GETTYSBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — A retail store that specializes in hand-made honey bee-based products, named Dawg Gone Bees will be reopening its new Gettysburg location later this week.
Dawg Gone Bees is a family-owned and operated business that was officially founded back in 2013. According to the co-owner and facilitates manager Hal Mack, since 2009, the family has been making honey-based products and selling them at a variety of farmers markets across the midstate.
Currently, the family still offers their products at the Hanover Market House on 210 E. Chestnut Street.
Dawg Gone Bees LLC offers a wide range of honey bee products for their customers to choose from, such as:
- Candles
- Lip Balm
- Beeswax
- Lotions
- Jarred honey
- Honey spreads
- Fermented honey mead and more!
These products can’t just make themselves, and this long-time family of beekeepers doesn’t just import the honey from somewhere else in the U.S. – they collect all of the honey themselves, just like their ancestors did, something which can be traced back to the 1870s, according to their website.
Currently, Dawg Gone Bees has 180 bee colonies that are scattered across Adams and York counties. According to Mack, just one of these colonies that he manages is able to produce up to 10 gallons of honey in a season – which is equal to about 60 pounds.
According to Mack, about six years ago, after a lot of success at the various farmers’ markets, the family decided to open their first retail storefront in New Oxford, on 15 Center Square. More recently, in Sep. 2022, Dawg Gone Bees opened another retail location in Gettysburg, on 430 Baltimore Street.
In the beginning of March 2023, Dawg Gone Bees temporarily closed their Gettysburg location after their neighbors, Gettysburg Olive Oil Co., moved out of the shared building space. According to Mack, this opened the door for Dawg Gone Bees to relocate to a larger space in the building, and reopen with an even bigger a better storefront than before.
“It’s exciting to open back up,” Mack said. “we are a small family-owned business and it’s good that we found a facility to meet our needs for right now.”
The new approximately 900 square foot storefront, which is located at the same address as before, will now have available seating for customers who wish to sit down and taste test a flight of honey meads – giving customers the chance to “drink like a Viking”, according to Mack.
Since 2015, Mack has been in charge of the honey-mead-making operation and now claims to offer “the best mead in all of Pennsylvania.”
It should be noted that all taste testing of the honey-mead flights will only be available at their Gettysburg location; however, you can still purchase their mead and other honey products at the other two locations as well.
According to their Facebook page, the new and improved storefront is set to have its grand reopening this Friday, March 17 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
You can visit Dawg Gone Bees website for the hours of operation at their various locations.
According to Mack, Dawg Gone Bees plans to continue expanding its honey-based business in the near future.
