Bill and Bonnie Stein began their journey with beekeeping in 1998. Unhappy with the production of their apple trees they added a couple of beehives to their yard to boost their harvest. Not only did this produce more apples, they had a surplus in honey as well. After reaching out to local orchards and farm markets they realized that there was a need for local honey that was not being met. With that, they decided to turn their hobby into a business and expanded to 500 hives. At the time, Bill and Bonnie had full time jobs working in the construction industry and for the local schools, respectively. Bill with the help of his son, Wes, managed the hives while Bonnie took on bottling and delivering orders.
By 2015, Bill and Bonnie had decided to retire from their full-time jobs and focus solely on Stein’s Honey. In 2019, they made the decision to begin migrating the hives to warmer climates for the winter season. Removing the bees from Ohio’s colder weather made a significant impact on the hives overall success rates. At this point they grew the apiary to 1,000 hives and built specialized pallets to house them. This helps with transportation as the hives travel to Georgia from October through January, then to California from January through March on flat bed semi-trucks. All of the honey produced while out of state remains in the hives for the bees to eat.
In 2023, Wes and his wife, Kelsey, purchased the business and now share the family tradition with their own kids. Stein’s Honey currently holds 9 pollination contracts in Ohio and California leasing over 1,100 hives into pollination annually. Our main focus though, is producing high quality, raw, Ohio honey. We bottle and distribute our honey to over 75 retail outlets and wholesale to local beekeepers as well. We also work closely with our community to emphasize the importance of honeybees. Truth be told, we love what we do even if it means a few bee stings. We take the utmost care of our bees to produce the best honey products we can.