The Swope Family started keeping bees in 1975. This adventure started as a result of farming 150 acres of fruits and vegetables. We needed bees for pollination, thus started our adventures in beekeeping. After retiring from Penn State University at Mont Alto, we moved to southwestern Pennsylvania to be closer to our grandchildren and start farming all over again. We purchased a small farm that is in the hills of western Pennsylvania, in Washington county. The family farm is blessed to have a stream that flows through the property, where rainfall and spring water drain and flows into to Cross Creek lake. In 2017, we planted black raspberries and blueberries on the hillside and moved our bees from Franklin county to western Pennsylvania. We have black raspberries and blueberries for farmers markets and pick your own. Our pick your own operation will give the entire family a fun time in the country while enjoying the scenic beauty of the surrounding countryside.
We package our honey using minimum processing to maintain the flavor and quality of the honey that our loyal customers have come to count on. We bring 100% pure, raw, natural honey from the bees to you. The flavor and quality of honey depends on a number of key factors, including proper care and management of the bee colonies; the location of our bees in relation to the target nectar source; the timing of when the honey frames are removed from the hives; and the weather. We can control the first three factors, but the fourth is a wild card that produces many a sleepless night for us. When Mother Nature is in a good mood, the bees are happy too. Happy bees make bumper honey crops. But when the weather does not cooperate (too wet, too dry, too hot, too cold, etc.), then low yields are the result. Our honey is produced by bees that have been placed in an area with a high concentration of the intended floral source. The bees are left in this area for the length of the bloom where they will produce honey. To produce one pound of honey the bees must fly to 2 million flowers and travel over 50,000 miles.
