We recently connected with Tyler Whitmarsh and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Tyler thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

What makes us different from the standard honey you’re used to seeing is simply this. We travel with semi trucks of our honeybees throughout the United States pollinating our nations agriculture. We’re able to pollinate everything from peaches, pears, apples, cherries, plums, pumpkins, wildflowers, berries, citrus, nectarines, almonds, and many more unique types of flowers. The key to our high quality raw honey is having happy & healthy honeybees. We work directly with our farmers allowing our bees access into the most abundant nectar-filled groves. This allows our honeybees to produce rare and unique honey flavors. None of our raw honey is ever heated, treated, or mixed in any way. You’re tasting the actual nectar from the flowers those bees visited. We believe that all of our customers deserve to taste the purest raw honey from the honeybees. Each honey is completely different in color, taste, and smell. Truly spectacular to see and taste natures nectar like this. We also donate half of every sales profits directly back to the bees. #savethebees Our goal is to expand our apiary and continue the family legacy one beehive at a time. Thank you all for supporting our family apiary!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

It all started with my grandfather back in the 1970s. He started with over a dozen beehives out in Pacific Beach, CA. He was collecting swarms of bees growing the apiary, then decided to expand out into the east county region of San Diego. My great grandfather started constructing beehives from his carpentry experience joining my grandfather in growing the apiary. Eventually they grew in size, needing more space for our honeybees. The family moved the apiary out to Colorado and Central California. The honeybees then had an abundance of pollen followed by endless fields of nectar. I eventually came into the picture taking over the honey/beeswax distribution. Working locally here in San Diego, I built a foundation throughout the city of loyal customers and stores who understand completely what our family is doing with our apiary. My goal is to keep my families legacy going and turn it into over a century of beekeeping. You’ll taste the difference in each jar of our raw honey. Quality over quantity always!

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I started out as an insurance agent believe it or not here in California. I made the call to my mother expressing my interest in seeing our family farm in central California. Needing a break from the suit and tie, I headed up to what I would come to find out is my future. First time ever waking up to the sunrise over the citrus and almond groves I was completely hooked. I traded in the Calvin Klein suit for a Bee suit. Bought one case of honey from my family and brought it back to San Diego. I started infusing the honey with CBD and went from there. Growing case by case selling to the local stores and friends it was a struggle at first. I had to learn it all myself from scratch. I eventually found a solid packaging/label company followed by a glass jar supplier which changed everything. Working with the labeling company I designed what you see today. Since labeling the jars professionally, it changed everything! Finally I have packaging worthy to hold this pure liquid gold. I was proud to show the honey to the world and then came tastings throughout the city. I am still very small scale and this is just the beginning. I am working on collaborating with restaurants, breweries, bakeries, and holistic shops. Can’t wait to see what’s in store for the honeybee family.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Building our reputation with the honeybee family came easy simply do to 4 generations of experience. We’ve been doing this for a very long time, and we have no plans of stopping. People understanding that it’s a family owned apiary through and through. We control everything from farm to table work our honey which means you get the purest raw honey in nature. I also am dedicated myself to showing everyone the insides and outs of our apiary through social media. You know you’re getting the honey from the beekeepers themselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: Thehoneybeefamily.com
• Instagram: @the.honeybeefamily
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/thehoneybeefamilyllc
• Youtube: @The.Honeybeefamily

Image Credits
Tyler Whitmarsh