Beyoncé, one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, is dipping her considerable talents into the worlds of honey and hemp.
In a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the singer and actor explained how quarantine during the pandemic awakened her interests in agrarian hobbies.
“During quarantine, I went from overindulgences to creating positive rituals drawing from past generations and putting my own spin on things,” Beyoncé explained. “I discovered CBD on my last tour, and I’ve experienced its benefits for soreness and inflammation. It helped with my restless nights and the agitation that comes from not being able to fall asleep.
She added that her daughters, Blue and Rumi, who suffer from allergies, led her to pursue her own local source of honey. “I found healing properties in honey that benefit me and my children,” she said. “And now I’m building a hemp and a honey farm. I’ve even got hives on my roof!”
As for the number of hives we’re talking about here, a bit of digging reveals that Beyoncé earlier revealed to Vogue UK that she presently has two. “I have around 80,000 bees and we make hundreds of jars of honey a year,” she told the magazine.
Beyoncé’s interest in honeybees follows a long line of celebrities over the years who have also taken up the hobby; including Robert Redford, Jennifer Garner, Jon Bon Jovi, and Sting. In 2014, Morgan Freeman converted his 124-acre Mississippi ranch into a “bee sanctuary,” importing 26 hives from Arkansas and explaining to “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon about his comfort in tending them.
“I have not ever used the beekeeping hat with my bees. They haven’t stung me yet, as right now I am not trying to harvest honey or anything, but I just feed them…I also think that they understand, ‘Hey, don’t bother this guy, he’s got sugar water here,’” he said.
A hemp farm too?
As for those hemp ambitions, very little is known either about her plans for the plant or which of her many properties might help sustain a crop. Hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) products have exploded onto the consumer market over the last couple of years, with estimates the industry will grow to nearly $14 billion in sales by 2028.
It wouldn’t be surprising if Beyoncé, no stranger to successful business ventures, decided to launch her own line of CBD products. Late last year, her husband Shawn ‘Jay-Z’ Carter launched a related startup with a premium cannabis brand called Monogram.
“Cannabis has been around for thousands of years, yet it is still an industry whose legacy of skilled craftsmanship is often overlooked,” he said in a release. “I created Monogram to give cannabis the respect it deserves by showcasing the tremendous hard work, time and care that go into crafting a superior smoke.”
Will Beyoncé’s hemp farm be a complement to these efforts? ‘Bee’ patient. The Queen is at work.
