Have you ever considered that you don’t know exactly what you get when you buy honey from the store?

In more ways than one, honey is great for your health. But the honey you buy from places like Walmart and Kroger are pasteurized, and all the healthy components of honey are killed in the process.

That’s why Landon Topliff and his business partner Alex Winer became beekeepers and founded Bizzy Beez.

Bizzy Beez produces pure, unaltered honey that’s not cut with high-fructose corn syrup and never heated more than 110 degrees. This maintains the parts of honey that are healthy for you.

In addition to realizing the health benefits of and high demand for honey, Landon and Alex were inspired to become beekeepers by the Save The Bees movement. The movement aims to educate the public on the benefits of keeping bees alive for honey consumption and pollination purposes.

Eventually, Landon and Alex would like to see Bizzy Beez help educate students on the importance of bees in the ecosystem by installing bee boxes in schools. They also want to share pollination services with local and national farmers and gardeners, with an emphasis on local sales.

Landon’s goal 3 to 5 years down the road is for Bizzy Beez to become the biggest beekeeping business in Wabash, and the duo is already on its way.

Landon and Alex are recent winners of a high school business plan competition in Wabash County, received the Young Visionary Fellowship from Believe In A Dream, and are now Fortitude Founders.

The team will use their grant from the Fortitude Fund to buy more bees and equipment they can use to expand their product offering to include beeswax. 

And they might consider saving some cash for their 20 combined beesting-related injuries.