About OHB
Our Family Has Raised Bees in Northern California for More Than 50 Years
Olivarez Honey Bees produces premium queens and package bees for beekeepers across the United States and Canada. A family-owned business with three generations of beekeeping expertise, we consider it our privilege to care for bees, and we honestly can’t imagine doing anything else. We deliver the highest-quality bees and the best customer service, because beekeeping is more than just our livelihood— it’s our life.
The Bees
At OHB, it’s all about the bees. Like all living creatures, bees need expert care to thrive. At OHB, raising strong, healthy bees is our top priority. We raise Italian, Carniolan, and Saskatraz queens and bees in the heart of Northern California, Montana, and on Hawaii’s Big Island. These carefully chosen locations allow us to provide our bees with the purest environments and the best food sources, and to offer our customers premium-quality queens and bees year-round. In early spring, our bees pollinate the vast almond groves near our Northern California home, which not only helps farmers with this important crop but also provides a nutrient-rich diet to build up the bees for the brooding season ahead.
After the bees finish pollinating the almond trees, we move them back into the traditional spring yards where we raise queens and shake our customers’ package bees. As soon as we finish shaking our last package bees, we start preparing the bees for their trip to Montana. There they will spend the summer in the pollen- and nectar-rich prairies and alfalfa fields, where we produce some of the finest honeys available in the United States. Their time in this pure and enriching environment ensures they finish out the year robust and on their way to healthy overwintering.
In addition to ensuring our bees are strong and healthy, we’ve worked with renowned bee expert Marla Spivak and her Tech Transfer Team to identify and maintain desirable traits in our stock, making our bees more tolerant to environmental changes. That’s how we help sustain and replenish bees throughout the United States and Canada.
Our Customers
As North America’s premier supplier of quality queens and bees – and lifelong beekeepers ourselves – we know the importance of reliable, responsive customer service. We produce honey and provide pollination services, too, so we raise bees that perform at the highest level, for ourselves as well as for our customers. We understand the care and effort that go into caring for your bees, whether you’re a backyard beekeeper with just a few hives or a commercial customer with hundreds, so we’re committed to providing great service. Whatever you need, whatever concerns or questions you have, we’ll be here for you.
Our Employees
At OHB, we’ve created a culture of people who are passionate about bees. We’re a family-owned business, and that means we’re in the office and out in the field working side by side with our crew every day. So it’s important to us that every member of our team feels just as committed to the bees and to our customers as we are.
The OHB Mission
To serve our customers reliably and well. To treat our employees with respect. And, above all, to raise strong, healthy, happy bees.