Big Island Bees

The employees were friendly and knowledgeable about their products. We sampled all of their honey, and we got 5 free honey sticks for checking in with Unilocal!The store has a small interesting museum… see pics.

Location is a beautiful drive south of Kailua tucked away off main road. Tour was interesting and the beekeeper was knowledgable and really showed a passion for bees. For me, the visit was a perfect balance of great informational tour, awesome honey tasting unlike any honey I’ve had before, and a cool shop that made it easy to buy and ship honey back to the mainland. I got some great local gifts for friends at home. It was totally worth the drive out there and the people working that day were awesome to meet.

Note to self. If you’re not going to check in your bags at the airport, don’t buy a jar of honey!!! I was not thinking when I bought a jar of their delicious honey forgetting that I need to fly back to Oahu in two days. Here I am at the airport, I see TSA getting my jar of honey and throwing it into the trash. Even though the honey is thick and very vicious, it is still considered a liquid.
So besides whining and complaining about my stupidity… This little honey store is so amazing. You can learn everything you need to know about honey harvesting. The employees are so knowledgeable that they gave me a greater appreciation of enjoying honey. So now whenever I see a bee, I just leave it alone and let it do it’s magical thing for all of us to enjoy.

It is neat place where you can take a short tour to learn about bees and sample different types of honey.
The tour consists of a beekeeper explaining about bees and how the hives work, then he and or she opens a hive to show you all the stages of bees and the honey.
The apairie is behind screen so you will not be stung but still can be right up close
We went with another couple and they thought it was very informative (the wife of the couple is afraid of bees) and felt very safe.
We are keeper’s of bee’s and also thought that they did a great job.
On top of all that, it was free! !

Really great tour and fascinating information from Joe (who seems to know everything) about bees. Great free tour, excellent for all ages. Honey is really good too.

The tour was extremely interesting, informative, and FUN.
Joe, our tour guide was excellent. He completely dismantled a hive and showed us the individual worker bees, drones, the queen bee, and larvae … all of this safely within inches of our faces (separated from us by screening).
He was enthusiastic and able to give complete answers to each of our questions.
An enjoyable activity for adults and children.
Also, the tasting of the different honeys after the tour was a delightful bonus.

This is such an awesome tour. Joe the bee guy is so passionate about his bees. He’s knowledgable, friendly, and loves his bees. The tour started inside the museum going over the different supplies and materials used. Then we proceeded outside to where the bee boxes are kept. He gave an informative talk about how bee colonies are created, the different jobs among the bees and showed us the bee boxes. Afterwards we head back inside for a tasting of the honey. They have their standard 4 honeys that they share. The other woman (i can’t believe I forget her name but she was also awesome!) shared 2 extra types of honey– a spicy one and also a honey mustard). Later on as everyone was wandering and checking out the place on their own, Joe pulled out two more neat honeys– a coffee honey and a caramel honey. Yum! The honey is organic and reasonably priced. It was a bit of an effort to get there from where we are staying but it’s worth the experience if you like to know more about bees. It’s such a different experience beyond the beaches and the ocean activities. Here’s an interesting tidbit I learned. The number one industry on the Big Island is tourism. Number two is agriculture. The Big Island Bee Company has 3000 bee boxes around the island. That’s a lot of farming!

I really enjoyed this place. You’ll get a free tour and lesson on how honey is made and bees are kept. Afterwards you get to sample the honey. The beekeeper was friendly and knowledgeable. Watching her handle the bees with her bare hands was awesome. You takeaway with you a respect for bees and the delicacy of honey. Buy some honey.

I did not expect to enjoy the tour as much as I did! I learned a lot about bees and have much more respect for them. They are much more interesting than I had previously believed.
We were a group of adults, but there were also children on our tour and it seemed like everyone enjoyed learning about bees and honey production.
The employees obviously love their jobs and are super nice, are open for conversation, and are helpful.
And the honey. oh man… buy some honey. Buy all the honey.
If you can’t make it to the actual shop, I think the Kona airport has their honey in their giftshop, but it’s probably a little more expensive.

So this review is waaaaay over due but better late than never. These guys give an awesome tour in their demo apiary. The honey is so good! I would love to see more about their queen rearing and larger production system, it would be so cool to have a more in depth tour. Nevertheless, we had a great time. Check out their instagram @bigislandbees !!

I love educational tours, especially when there’s something edible involved, and was super excited to come across Big Island Bees (thanks Unilocal!). Our guide, Joe, was great– very knowledgeable and super passionate about sharing it with others. At the end of the tour you are able to sample/​purchase the honey and honey-​related products (the soap is awesome). This isn’t your average comes-​from-​a-​bear-​shaped-​squeeze-​bottle honey so it is a bit more expensive but it’s organic, delicious, and made by people who are passionate about their craft so it is well worth it.
On another note, if you’re visiting on a particularly hot day, bring a bottle of cold water or something to fan yourself with– most of the tour is outdoors and the gift shop/“museum” area doesn’t have a/​c.

This was an amazing free tour. The guide spent maybe fifteen minutes inside showing us the tools used and explaining the history of beekeeping in Hawaii, and then 45 minutes just outside the shop showing us the insides of an actual hive and explaining and answering any and all questions. We got to see a bee being born, and he even found the queen of the hive to show us. They could easily charge for this guided experience, and we enjoyed it so much we bought some extra honey.
The honeys are all distinctive and come from flowers unique to Hawaii.
Highly recommended, and very easy since you can reserve a tour online and they do two a day every day.

So I LOVE factory tours. LOVE THEM. What’s not to enjoy? Maybe it’s my inner teacher talking, but I dig experiences where I can learn something new, plus it’s always fun to see behind-​the-​scenes of a place, particularly when it’s outside my knowledge base.
Enter Big Island Bees.
I’m a big fan of honey, but not so much on the bees. I got stung on the face in elementary school, and well, I’ve been a little skittish ever since. Can you blame me? Well, when I found out that Big Island Bees (whose honey I frequently buy at Costco) gives tours, I was ready to face The Bees.
You reserve your spot online — super easy — and then show up at the proper time. The place is easy to find south of Kona, nestled among coffee growers/​roasters and residences. You’ll sign waivers (it should probably go without saying that if you’re allergic to bee stings, you should stay away), then the tour starts with a short discussion of beekeeping in the shop, then head outside to some demonstration bee boxes (most of the honey-​production hives are located elsewhere on the island). The staff (we had two for our tour) are exceptionally knowledgeable and explained more than I EVER would have thought to ask about beekeeping and honey production. And yet, it wasn’t boring! Actually, it was super fascinating. The hive dynamics with the queen is remarkable. It was interesting to watch our tour guide just reach in with bare hands to handle the bees — she has more guts than I do, for sure. (she’s also had her share of stings!) The bees tended to keep to themselves on or near the screens in the boxes — there are some screens between visitors and the bees, but it’s still open-​air — a very small number buzzed around us, but were not menacing at all.
The shop has all the honey products you may be able to find at Foodland or Costco, but they also have some exclusive products like soaps, honey sticks, and a honey-​coffee-​caramel sauce that is super-​ono. Everything makes for great gifts, especially for mainland friends. Foreign visitors (especially New Zealand, but certainly others) should check with agricultural control ahead of time, because you wouldn’t want your precious honey to be confiscated!
Restroom is a port-​a-​potty, but it is agri-​tourism after all. Handwashing station on the side of the building.

minus 1 for no AC
VERY educational. make sure you come at 10am or 1pm (check exact times) for tour if you want to see them open up and show some bees.
they let you sample 4 honeys and 1 caramel and 1 mustard. yum. and they have cool soap to buy.
minus something for: only an port a potty but it was clean and didn’t smell. but it could’ve if anyone did #2.

Definitely a great place to check out if you’re on the Big Island! The honey is similar prices to the other distributors but at least you can try it to see which ones your like the most! We were rushed to catch our flight, so we missed the bee tour, but we’ll be back! The only downfall is that there were a ton of kids making a mess of the honey samples, but no one really corrected them.

What a wonderful experience at Big Island Bees. The property is beautiful and the apiary viewing area is worth the drive. They have a nice museum of old school beekeeping equipment and art. A nice gift shop too, all local items like balms, honey, tea, lotions, clothing and candles. Laryssa was amazing working with the hive so our family could see the inside of the beehive. (Thank you Laryssa!) Oliver the resident gecko even made an appearance:) The honey is delicious and good to know it’s all local Hawaiian ! Mahalo big island bees for a great tour and memories of the bees

If you love honey and you’re on the big island, do yourself a favor and visit big island bees! You can sample all of their delicious honeys (the Lehua one is my fav) and even take a tour and see the bees in action. I learned so much about bees and bee keeping that it really gave me a better appreciation of the process we use to obtain our honey. Prices are fair (they are an artisanal honey company after all) but their product is seriously the best. If you buy more than $ 65 of products they’ll even ship it to you for free! Yay for big island bees!

While at Greenwell Farms, we learned about a local apiary & I’m a total sucker for honey so we made sure to head over to Big Island Bees & join in 1 of their tours — given at 10am & 1pm, we learned where they take their bees to pollinate various flowers that turn into their 3 varieties of honey & maintain a pure single-​sourced origin.
We tasted Macadamia Flower, Lehua Flower & Wilelaiki Flower. The mac was the sweetest while the Lehua was the mildest. Both are great in coffee & on toast.
The Wilelaiki we found to be a stronger honey & wasn’t the best in coffee but is delightful on toast — might also need to give it the cheese test as I imagine it wold be a wonderful pairing there
They showed us a couple of hives they had on site, we got to see the queen, lots of workerbees & drones. We also got to see an invasive beetle that has wreaked havoc in the bee world
Lots of info in their gift shop /​history center & their grounds are lovely. Best part is that is you purchase over a certain dollar amount, they will ship it to you for free — tell me we didn’t take them up on THAT offer!
Lotions, lip balms, soaps, & pure, delightful honey — we stocked up!

While looking for a great coffee plantation tour I came across «Big Island Bees» and knew that we had to visit! We were greeted by a couple very eager folks. They welcomed us, and brought us on a short tour of the operation. After the tour we were brought back in to taste different (amazing) honey flavors and wander around the store.
The honey was amazing… the tour was great… and the employees were incredibly friendly. Kevin even went out of his way to talk to us about some of the bars in Kona that he thought we would like to go to.
This is one place you must stop at. (and afterwards head down to Kealakekua Bay!)

This is quite the experience. I’ve always wanted to come here especially after sampling their honey on Maui.
Their honey is the best tasting honey I’ve had and the tour was very knowledgeable. The beekeeper could have been a bit more friendlier, maybe she was having an off day. Kevin the retail manager in the shop was super friendly, helpful and engaging.
The products for sale, honey, t-​shirts, candles are great unique Big Island gifts to bring back home and they offer free shipping to the mainland if you spend $ 65 or is it $ 60, sorry I can’t recall.
Don’t miss this place it’s quite the experience. Remember to either call ahead or go online to reserve your free tour.
Oh, forgot to mention that you get to sample all their honeys