Our Philosophy

We take the long view in caring for honeybees

The Santa Cruz Bee Company puts the needs of the bees first, placing them in a biodiverse environment that can sustain them naturally year round. The bees are not here to cater to us, so our focus is not on honey or other products of the hive, but rather to see that the environment is providing the bees with what they need to succeed.

We practice natural beekeeping

We focus on integrated pest management and breeding for genetic resistance to mites. By breeding from locally adapted survivor stock, practicing small-scale stationary apiculture and by using bee-centric management techniques, we see greater survival of bees naturally over time, without supplemental feeding and medicating. With the proper monitoring and management of honeybee colonies, we believe the bees can and will thrive!

Santa Cruz Bee Company has a small scale queen-rearing operation that mainly utilizes walk-away splits and harvesting queen cells from recently-swarmed hives. We believe implementing additional brood breaks by way of splits is a great way to control Varroa mite populations.