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"It is not about what the bees do for us.
It is about what we can do for the bees"
G. Hilbert
Hilbert’s Honey Co. are 4th generation pollinators and honey producers! Located in beautiful Traverse City, Michigan and LaBelle, Florida.
The family farm is owned and operated by Larry and Geana Hilbert, along with their son (5th generation beekeeper) Keith Hilbert and his wife Michele.
The family business began back in 1887 by James Hilbert Sr. on the Leelanau peninsula in Elmwood Township to encourage the pollination of his fruit farms. Over the years, the passion of beekeeping was passed on through each generation and has grown into a major bee hub with well over 10,000 honeybee colonies.
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Our honeybees spend summers in Traverse City, Michigan maintaining nearly 250 pollination locations including Michigan cherries, apples and basswood trees. The bees and staff migrate south for the winter in LaBelle, Florida for watermelon, Brazilian pepper and tupelo blossom. One more trip to the west is made in the
spring to Fresno County, California for almond pollination.
In August 2019, we expanded into our custom production warehouse on Five Mile Road in Traverse City, Michigan. This gave us the ability to house larger machinery for extraction and production of our pure Michigan honey, as well as staging areas for our livestock (the bees). This was a dream come true for the family, who were previously extracting honey in their farmhouse garage for many years!
In 2020, we re-branded our products, opened our own retail store front and began selling our products to our amazing community and to honey fans across the country. In recent years, we have expanded our pollination and honey production in Florida, where our bees are wintering. Every year that passes has a new door that opens.
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But let's bee honest....
It has never been about honey! We are pollination providers and take pride in the purpose that we serve with honeybees. We offer a service to our farmers, landowners and backyard beekeepers that in turn helps our community and ecosystem. Honey is a byproduct of the work that we are really passionate about - a magical little insect: the honeybee.
