About To Bee
Torch passed from the Bee Company
Jerry Webb is well known to local beekeepers for years of teaching classes, giving advice, extracting honey, and arranging bee packages and bulk honey for local beekeepers. He has kept bees himself almost all his life. But it was actually Jerry's wife Bette who started the beekeeper supply store. When Jerry retired from the insurance business, he started helping out and found he really liked the sales part of it. Eventually, he retired again, from the beekeeper supply business (he still keeps bees himself) and sold the inventory to Vicki Munroe, who caught her first swarm in 2008 and became infatuated with bees. She opened To Bee Or Not To Bee in March 2009.
A Family Tradition of Colorado Business
It may seem odd to find To Bee Or Not To Bee in the middle of a construction equipment rental yard, but there are several reasons for it. Now that backyard beekeeping is legal in Denver, Littleton, and some other suburbs, the store is centrally located for Denver area beekeepers and very close to I-25. 
Also, the yard is owned by Vicki's family. Vicki is following a long family tradition of Colorado businesses, since the 1930s. Both of her grandfathers had businesses in Denver - Jack Scott's Hardware and Jack Munroe of the White Truck Company. The family consists of Colorado natives dating from the 1890's as well as homesteaders putting down stakes in the Canon City area. So, the yard was available, and there was this quonset hut in it the perfect shape for a beehive store. Besides, beekeepers are used to going into strange yards to take care of bees. Vicki added some sparkly paint to the quonset hut, stocked the shelves, and opened To Bee Or Not To Bee on March 17th, in honor of her father on his birthday.
All About Options for All Sorts of Beekeepers
Vicki is stocking the shop primarily for hobbyists, though if somebody wants to order a hundred hives at a time, she'll get to work on it! To Bee Or Not To Bee carries everything from deep and medium supers made of plastic (much lighter to lift than wood) to the top bar hives promoted by the listen-to-the-bee philosophies. She even has Warre hive equipment for sale, and is actually looking for more people who want to build top bar hives and distribute them through her shop. It's all about options--Vicki plans to carry as much variety as anyone has an interest in. She is using Jerry Webb's suppliers to continue the tradition of good quality equipment--things that are made well, won't warp, and work well. However, she offers the additional option of used equipment and promotes living green.