Beekeeper business shoutout

A U.S. beekeeper behind the Old Hollow Tree account used a July 2024 post to thank customers for keeping his small goods business running without paid ads. (substack.com) Ryan B. Anderson writes under the Old Hollow Tree name and describes himself as a New England father who keeps bees and writes about “family, nature, and tradition.” His account showed about 54,300 followers when a recent profile capture was indexed. (substack.com; sotwe.com) In a later note on Substack, Anderson said, “We keep bees but when the honey’s gone in winter, we sell cozy home goods made in the USA.” He said the profit goes to “helping our bees, supporting American manufacturing, and planting more flowers.” (substack.com) That pitch sits inside a wider direct-to-consumer model: the maker talks to buyers on his own feed, then sells goods without a retail middleman. Shopify defines direct-to-consumer marketing as selling straight to shoppers instead of through stores or marketplaces. (shopify.com) The “no ads” part also fits a broader small-business pattern on social platforms, where organic posts, replies, and repeat customers do some of the work once handled by paid campaigns. Deloitte’s 2025 digital media report said social platforms and creator-style content now compete directly for consumer attention and advertising budgets. (deloitte.com) The beekeeping angle matters in its own right because U.S. bee operations have been under pressure. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said operations with five or more colonies had 2.63 million honey bee colonies on Jan. 1, 2025, down 1% from a year earlier. (nass.usda.gov) A separate Honey Bee Health Coalition survey released in February 2025 reported average losses of 62% for commercial operations between June 2024 and February 2025. That survey described more than 1.1 million colonies lost nationwide. (honeybeehealthcoalition.org) Old Hollow Tree has tied those pressures to product sales before. In a November 2025 Substack note, Anderson wrote that he and his family had started a honey company earlier that year and launched mugs and pure beeswax candles while pledging to use natural materials and U.S. manufacturing for designed goods. (substack.com) The result is a business pitch built around one person’s apiary, one household’s workshop, and one audience gathered on social media. In Anderson’s own phrasing, the goods are meant to fund bees, flowers, and domestic production at the same time. (substack.com)