Water Oak Apiaries
We produce comb honey (and other bee products) on the grounds of Mitcham Farms in Ruston, LA!
Our Products
Cut Comb
(June Harvest)
This light, floral-tasting honey is from our June harvest, primarily drawn from the nectar of the Chinese Tallow tree, although it almost certainly contains traces of Japanese Privet, white clover, and passion flower. It's one of the premiere honey crops gathered throughout Louisiana and the Gulf South. It's especially good on warm bread with a dash of pink peppercorn cracked over the top, or on toast with a slice of fresh peach.
Cut Comb
(October Harvest)
This strongly flavored honey is much darker than our June honey. It has a has a distinctively funky quality that makes it popular with honey aficionados. Goldenrod and boneset figure prominently in the nectar composition of this late-summer crop. We like it on toasted biscuits with a little blue cheese or goat cheese. Or for a really unusual twist, put a dollop onto a piece of freshly grilled fish.
Where to Buy
Honey
Our honey products are available through the following retail outlets.
- Mitcham Farms — Ruston, LA
- Current Farms — Marion, LA
- Our Facebook Page
Why Comb Honey? And Why Seasonal Harvest?
Comb honey is special because the beekeeper doesn't get between you and the bees' artistry. Every cell in a piece of comb honey is exactly the way the bees made it, which means that it captures the essence of the flowers that were in bloom at a specific time and place. It's like biting into an edible time capsule.
This has the potential to be true for any honey, but most beekeepers produce honey for extraction. For the sake of convenience, they only harvest honey from their bees once or twice a year, and load their harvest into a special centrifuge, which spins the honey out of the comb so that the honey can be bottled. The wax comb is stored, and given back to the bees to be refilled during the next year.
At Water Oak Apiaries, we value distinctive, memorable honey over convenience. The honey produced in northern Louisiana in May and early June is different (paler, more delicately flavored) from what is produced in April. And both of these are different from the dark, strong, funky honey that results from goldenrod in September and October. Inevitably, if you extract and bottle honey just once or twice a year, you'll combine honey from multiple floral sources into your bottled product. It results in a less distinctive product. It's still delicious... but you don't get that, "I just took a big bite of early June," sensation.
Our Story
When Edward, the owner at Water Oak Apiaries, was about 14 years old, he watched a beekeeper remove a colony of honey bees from a soffit over the front door of a school. The beekeeper who did the job was kind enough to offer him his first taste of comb honey, from a slab that still had bees on the other end. Edward decided that he would be a beekeeper some day.
Almost 30 years later, he made good on that promise to himself, and he decided to specialize in comb honey production because that was the way for him to share the best part of an experience, however small, that changed his life for the better.
To do that, Edward manages his bees intensively. Comb honey production is "hard mode." It demands booming colonies full of strong, healthy bees, free of disease and parasites.
Without exception, Edward takes only as much honey as his bees can spare. The honey he offers for sale is the bees' surplus. They make more than they will ever need, and he takes the excess. In a bad year, this means he doesn't take much honey at all.
The most serious threat to honey bees, the parasitic mite Varroa destructor, must be kept under control at all times; Edward relies primarily on naturally-occurring substances like oxalic acid, thymol, and formic acid, which leave no harmful residues in the wax or honey.
The heaven we chase
Like the June bee
Before the school-boy
Invites the race
— Emily Dickenson
Contact Us
Find Us On Facebook: Water Oak Apiaries
Mailing Address: PO Box 1166, Ruston, LA 71273
Telephone: 318-232-2955
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