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Honey bees on a golden honeycomb. Photo: Waugsberg, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

FLORIDA FOOD AND FARMS · HONEY

Tupelo to Orange Blossom: The Sweet Story of Florida Honey

Florida bees can work almost all year, beekeepers once set their tupelo hives on platforms 14 to 16 feet high, and a Panhandle tree that blooms for a few short weeks makes a honey that won't crystallize. Here is the sweet story of Florida honey.

Honey bees on a golden honeycomb. Photo: Waugsberg, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

ARTICLE

Florida bees can work almost all year, beekeepers once set their tupelo hives on platforms 14 to 16 feet high, and a Panhandle tree that blooms for a few short weeks makes a honey that won't crystallize. Here is the sweet story of Florida honey.

By 1stFlorida Editorial Team · Published November 11, 2026 · Verified November 9, 2026

Florida honey comes in more flavors than most people expect. A jar from the Panhandle's river swamps tastes different from one made beside an orange grove farther south. As the National Honey Board ↗ explains, the color, flavor and even the aroma of honey depend on the flowers the bees visited. Florida has a long list of those flowers, and a climate that keeps the bees busy most of the year.

A state where bees work almost all year

Florida bees get more working days than most. The University of Florida's guide to keeping bees in Florida ↗ says that, unlike in northern climates, honey bees here can fly, and queens can lay eggs, almost any time of year. Many colonies never go dormant. That mild winter is a big draw. UF/IFAS notes that many of the country's commercial beekeepers move their bees to Florida for the winter.

The business is a big one. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Honey report ↗, released in March 2026, counted 113,000 Florida colonies that produced honey in 2025. They averaged 32 pounds each, for a crop of about 3.6 million pounds worth about $14.2 million. That was the seventh-largest honey crop among the states, behind North Dakota, California, Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota and Michigan. USDA's Honey Bee Colonies report ↗ counted about 290,000 colonies in Florida on January 1, 2026, among beekeepers with five or more colonies.

How do bees turn nectar into honey? A UF/IFAS Extension post from Duval County ↗ explains that the bees dry the nectar by fanning the honeycomb with their wings. When the moisture is down to 15 to 17 percent, they seal each cell with a cap of wax. The same post figures that one pound of honey takes visits to about 2 million flowers.

Tupelo: the Panhandle's famous honey

Tupelo trees are one of Florida's best-known nectar sources, according to UF/IFAS. The white tupelo, also called the Ogeechee tupelo, grows in the Apalachicola River basin. It often stands in several feet of water and reaches 50 to 75 feet tall, says Visit Gulf ↗, Gulf County's tourism office. Its blossom starts as a round bud about the size of a small pea, then "swells into what looks like a miniature cauliflower." UF/IFAS Extension in Gulf County ↗ calls the Dead Lakes and Apalachicola River area prime habitat for one of the largest tupelo forests on earth.

The season is short. UF/IFAS puts it at about mid-April to the end of May, and beekeepers hope for little wind, little rain and no cold snaps while it lasts. Slow Food's Ark of Taste ↗, which includes tupelo honey in its catalog, says the bloom itself lasts only two to three weeks. To get honey that is pure tupelo, beekeepers clear the hives of any other honey before the tupelo harvest. Slow Food adds that the hives are often kept on remote docks that can be reached only by boat.

The reward is a light amber honey that some say has a greenish cast. Visit Gulf describes its taste as a hint of rose with an herby, earthy flavor. Pure tupelo honey is also famous for staying liquid. Slow Food explains that its unusually high fructose content keeps it from granulating.

The center of tupelo country is Wewahitchka, about 20 minutes north of Port St. Joe and home to many apiaries. Tupelo honey had its moment in the spotlight in Ulee's Gold, the 1997 Peter Fonda movie about a Wewahitchka beekeeper and his family. Every May, the town celebrates at the Wewahitchka Tupelo Honey Festival. Visit Gulf posts the details, and the Gulf County Tourist Development Council can be reached at 850-229-7800 or toll-free at 800-482-GULF (800-482-4853).

Hives on platforms: a look back

The State Archives of Florida hold photographs of the tupelo trade from decades past, and they show how much work it took. A 1948 photo on Florida Memory ↗ shows two beekeepers tending tupelo hives in Apalachicola. The archive's note describes a typical scaffold of the time: a platform 14 to 16 feet high and 300 to 700 feet long, with the hives lined up on top.

A 1960 photo from Wewahitchka ↗ shows workers loading boxes of honeycomb onto wheelbarrows. From there the comb went by tugboat upstream to a barge, where the honey was extracted right on the river.

Orange blossom honey and the citrus groves

On the peninsula, the classic Florida honey is orange blossom. The National Honey Board calls orange trees a leading honey plant in southern Florida. It describes the honey as white to extra light amber, with a strong orange aroma and a sweet, fruity taste.

Beekeepers plan their year around the bloom. In Highlands County, the orange blossom bloom begins in mid to late February, and in January beekeepers from all over Florida and many other states look for spots to set their hives as close to the groves as they can, according to UF/IFAS Extension in Highlands County ↗. Citrus trees do not depend on insects to pollinate them, so it is mostly the beekeepers who benefit, and many grove owners accept honey as payment for having the hives nearby. The UF/IFAS guide to Florida honey bee plants ↗ shows citrus blooming in March and April in North and Central Florida, and from February into May in South Florida.

Florida's honey rule even makes room for citrus. The state's standard for honey generally limits sucrose, one kind of sugar, to 5 grams per 100 grams of honey, but it allows citrus honey up to 10.

Palmetto, gallberry, mangrove and more

Florida's wild plants make honeys of their own. UF/IFAS notes that in some of the state's wetter, swampier areas, the bees' forage is dominated by saw palmetto, cabbage palm and gallberry, all major nectar sources. Along the west coast, from about Hernando County south, black mangrove is a significant nectar producer. In many parts of Florida there is a second honey flow in the fall, from aster, goldenrod, Spanish needles and other late bloomers.

The UF/IFAS bloom tables give a sense of the calendar. Gallberry blooms in spring, from April into June in North Florida. Cabbage palm flowers from spring into July. Mangroves bloom in summer, from June into August in much of the state. And as a rule of thumb, the National Honey Board says, light-colored honey tastes milder and darker honey tastes stronger.

What Florida's honey rule says

Florida has its own definition of honey. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services rule called the Standard of Identity for Honey ↗, in effect since July 14, 2009, says nothing may be added to honey, including water, and its moisture may not exceed 23 percent. A jar may carry a flower's name, such as orange blossom, if the honey comes mainly from that source. The rule also says honey may be fluid, thick, or partly to completely crystallized. So a jar that has turned solid in the pantry is still honey.

Thinking about keeping bees?

Backyard beekeeping has been booming in Florida, Florida public radio reported ↗ in 2025. Florida has a mandatory registration law: UF/IFAS says anyone who keeps honey bees must register with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services ↗ and renew each year. A UF/IFAS Extension guide from Polk County ↗ explains that the first step is a visit from a local apiary inspector, and that the fee depends on how many colonies you keep. Homeowners association rules still apply. For registration questions, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is the office to ask.

To learn the craft, the UF/IFAS Honey Bee Research and Extension Laboratory ↗ in Gainesville offers the Bee College, a two-day event of lectures, workshops and hands-on demonstrations. It also offers an online Master Beekeeper Program with four levels. The lab's phone number is 352-294-6927.

Buying and enjoying Florida honey

The best place to find local honey is close to the hive. UF/IFAS Extension in Volusia County ↗ suggests farmers markets, roadside stands, farm stores, or buying straight from the beekeeper. Honey season usually begins in spring and runs into early summer, though the timing depends on the region and what is in bloom.

Read the label for the floral source, and try a few side by side. A spoonful each of tupelo, orange blossom and gallberry makes a tasty lesson in Florida's landscapes. One caution from UF/IFAS Extension: honey should not be given to babies under one year old.

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Sources

These sources were read online on November 9, 2026.

Top photo: Bienenkoenigin 43a ↗ by Waugsberg, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0 ↗, from Wikimedia Commons.

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