Honey from The Sand Hill Bees

Note for 2022 - I will be returning from Sweden in early 2022, and will have honey available again as soon as I extract - usually in July.

How can I purchase your honey?

Our honey is sold in quarts (about 3lbs), pints, and a small 10 oz size, as well as 5 gallon buckets and custom orders.  

You can find our honey at the following locations in Michigan: 

• Argus Farm Stop, Ann Arbor ( At 2 locations - Liberty St. and Packard St.)

• Agricole, Chelsea

• Sandhill Crane Vineyards, Jackson

• Prime Cuts, Jackson

• McPherson Local, Saline

Our honey is also used in great local products - we provide honey for Roos Roast Coffee in Ann Arbor, and Civil Ferments in Williamston, MI.

We will also sell directly to you!  Please email us for pricing, and to set up a time for pick up.   sandhillbees@gmail.com

We also occasionally do market sales or delivery - sign up on our mailing list at the bottom of the page to see if we will be selling honey at a location near you.  

What is special about honey from The Sand Hill

Our honey is simply the best.  From breeding the best queens to buying jars locally, we pride ourselves by using the absolute best practices at every step of our honey:  

• We have the best bees. I raise all of our my queens here in Michigan, focusing on stock that can handle diseases, requiring less input. I am working with some of the best queen breeders in the country to find the strongest bees that can thrive in Michigan. I am involved in multiple breeding programs, and have been focusing on raising hardy, local stock that is disease resistant, gentle, and can bring in plenty of honey.

• We have great locations for our bees. All of my yards are in lands where they have plenty of clean, natural forage, and are buffered from pesticides. I am constantly monitoring and evaluating yards so that are bees are always kept in an area where they have access to sufficient nectar and pollen.

• Our bees are kept under the best care. I manage only as many colonies as I can care for well. My focus is on colony health and minimizing stress on the bees. My dedication to best management is unrivaled - I live for bees. I have kept bees for over 20 years, but I am constantly continuing to learn how to care for them. I read and write for the trade journals, attend and speak at conferences all around the country, carry out studies and experiments on bee health, and talk about bees and beekeeping every day. This effort shows, because my bees stay healthy and continue to thrive.

• We handle and process our honey to the highest standards. We extract in certified facilities, and process everything according to state and federal regulations. Our honey is never heated above temperatures that it would reach in the hive, and it is strained just enough to remove wax, but not the pollen. My background is in public health and I have years of food handling experience. I take the quality of my product seriously, ensuring that you will be delivered a clean, quality product. We know that our honey is not only delicious, but also safe and pure.

Is your honey organic? Raw? Natural? Pasteurized? Local? 

There are a lot of terms you will see on honey labels, and buying honey can be quite confusing.  Most of the terms are not regulated, so seeing them on a label does not mean anything about the honey inside.  The best way to know that you are getting the honey that you want is to talk to the beekeeper, and learn about their practice. 

• Organic certification is the only term that is regulated, so if a honey is labeled as organic, it has to be federally certified as such. Our honey is not labeled organic. In the United States, there are very, very few certified organic honey producers because of the current standards; most organic honey comes from foreign countries. Even though we aren't certified, I make an effort to keep bees in line with organic practices. We don't medicate prophylacticly, and if an animal gets sick, we use organic treatments. You can read more about the term organic in honey in an article I wrote for American Bee Journal November 2020 - “Don’t Panic, its Organic - or is it?”

• Raw is not a regulated term for honey, so it doesn't mean anything if you see it on a label. We put it on our labels to indicate that we use minimal processing. We never heat the honey to a higher temperature than it would reach in the hive on a hot day.

• Natural is not a regulated term, so it also doesn't mean anything legally. We use it to indicate that our honey is completely unadulterated. It is pure flower nectar, dried down by the bees, with nothing added.

• Pasteurization - There is currently no standard for honey pasteurization, but there are very few beekeepers who would even try to do this anyway. Some very, very large facilities will heat the honey to high temps to pass them through tiny filters to remove all the pollen, but this is largely done by big foreign companies, and the technology is not used by most beekeepers. If you buy honey from a Michigan beekeeper, it is not likely to be pasteurized.

• Local - Many people want local honey for two reasons: for allergies and to support local farmers. From the allergy perspective, it is good to find honey from an area that has the same plants. You can choose what is local enough for you. All of our honey comes from our honey yards in South Central Michigan.

We hope that you enjoy our raw, natural, local honey!  If you have any questions on production, don't hesitate to ask.