Our Beginning
Welcome to Hamey's Apiary. My name is Rich, and my beautiful wife is Michele. We are both products of Medina County Family Farms. I was raised on the Hamey Family Farm in Lafayette, and Michele was brought up on the Fiala Family Farm in Chatham. As high school sweethearts, we married young. Fast forward many truly blessed years, we now have five awesome children and nine grandchildren. We retired several years ago, and now we get to enjoy our days playing with bees, and hanging out with family, and friends full-time. Michele (Mickey) gets to sell honey, and I get to sell bees. God has been very good to us.
“They say bees do two things - make more bees and make honey - so that is what we sell!”
— Rich Hamey, FOUNDER
Our Hives
We sell colonies of bees at Hamey's Apiary. No matter what size colony you pick, the queen in that colony, as well as all of the bees, were produced at our apiary.
We do not sell any bees not descended from our own Select Breeder Queens. For a queen to be a breeder queen at Hamey's Apiary, she must have been produced on-site, must have wintered two or more years, produce brood ( eggs, larvae, and pupae) demonstrating hygienic behavior, and be in the top 25% of our honey producers.
Our bees are not wrapped or sheltered in the winter. The goal is to produce bees that can excel in our Northeastern Ohio microclimate.
Michele says she does not ask the bees where they go!
We say the honey is Wildflower. Sometimes it has a minty taste because we raise mint. Perhaps the honey is from the Maple, Oak, Hickory, Lilacs, Crabapple, Basswood, Locust or Walnut trees. It may even be made from grasses, Clover, Aster, Goldenrod, Honeysuckle, Dandelions or the many flowers within a few miles of our yard.
We don't ask the bees, but one thing is for certain. Our honey is always pure and local to Medina County.
In our opinion, each batch is the best we have ever tasted!
We collect pollen from our bees. The colors of pollen can vary from hive to hive, season, and flower sources. People eat pollen for health benefits or anti-allergy effects. Pollen can be sweet and sometimes have a nutty or flowery grass-like taste to it. However, from our experience with pollen, it should have some taste to it, if it does not, purchase with caution. It might be dried too much or not fresh. We lightly dry, jar, and refrigerate ours fresh after cleaning to keep from dehydrating. We do sell pollen, but it is a limited supply.
Our Products
Honeycomb: $1.50 per ounce
12 oz. Jar: $10.00
1 lb. Jar: $12.00
2 lbs. Jar: $22.00
Muth Jar 1lb: $14.00
Muth Jar w/ dipper : $16.00
Pollen: $1.50 per ounce
2024 Bee Colonies *Limited Supply*
5 Frame Nucleus: $160.00
*Bees and Frames are included.
Purchaser supplies woodware.
We do not sell packages of bees.
Projects & Philanthropy
We donated several colonies and queens every year. We base that donation entirely on a person's description of their desire to share their space and time with honey bees. I have a soft spot for veteran's.
So far this year we have been able to give away 8 colonies of bees. Of course we can’t always give them away but sometimes the circumstances and stories are so compelling it just would be wrong not to. Like the Korean War Veteran who said he had wanted bees his whole life and it was on his bucket list. He couldn’t walk more than a few feet, couldn’t even lift the lid off the hive but the satisfaction of watching his eyes light up every two weeks on my visits is priceless. I have also had the opportunity to spend some time with a beekeeper that went to school with my daughter, he had two hives with issues, one had become very defensive, one he could not find the queen he had installed a couple weeks earlier. I think he may have been a little surprised when I walked him through his hives, showed him the issues and gave him the assets needed to get the hives moving forward. I have helped a friend work through all of his hives, splitting, pulling honey, diagnosing issues and checking some queens I had given him earlier in the season. Life is good folks, I have been blessed in many ways, since we love working with these bees I will share a few of these stories from time to time on my Facebook page please check us out there!!
Michele is focused on child environmental development. On occasion, we are invited into preschools and other community centers to share our knowledge of honey and bees. Hamey’s Apiary recently spent a day in an outdoor/indoor preschool classroom at Creative Tots Preschool. The children were able to see bees at work. They learned how bees are helpful and not nearly as scary as they may think. By the end of the day the students could successfully identify different bees and their jobs, identify eggs, pollen, honeycomb, the general workings of a hive, and the duties of a Beekeeper. The class even processed their very own honey samples to take home. Please see these pictures on Facebook.
We invite you to share your stories, and honey bees on our Facebook link. For more information on how to get us at your event, school or business outing please call or email us.
Our Customers
“It is absolutely fantastic and I feel honest pity for those who haven’t tried it. It’s the bee’s knees!”
“Hamey’s Bees honey is totally some of the best-tasting honey I’ve ever tasted in my life. It’s well-presented, its taste is delicious, and I just can’t say enough about how palatable it is.
It’s worth every nickel, dime, and dollar you put invest in Hamey’s Bees.”
“The customer service was great and the honey was excellent!!”
“great honey, cant wait to get some more”
“This is the absolute best honey we have bought! My daughter eats it by the spoonful! Thank you for sharing your yummy honey with everyone!”
“It is so so so good!!!!! ♥️♥️♥️”
“It’s not just how you keep the bees but what kind of plants they pollinate. Plenty of options!”