in Lewis Clark Valley and does his best work with wildflowers, white Dutch clovers and yellow star thistles, which is his best seller, he said.
“Got to have quite a few bees to get any honey,” Roberts said.
Even if there are a lot of bees, you can run into multiple problems, he said. Some of these issues include not having enough honey or having a hive without a queen bee, he said. Without a queen bee, eggs will be laid incorrectly, honey would be scarce and the worker bees would begin to show aggravation. The whole system depends on the survival and work of the queen.
Roberts is going on his fourth year at the Farmers Market in Moscow, he said. And though there are a lot of people who make honey in this area, Roberts brings an education with his work. His customers are excited to hear him speak about the bees and their production, he said.
As for Roberts, even though he has spent seven years of his life producing honey, he said he is still learning.
“Every time I go in, something different happens,” Roberts said.
At the Moscow Farmers Market, stop by and try some of the purest honey the Palouse has to offer and learn a little something about the wonderful creatures that are bees at C.R. Honey Bees.
Jessy Forsmo-Shadid can be reached at [email protected]