Boulder Bees

The Craigslist Origin Story

When Borke couldn’t keep bees in his own backyard, he posted a Craigslist ad:

You give me land. I give you honey.

Thirty people responded.

The first lease? A co-op near Chautauqua—until a bear showed up.

A Community Footprint

Brightly painted hives—pink, purple, sun-faded—dot yards, farms, and garden plots from Lafayette to North Boulder. Each is part of a barter system: land for honey. Every box is a handshake.

The Market Test

At the Boulder Farmers Market, it’s all face-to-face. No middlemen. No UPC codes. Just jars, samples, and questions. “That moment when someone tastes it and says, ‘Whoa’—you can’t fake that,” Borke says.

Fringe by Nature

Chris Borke stands among 255 hives scattered across Boulder County.

“Beekeepers are a fringe bunch,” he says—rooted in science, integrity, and community.

For him, the work is hands-on, deliberate, and deeply human.

“There’s no way to automate or AI or tech-bro your way out of farming,” he says. “It really is sweating it out in the middle of the day and getting your hands dirty and doing the work.