Since 1892

Family beekeepers,
Northern California honey

We keep bees in the coastal ranges and Sierra foothills, harvest by hand, and jar everything raw. No additives, no blending, no shortcuts.

How We Got Here

Our family has kept bees in Northern California since 1892. NorCal Nectar exists to bring that honey directly to your table rather than into a blending tank.

What started as a small family operation has grown into a network of apiaries across the region. The methods haven't changed much. We still pull frames by hand, extract at low temperatures, and strain just enough to remove wax — nothing else.

Each site produces a distinct flavour shaped by the wildflowers, soil and microclimate around it. That's terroir, and it's why no two harvests taste the same.

NorCal Nectar beekeeper lifting a honey frame from a hive in Northern California

What Drives Us

Most commercial honey is ultrafiltered, pasteurized, and blended from multiple countries before it reaches a shelf. The process strips out pollen, enzymes, and everything that makes honey worth eating. We do the opposite.

Every jar we sell is single-origin, raw, and traceable to a specific apiary in Northern California. We keep our bees healthy without synthetic chemicals, rotate hive locations to follow natural bloom cycles, and never harvest more than the colony can spare. It's slower and more expensive. It's also the only way to get honey that actually tastes like the place it came from.

From the Apiary

Beekeeper lifting a honey frame from a white Langstroth hive in a Northern California meadow

Close-up of honeycomb frame with bees and dripping golden raw honey

Rows of white beehives in a golden grass field at sunrise in Northern California

Honeybees pollinating lavender flowers in a California wildflower meadow

Rustic table with raw honey jar, honeycomb frame, wooden dipper, and dried wildflowers

Beekeeper hands holding a bee smoker with white smoke curling upward near hive boxes

How We Take Care of the Land

Healthy bees start with healthy land. We rotate our hives across chemical-free pastures and plant native wildflower corridors to support year-round forage. Our extraction facility runs on solar, and we ship in recyclable glass and compostable packaging.

We don't use synthetic miticides or antibiotics in our hives. Integrated pest management, strong genetics, and careful hive placement do the work instead. It's not a marketing angle — it's the only approach that keeps colonies productive season after season.