Beekeeping Experts in North East Florida

  • Want to know more about Townsend Honey Farm?

    Our family of 5 (LeeAnn, Waylon, Bo, Taylor & Carrie) began our journey of beekeeping as a hobby in 2008. As our love and knowledge of beekeeping grew, so did our hives and honey production. After a few years, we progressed to the level of commercial beekeepers and “officially” formed our family business. Although Taylor no longer works at the farm with us, she is very busy at home as a stay at home mom of 2 sweet boys. Carrie's husband Colt has since taken her place and is an important part of our farm as well.

    Annually we keep approximately 3000 hives. Our family honey farm is located in Starke, FL which is in the northeast Florida area between Gainesville and Jacksonville. We have numerous bee yards within the State of Florida and transport our beehives throughout the state during the various blooms and nectar flows for honey production. At the beginning of each year, we also transport our hives to the State of California for the annual almond pollination.

    We are State of Florida Apiary Licensed & Inspected, FDACS Retail Food Establishment-Licensed, FDA Farm Facility Registered, Fresh from Florida Members, ANSI Certified Food Protection Manager (LeeAnn), True Source Honey – Registered Beekeepers, Members of the Florida State Beekeepers Association and American Beekeepers Federation.

    Our son Bo attended the UF/IFAS Master Beekeeper Program (MBP) and has earned the following certifications: 2012 Apprentice Level Beekeeper Certification, 2013 Advanced Level Beekeeper Certification.

    We appreciate your trust, and we'll do our very best to continue to give you the kind of products and service you deserve. Rest assured you are buying directly from the beekeepers. If you have an issue with your order, please contact us and give us the opportunity to make it right.

    Thanks again for your business, thank you for supporting American Beekeepers and American Small Business! Proudly Made in the USA!

Meet Our Family Working at the Farm

  • LeeAnn Townsend

    Owner, Retail Sales, Customer Service, Bottling & Beeswax Processing

    AKA: Momma

  • Waylon Townsend

    Apiary Advisor, Honey Bottling, Shipping & Beeswax Processing

    AKA: Daddy

  • Bo Townsend

    Beekeeper, Chief Operating Officer & Wholesale Sales

  • Carrie (Townsend) Caputo

    Beekeeper, Chief Administrative Officer, Retail Sales, Honey Bottling, Shipping & Receiving

  • Colt Caputo

    Beekeeper, Supervisor, Equipment Maintenance

  • Redneck

    Farm Office Assistant

Our Pure Raw Florida Honey

  • We personally handle our honey from the hive to container. After extraction, we begin by letting our honey filter naturally with gravity. Meaning, we allow the honey to "rest" in the first stainless steel tank for a short time where the wax and large particles will float to the top. At this time the wax cappings can be skimmed off the top and put into our wax press to start the processing of our natural beeswax product. We then pump the honey from the bottom of the extracting tank into our stainless steel filling tank where once again the honey can "rest" and naturally filter a second time with gravity. We do not micro filter our honey. From this point the honey can be filled into drums, buckets, or other containers from the valve at the bottom of the tank. Occasionally we do use a large stainless mesh to strain out any remaining large bee/wax particles if needed. We have found this procedure to be very successful and produces beautiful honey that still maintains its natural raw status.

    From time to time, you may see very fine particles including pollen particles within the honey. That is a normal occurrence and actually we want to keep the pollen within the honey as much as possible as the pollen provides nutritional value to those who eat the honey and identifies the honey as being pure, raw and not adulterated. We never add any color, flavor, or dilute any of our honey. We do not pasteurize our honey. As needed and during the cooler months we will warm our filling tank to aprox 95 degrees F, which is the natural temperature the bees keep within their hive. This helps the honey to naturally filter and flow well during filling. Several times we have voluntarily allowed our honey to be tested by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for chemical residue analysis in which hundreds of chemicals were tested. Each time, the reports returned back showing “none detected”. We are very proud of that!

    All raw honey (fresh from the beehive) will granulate (get cloudy and thick) in time. This is natural, and does not mean the honey has "gone bad", as honey does not spoil. We recommend NOT heating it in boiling water to prevent the loss of flavor, enzymes, and nutritional benefits. Heat a pot of water up to a temperature between 95°F and 110°F. Remove the pan from the heat source and then place your jars of honey into the hot water. Let the water cool until it reaches room temperature and check your honey. If there is any crystallization left, you will need to continue to repeat the process until the honey is crystal free.

Our Pure Beeswax

  • Our pure beeswax in Florida is handled by hand from frame to block! Due to this being a raw natural product made by the bees, we take care in handling our wax very carefully. We ensure that you are getting the best, most clean pure beeswax possible. At times, and rare, there could be a few ultra fine impurities seen in the wax that could not be removed throughout our exclusive Townsend Honey Farm custom melting and filtering process, that is the nature of this raw honey in Florida which is a pure product. During the final processing stage, we filter our wax through very ultra-fine stainless mesh 4 times to achieve a beautiful clean wax. We never bleach, add color, dilute or add scent to any of our raw wax. It is just as the bees make it. With that being said, be advised that just has honey can vary in color and floral intensity during each nectar flow, so can the wax itself. You will see our wax as a very light yellow to golden, throughout the year, never brown! We never heat our wax over 200 degrees F during our entire processing, we also never boil our wax and never boil our wax in water.Beeswax, unlike pollen, propolis, and honey, is not collected from or derived from plants but is made by honey bees. Sugars found in collected nectar are converted by the honey bees into beeswax. New wax is formed by the worker bees. Honeybees consume honey and pollen to produce the wax. Initially, the wax is glass-clear and colorless, becoming opaque after mastication and adulteration with pollen by the hive worker bees. The wax becomes progressively more yellow by the incorporation of pollen oils and propolis which gives it the natural color. It takes about eight pounds of honey to produce just one pound of beeswax. Since it comes directly from bees and is non-toxic, beeswax is completely environmentally friendly and an important ingredient in a range of eco-friendly products. This natural product can not be duplicated by man. Beeswax has a long history of use in everyday products. The single largest consumer of beeswax in the United States is the cosmetics industry. The candle industry is another very popular consumer. Beeswax can also be found in the pharmaceutical and dental industries, floor and furniture polish, crayons, candy, chewing gum, ski wax, art, leather, and fabric weatherproofing, and in many other well-known products.