Green Bay Packers, NFL officially set dates for draft
July 7, 2025
ANTIGO – Sarah Mueller and Jenny Renfro said they love their “employees of the month” – all half a million of them.
The founders of Two Chicks Apiary, the sisters have hives in Antigo and Green Bay.
Renfro said the company sells pure honey and a specialized skincare line using sustainably produced ingredients created by their hundreds of thousands of bees.
“We are passionate about honeybees and educating anyone interested in these incredible tiny creatures and the value they bring to this beautiful world,” she said. “They are all our employees of the month, every month.”
Busy bees
Mueller and Renfro said their initial journey into the beekeeping business dates back to their childhood – which was filled with a love of nature and a positive attitude inspired by their parents, Bonnie and Dave Haupt.
“Together they gave us the spark to ‘just do it,’ and, of course, the ‘I can do anything’ gene,” Mueller said. “With their constant love, encouragement and support, we began building our product line and educating.”
The formal decision to delve into bees, Mueller said, came in 2018 when she said her husband, Matt, decided to try handling a hive or two.
“I was terrified of bees in the beginning,” she said. “We really didn’t know anything about them. I learned there is a lot to learn.”
After a year of trial and error – coupled with an increasing fascination with the little critters – Mueller said she invited her sister to join her on her bee adventure.
“That was all it took,” Renfro said. “I was hooked. We love the bees, being in our hives and talking and teaching everything bee-related.”
To further support their new venture, the sisters said they joined the Wisconsin Honey Bee Association and Brown County Beekeepers Association – connecting with a network of like-minded bee enthusiasts who they said were eager to share their knowledge.
“All we do is talk bees,” Renfro said.
Mueller said one thing they learned is that bees create far more than honey.
The tiny dynamos, she said, also produce pollen, beeswax and propolis – which she called the “bee glue” that keeps the hive thriving.
“It is an extremely healthy ingredient,” she said.
In 2022, the pair said they started handcrafting products using resources from their own hives – which led to the launch of Two Chicks Apiary, they said.
“We developed some simple branding and soft-launched products to friends, families and farmers markets,” Mueller said.
Renfro said they were intentional about keeping everything simple.
“That just made sense,” she said. “I wanted to make products that I would want to use.”
As their catalog grew, Renfro said they rebranded to their current “Peace Bee” and “Peace Honeycomb” logos, which were created by Mueller’s son, Chris.
“It represents the peacefulness of bees and what they do for our planet, our friendly desire to educate and connect and our self-love line of products,” Renfro said.
Bee-utiful insects
The sisters said at the end of the day, it all comes back to the bees.
The insects, they said, have an incredibly complex social structure, each with a specialized role in pollination and honey production.
Hives, the duo said, have one queen bee and thousands of female worker bees who collect nectar and pollen, build the structure and care for the queen and the young.
Drones, they said, are male bees whose primary responsibility is procreation.
Renfro said a honeybee can fly up to 15 miles per hour and will only make a half teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.
She said bees will stop by 50-100 flowers in one trip, with a pound of honey requiring more than two million flower visits.
Each hive, Mueller said, can contain upward of 50,000 of the insects – meaning there are a lot of “employees of the month.”
“Honeybees are known as a ‘superorganism,’” she said. “They work together for the survival of the hive. They need each other. It’s just fascinating to learn about them.”
Renfro said each bee knows “they have a job to do to keep the hive going.”
Along with producing honey and a variety of other products, the sisters said bees also serve as a key cog in the natural-environment machine – playing a crucial role in the reproduction of many of the world’s food products through pollination.
It takes a colony
Renfro said she maintains five hives in the Antigo area while Mueller has a dozen near Green Bay.
The sisters said they harvest in the fall, taking about half of the honey – about 80 pounds – from each hive.
The rest, they said, stays with the bees, allowing them to overwinter.
“It is a sign of success as a beekeeper if you can get your hive to survive through the winter,” Mueller said.
Bees, the sisters said, face a myriad of threats, including pesticide use, habitat destruction, bears and other mammals – as well as something known as the Varroa mite destructor, which can lead to colony collapse.
“Education is key,” Renfro said. “We seek opportunities to educate the public on their role in assisting the honeybee. Through speaking engagements, classroom demonstrations, observation hive demonstrations and hive tours, we educate individuals and groups on actions they can take to make a difference.”
Mueller said they use locally sourced materials and sustainable packaging to create a product “people can feel good about using.”
At the center of their product line, Renfro said, is the colorfully named “Best Sh*t Ever” (BSE) healing salve.
She said it is a naturally scented, rapidly absorbing ointment that works wonders when applied to minor skin irritations, such as cuts, scrapes, burns, bug bites, stings, chapped skin, diaper rash, psoriasis or eczema.
“The salve is made with beeswax from our own hives and is full of vitamins and minerals,” she said. “It works by feeding nutrients to damaged skin. We add propolis, which contains antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory elements, adding to the healing effects.”
They also produce body butter – which contains beeswax, honey, propolis and pollen that Renfro said provides tremendous healing properties and reduces inflammation.
The sisters said Two Chicks Apiary also offers:
- Moisturizing lip butter made of natural oils and beeswax
- Hair clay to reduce frizz and fly-away hair
- Beard balm designed to soften and hydrate a man’s beard and curb itchiness
- Heel Yeah! – a foot balm made with beeswax and propolis
- Concentrated solid bars of lotion containing shea butter and local beeswax
- TC Everybody face moisturizer.
“Sarah’s son was searching for a product that helped with dry, sensitive facial skin,” Renfro said. “Nothing was helping, so the three of us put our heads together to find a solution. The TC Everybody line was born. The face moisturizer works for all genders.”
Furthermore, the sisters said they also stock T-shirts and hats with the apiary’s Peace Bee and Peace Honeycomb logos.
Products are available through twochicksapiary.com and in various retail outlets, including Schroeder’s Gifts in Antigo and Sweet Willow Herbals & Café and Buds ‘N Blooms – both in De Pere.
‘Telling of the bees’
According to Renfro and Mueller, there is an old tradition, rooted in Celtic and folk beliefs, known as the “telling of the bees.”
They said Europe and early American beekeepers believed their bees needed to be informed of major life events, otherwise the bees could cease producing and abandon the hive.
Mueller and Renfro said it has been reported that when Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022, the royal beekeeper told the bees at Buckingham Palace of her passing by knocking on each hive to respectfully report the news.
It is a custom Mueller and Renfro said they have been known to follow.
In 2023, the sisters said a friend and mentor of theirs, Steve Hupfer – known as the “bee czar” – died while tending his hives near Green Bay.
Over the next few weeks, Mueller said his students gathered, and “we told the bees.”
