Welcome to Cudjoe Bee! We are a small artisan honey producer that specializes in small batch single hive honey. This means that every bottle of honey we produce is labeled by which hive it came from. We DO NOT blend honey, cut our honey with “fillers”, or add any flavorings. We are also dedicated to bee education, bee health, and products made with honey and bees wax from our local Florida Keys hives.
Our entrance into the honey business was entirely accidental. We started as backyard bee keepers and like so many others with bees, we quickly had a problem. Our bees were producing MUCH more honey that either we or our friends could eat. One evening, we were talking to someone and they offered to buy some honey from us. After researching what was involved in selling honey, Cudjoe Bee was born. My wife and I are both lovers of good wine and food. We discussed that nobody we knew (or could readily find) was offering single hive honey. Most commercially produced honey is a blend of many different hives. Being wine lovers, we know the importance of “terroir” in wine. Bees are not much different.
Honey is flavored by what bees forage on. Each one of our hives has its own unique characteristics, much the same as vineyards. We still harvest the “old fashioned way”: removing frames out of the hives, manually scraping the frames and comb, then filtering with a double strainer. All done by hand.
Our hive removal and “Host a Hive” program was, once again, something we did not plan. As beekeepers, we are concerned with bees and the fact that bee populations are declining across the globe. We received a call from someone who had an unwanted hive in their home. It was either we help remove the hive, or the exterminator would be called to kill them. We chose to help and relocate the bees. Once word got out, we became “busy as bees” removing unwanted bee colonies. With all the hive removals we were doing, we needed places to host bees. This led into our “Host a Hive” program.
We hope you enjoy our honey and bee-based products. If there is something special you are looking for or if you have questions, please feel free to reach out to us.