ABOUT US
Our family
Back-Jen Whitney, Nick Whitney, Lane Whitney holding Bella, Dan Whitney
Front- Alexis Fuchs (daughter) holding our youngest grandson Everett and Logan Fuchs (son in law) holding oldest grandson Evan
About Dan’s Honey Company
I (Dan Whitney) grew up south of Richville MN, towards Dead Lake on a small farm in the 70’s and 80’s. I graduated from Perham High School in 1990. One of my summertime jobs, was helping Jack and Russell Hofmann harvest and extract their honey crop. In 1994, at the age of 21, I bought into Bob Walkins 1000 colony operation out by Dent, MN (West Silent Lake). Bob took his bees south to SE Texas each November (Jasper, TX), and returned to MN in early May. There are beekeepers, and then there are queen producers. Not all beekeepers can raise queen bees successfully. Bob’s source for queens and queen cells in Texas, was from Gene Sager. Gene was another beekeeper from Wheaton, MN that overwintered in Jasper Texas, as well. I worked with Gene, every day each spring for 2 years, during the queen rearing season. I had a fantastic mentor, who was thrilled to pass on his bee knowledge to the next generation. Lucky for me, Gene was a foreman, back in the day, for the JZBZ bee and queen rearing company. JZBZ invented a lot of the queen rearing equipment our beekeeping industry uses today. Today, we run 2000 colonies with 5-7 people on the payroll, for honey production in MN (May-Nov,) and queen and nuc production in Newton, Texas (Nov.-May). In Texas, we raise 4-5,000 mated queens each spring, and we graft about 20-25,000 queen cells for ourselves and others. We also fill a combination of 1500 5 frame nucs and single hives for our Texas customers. Back in Minnesota, we produce a little over 200,000 lbs. of honey (4-5 semi loads) from about 100 bee yards in 5 counties. We keep bees in Otter Tail, Becker, Hubbard, Clay, and Wilkin counties. 80% of our honey comes from the basswood trees that grow all over the Lakes Area. Our clover honey comes from the open prairie areas of Clay and Wilkin counties. Our wildflower honey comes from eastern Becker and Hubbard counties up in the north woods, close to the state forests. Some years we make a little sunflower honey, and most years, we make 6-8 drums of buckwheat honey. The buckwheat honey comes from south of Ottertail Lake. We are a small family business. Beekeeping is animal husbandry. It has been a struggle to keep them alive and healthy since the early 2000’s. Back in the day, one man could take care of 1000 colonies. Now, its probably down to 500 colonies per employee. We work 6-7 days a week. 50-70 hours a week or more if needed. This year we have 4 employees, plus me and Jen. Our sons Lane and Nick help out when we are busy. Sometimes our daughter Alexis gives us a hand. Unfortunately, Jen is highly allergic to bee stings, so she does our bookkeeping, store stocking, takes customers’ orders, and keeps us organized. I am supposed to be the brains of the outfit. But none of this could happen without our hard-working employees, Osmany Almendarez Chavez (since 2017), Gerson Almendarez Chaves (since 2018), Claudia Coello (2022), and Seidy Banegas (2022)