Heritage Bee Farm Journal

Most honey on grocery store shelves has been heated, filtered, and processed to the point where the enzymes, pollen, antioxidants, and natural compounds that make honey valuable have been largely removed. Raw honey is different — harvested, minimally filtered, and bottled without heat, preserving everything the bees put into it. Heritage Bee Farm produces raw honey from Florida's most distinctive floral sources, including wildflower, gallberry, saw palmetto, orange blossom, and tupelo. This guide covers what raw honey actually is, what the research says about its health properties, how to identify genuinely raw honey, and what makes each Florida varietal unique.

A nucleus colony is the fastest, most reliable way to start or expand a beehive in Florida — and timing matters more than most new beekeepers realize. Heritage Bee Farm offers three-frame nucleus colonies from February through September, built on Italian and Carniolan genetics with a proven, mated queen already laying at pickup. This guide covers everything: what a nuc actually includes, how Florida's seasons affect your timing, how nucs compare to package bees, and how to install one whether you are running a traditional Langstroth hive or a Flow Hive.

Not all queen cells are raised equal. Heritage Bee Farm produces grafted queen cells using the cell builder starter and finisher method — a single-colony system that starts and finishes every cell in one environment — combined with genetics selected for honey production, hygienic behavior, and Varroa resistance. This guide covers everything you need to know: how quality queen cells are produced, what to look for when ordering, how to transport them safely, and how to install them into splits and nucs for maximum acceptance

Chris Vasquez has been keeping bees for over 20 years — managing operations as large as 15,000 colonies while also founding Heritage Bee Farm in Myakka City, Florida with his wife Melissa and their family. In this complete guide, he covers everything you need to know about buying mated queen bees: what a mated queen is, how Heritage Bee Farm raises and proves their queens before shipping, which breed is right for your hive, how to receive a shipped queen, and how to introduce her successfully. Whether you are requeening for the first time or managing a commercial apiary, this...