Honeybee’s Story, and Why Every Manuka Honey Balm Gives Back

https://beezerts.com/collections/beezerts-bark-skincare-for-canines

Honeybee, our rescue pup 

Honeybee’s Story, and Why Every Manuka Honey Balm Gives Back

The first time we met Honeybee, she spread her legs against the doorway of her kennel to avoid coming out. She was a brown puppy with cute white paws and worried eyes, about ten weeks old. She had her surgery the day before, had been transferred from another rescue the week before, surrendered by a breeder the week before that. The whole world had already taught her to be careful. When she gave us adorable kisses and took treats from our hand, she stole our hearts and we brought her home that day.

That puppy we named Honeybee with her beautiful amber coat and zippy energy has, like all beloved pups, become such an important part of our complex, busy family. Before we tell you about the products, we want to tell you about the no kill shelters, like where she came from, because they are fuller than most people realize.

If you have not adopted recently, the numbers are sobering. According to the ASPCA and Shelter Animals Count, roughly 4.2 million dogs and cats were adopted in 2025, which sounds like a triumph until you learn it still was not enough to meaningfully shrink the population living in shelters. Around 597,000 animals were euthanized in shelters that year. The country has now spent four straight years with more animals coming in than going out.

The pressure is not only inside shelter walls. Humane World for Animals reports that local rescue organizations care for about 245,000 more animals than they were four years ago. Most pets arrive as strays, but owner surrenders are climbing, and the reasons are heartbreakingly ordinary: rising vet bills, the cost of pet food, housing that does not allow dogs, a family doing its best, economy pressures, family illness, bankrupt breeders, and housing insecurity.

Underfunding makes all of it harder. There are roughly 14,000 shelters and rescues in the United States, and many run on shoestring budgets, volunteer hours, and donated supplies. When a shelter is over capacity, the shortage is rarely love. It is space, staff, food, bedding, cleaning supplies, and basic medical care. The will to save these animals is everywhere. The resources are severely lacking.

She got out. She got a warm place, a loving family, and time. Most of that is luck, and luck is not a plan. The dogs still waiting did nothing different from Honeybee. They were just born into a year when the kennels were full and the budgets were thin.

We are a small, handcrafted skincare company in Grandview, Missouri. We cannot fix a national problem. But we can do something good, and we can tie it directly to the no kill shelters and rescues doing the hard work every day.

BeeZerts BARK is our new line of amazing UMF 15+ Manuka Honey skin care just as we have offered to 1000s of customers over the past year, but this time, formulated for dogs’ unique skin and issues, built on the same real ingredients we trust on Honeybee herself.

There are three products to start:

The BeeZerts BARK Balm is the heart of the line. It is led by UMF 15+ Manuka Honey and a blend of raw Tamanu and antioxidant-rich Jarrah honey, with shea and cupuacu butters, colloidal oatmeal, and ceramides. It soothes and softens and promotes healing for dry, rough, and cracked skin and paw pads, the kind that come from hot pavement, rough sidewalks, and raw, red, irritated skin.

The Conditioning Wash is a gentle, fortified powder wash you mix with water at bath time. It cleans the skin and locks in moisture, leaving the skin and coat soft.

The Manuka Honey Condition Spray is a light, leave-on mist of aloe, cucumber, vitamin, ceramides, and UMF 15+ Manuka honey for dry, irritated, red skin leaving a fresh scent and deeply moisturized skin.  

Everything is made in small batches, with plain and honest ingredients. We left out the things we did not want anywhere near a dog who licks, including essential oils, arnica, and tea tree that are known to give upset stomachs and other canine sensitives.

Buying a BeeZerts BARK Box is a lovely way to support this, and we are grateful for everyone. But it is not the only way, and it is not the biggest one. If you have room in your life for a new furry friend, adopt. 

If you cannot adopt, foster, because every foster bed opens a kennel for the next animal. If you can spare a little, donate directly to your local no kill shelter or rescue, where it goes straight to work. And if a friend is struggling to keep their pet, help them find low-cost vet and assistance programs that exist to keep families together.

Honeybee is asleep as I write this, paws twitching through some happy dream. Every dog deserves that. Thank you for helping us get a few more of them there.