Honeybee Therapy in Stillwater, Minnesota
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This post is written by friends of Four Season Foraging, Ruth Albee and Austin Jordan. They run the Honeycomb Cottage north of Stillwater, Minnesota, where they keep bees, work to restore the land, and offer honeybee therapy in beautiful surroundings. Their love for healthy living, outdoor education, and environmental stewardship really comes through in this article. I hope you will take advantage of their offer and try apitherapy yourself!
Honeycomb Cottage MN in Stillwater, Minnesota
Owners Austin Jordan and Ruth Albee
We want to share the gift of nature connection with our fellow humans and provide a space where people feel safe enough to slow down, reflect, and be fully present. More than anything, we’re here to build community around our love for this land and share in the gratitude of the abundance that surrounds us.
Just a few years ago, neither of us had ever even heard of honeybee therapy or hive aerosol therapy.
About six months after moving onto our 5-acre property in Stillwater, Minnesota, we reached out to a local beekeeper to see if we could house some bees on the land. We had heard that bees carry a grounding frequency and that beekeepers tend to have some of the longest life expectancies of any profession. Since both of us are Functional Patterns practitioners, grounding and nervous system regulation were already integrated into the way we approached health and healing. We’ve long been passionate about regenerative health, movement, nature connection, and ecological stewardship, so bringing bees onto the land felt like a natural next step.
As soon as Mike, a beekeeper of nearly 30 years, stepped out of his truck, he launched into this incredible story about sleeping in a tiny cabin built on top of beehives while visiting Romania. He looked around our property and said, “You have the perfect spot to build something like that here.”
At first, we weren’t sure what to make of the idea of opening one of the only honeybee therapy centers in the United States. Could we really pull this off? We don’t even know anything about beekeeping! Nobody is going to understand what this is.
But the more we researched it, the more something about it resonated with us. We started to get excited, maybe we can do this…
We reached out to a few of the only people in the country offering honeybee therapy and we were met with incredible generosity and guidance. Then, we enlisted the help of some unbelievably talented carpenters, family and friends, and this strange little vision quickly became reality. That’s how Honeycomb Cottage MN was born.
While we recognize that honeybees are not native to the United States, we were drawn in by the health benefits that honeybee therapy has to offer people as well as this unique opportunity to connect with nature in a safe and meaningful space. Over the past two seasons, we’ve watched guests arrive stressed, disconnected, overwhelmed, grieving, exhausted or anxious and they leave feeling lighter.
People have described falling asleep almost instantly. Others have shared that they felt open enough to have a meaningful conversation with a loved one. Some notice easier breathing, relief from seasonal allergy symptoms, or simply a profound sense of calm and presence. Many leave with a reduced fear of bees and a deeper appreciation for the intelligence and importance of pollinators.
In Eastern Europe, hive aerosol therapy has long been used as a complementary treatment for conditions such as allergies, asthma, COPD, long COVID, anxiety, PTSD, and nervous system dysregulation. The warm aromatic air from the hive contains traces of propolis, beeswax, honey, pollen, and volatile compounds naturally produced within a living colony. Combined with the subtle vibration and hum of the hive, the experience of honeybee therapy can be deeply grounding and restorative.
After witnessing the effects ourselves and hearing the stories shared by our guests, we are incredibly grateful and still a bit amazed to be stepping into our third season at the Honeycomb Cottage MN.
As I write this, a huge turkey is moving through the south side of the property, shimmering in the early morning light outside the Honeycomb Cottage windows. So much life passes through this little 5-acre pocket of land every single day. Deer move quietly through the trees as frogs echo from the pond. Snakes wind through the clover and countless birds call this land home. Spring here feels almost impossible to keep up with, plants unfurl overnight, trees burst into leaf, mushrooms emerge after rain, and every walk reveals something we somehow missed before.
This land has taught us how to slow down and pay attention. The community we’ve built around this land is like nothing we could’ve ever imagined. The tea I’m sipping while writing this was made by our dear friends Christine and Kestutis, who we met through our friend and fellow beekeeper, Mike. The first time I met Christine, she was wearing a “Strong Boundaries” stinging nettle shirt designed by Maria Wesserle and immediately I thought, “Yep… we’re gonna be friends.”
It’s been such a blessing to connect with so many people over the past two and a half years. Then we introduce our friends to each other and new connections are built, skills and stories are exchanged. People share seeds, recipes, plants, ideas, healing modalities, and meals. Relationships develop and our community continues to grow.
We’re honored and excited to announce that Honeycomb Cottage MN will also be hosting the 2026–2027 season of Forest Lake Nature School, run by our friends Anthony and Melissa Ulrich. Their homeschool program for children ages 6–13 will include woodworking, foraging, gardening, animal tracking, ecology, and hands-on nature connection experiences here on the land.
Throughout this summer we’ll also be hosting a wide variety of community events including Forest Bathing Walks, Highly Empathic gatherings, Divine Feminine workshops, and Foraging Walks with the one and only Maria Wesserle.
The Honeycomb Cottage MN has slowly evolved into a gathering space for people passionate about healing, ecology, embodiment, spirituality, native plants, pollinators, and reconnecting to the living world around them.
We currently host massage therapy, reiki energy healing, spinal flow, yoga nidra, sound healing, and other nature-centered offerings facilitated by local practitioners and friends. The space is also available for healers and educators looking to host private sessions, small groups, or larger outdoor gatherings.
In a world that often feels increasingly disconnected, artificial, rushed, overstimulating and isolated, we hope this land can serve as a reminder that there is another way to live. One rooted in reciprocity, curiosity, slowness, community, and a relationship with nature.
We would truly love to share this experience with you. If you’ve been curious about honeybee therapy, nervous system healing, foraging, pollinator education, or simply spending meaningful time on a beautiful piece of land surrounded by life, we invite you to come visit us this season in Stillwater, Minnesota for one of our events or for a honeybee therapy session.
And as a thank you to the Four Season Foraging community, you can use the code FOURSEASON26 for 26% off any apitherapy session during our 2026 season.
We hope to see you out here soon.
-Ruth and Austin
