Excited I found this business. I got jars for presents. Next time, I'll keep one. Thanks.

Do NOT buy bees from this 'company' Worst treatment of bees that I've seen in six years. Instead of receiving an established four frame Nuc this is what he sent. Two empty frames and two 3/4 full frames. No established brood, no stores of honey or pollen. Almost half of the bees had died in transit and the smell of decaying bees was overwhelming. Instead of being sent in a sturdy wooden box they were shipped in a single wall plastic box that did nothing to insulate or protect the bees in transit. His shipment was also delayed to five days due to poor packaging. His voice message box is constantly full and he very seldom answers his phone. Emails also goes days without being answered. So overwhelmingly sad for the bees that suffered at the hands of this company. read more

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I purchased a 1 pound jar of what was labeled as "Lavender" honey from Beekeeper Mike Inc. at a local grocery store yesterday. The honey inside did not have even the slightest nuance of Lavender and instead tastes and smells like regular clover honey. There was also no safety seal between the jar lid and the product. I am returning it today and alerting the store owner of this fraud. The marketing blurb on the side of the jar says "Since the summer of 69 when Mike first got buzzed he has sought rare honey in California." Perhaps this means that Mike took a bit too much acid and just can't keep is shit together as far as not being able to smell the difference between Lavender and other honey? Sounds like a real bummer, man. In reality, I'm hard pressed to believe that this bait-and-switch was an error at all and more so a feeble attempt at fleecing unsuspecting consumers out of their money so Mike can continue his washed-up hippy lifestyle. God only knows his bees are suffering from his lackadaisical and egregiously dishonest business practices, as evidenced by the other Yelp reviews on Mike's bee procurement business. Buyer beware for ALL Beekeeper Mike Products! read more

Yikes!!! I am surprised by the negative reviews. Now, I have never been to Mike's location nor do I buy bees from him so my review is solely based on his honey. And it's just the best! My dad works in Palo Alto and swings by to some local seller possibly Mike's location if he has one, I'm not sure where exactly but he buys them in bulk, essentially hoarding them back home and distributing them throughout the Bay--he has 5 daughters and siblings around town and my dad always gets all of us Mike's honey. It's even travelled as far as LA (two of my youngest sisters live there). The Orange and Blackberry are great. It's pure, it's tasty and it really helps fight your allergies naturally if y'all are tired of taking Claritin and what not. I love this honey. I went on to Yelp because I wanted to see what other flavors he has since it's about time we need more honey and I am so surprised by the negative reviews. I hope Mike gets better at customer service because he's got a great product! read more

I met Mike and his wife at the NorCal Ren Faire last year, and I will always buy his products. Not only is the honey his bees produce absolutely delicious, his balms, salves, and lotions are next level. My mom has foot issues that prescription medication could not even fix. I bought a jar of salve that he said would help, and my mom's pain went right away. We were absolutely shocked. I went back to the faire the next weekend and bought so much more. Please, if you ever have a chance to sample Mike's products, DO NOT HESITATE! He's also a genuinely wonderful person to speak with, and has such obvious love for what he does. Favorite beekeeper forever! read more

I don't know anything about beekeeping, all I know is I bought their honey and I really liked it. I especially liked it that it came in a glass jar. I just looked up the name to try to figure out where I bought it and now I can't find it again. Ive Had so many different types of honey but I thought this was really great. read more

I ordered a 4 frame nuc from this guy, and received 1 and almost a half frame of what I ordered, plus 2 brand new completely empty frames. No comb, no brood, nada. He made some bologna claim about ventilation ( not what has happened when I have ordered bees before) and said the order was final no refunds returns or gaurentees. This guy seems to be into bees for the money. Fraud. read more

This guy is a total scammer... We ordered a hive (not just a nuc), for more money, and were told "sorry you were misinformed" when we arrived and offered a nuc. We tried showing him the confirmation email, but he wouldn't look and said "sorry you were misinformed" over and over. We tried getting our money back, and were told that his wife did all of the bookkeeping, and she wasn't available. We offered to wait and drive back to his business so we could get the refund processed on the spot. Mind you, we had several months of trying to contact Beekeeper Mike via phone and email, with no response. With this, and having read these other Yelp reviews, that we'd never get our money back once we left. So, we pushed to get our money back and not be at a total loss. Excuses laid thick, and after he kept dodging our questions, we decided to take the nuc and only be out the actual hive. Beekeeper Mike said he would order us a hive from online, and have it mailed to us. It turns out he actually did mail us a hive, but we ended up with a POS weathered box that was lightly duct taped and moderately damaged. Another win for this guy being a total scammer, and a hot head. The other reviews are consistent with what I observed with his attitude and lack of professionalism. Very curiously, while we were there picking up bees, we noticed that 5 others came by and all were lured into paying $50 extra because Beekeeper Mike said the USPS lost their bee hives. Beekeeper Mike was overly-casual about this, as though he'd done it 100 times before. Oh wait, he probably has! Any live bees shipped automatically come with insurance, and it's pretty curious that those within driving distance all had their hives lost by the USPS. Why would they need to pay $50 extra, on top of time and money to pick the hives up in person? Shipping insurance covers this. Finally, on the ride home, we lost about half of the hive because the nuc was so poorly sealed. Beekeeper Mike said his kids (both under 10) did all of the packaging, and wow did it show. There's no excuse for such a poorly-operated business, and on top of that this guy is out to scam when and where he can with his customers. Please heed the advice of this and the other reviews, and buy your bees from other local businesses that have integrity and morality with their business operations. read more

The USPO called me two days ago to help with bees loose at their main postal facility on Evans St. I am a beekeeper in San Francisco. I arrived to find a nightmare. Apx. 75 packages of bees were in a truck to be shipped across the country from Beekeeper Mike. I had not heard of him before. I pulled the containers out out of the truck and discovered three bee packages that had been damaged so that bees were escaping. They were damaged due to inadequate cardboard containers. The PO had tried to contain the situation by wrapping the shipping containers in plastic. This only made the lack of any fresh air and ventilation worse . I could smell the dead bees in the cardboard boxes, already over heated and dead. The PO and I had tried to call Mike only to have find his voicemail box full. The bees were in cardboard boxes with tiny pin holes for ventilation. I found the PO attitude off base. Only concerned about the buyers of these bees losing their money. I saw millions of dead bees the real tragedy. The cardboard boxes had been duct taped shut. In my experience package bees were always shipped in well ventilated wooden boxes with screens on both sides and wooden lathe keeping the boxes spaced a part. The PO didn't know what to do or who to call as Mike did not answer the phone. A day after they arrived they found me. This is on a level of other practices of factory farming of inhumane confinement during transport. I looked up PO requirements Here: 522.1 Container Construction Any container used to mail perishable matter must be constructed to protect and securely contain the contents. Shipping containers for mailable live animals must, at a minimum, be made of 275-pound test, double-wall, corrugated, weather-resistant fiberboard (W5c) or equivalent. The container must be constructed to prevent escape of the animals while in the mail and to preclude the container and its contents from being crushed in normal handling. USPS-produced packaging, including Flat Rate containers, are not eligible to be used. Additional container requirements apply to mailable adult birds. 522.2 Security and Ventilation Containers must be constructed to prevent escape of animals, prevent the crushing of the container and contents during normal handling, and provide adequate ventilation for the animals at all times. Do not buy bees in the mail from this man. read more

So I bought this honey from my local grocery store and mind you I paid a little over $12 which is insane for this small jar of honey. Then when I got home and opened the lid and there's no seal. I literally couldn't believe my eyes. So now I don't know who's opened it and touched it I don't know what kind of germs are in there and we're in the middle of a pandemic. On top of that on the inside the lid there's this weird white stuff it's like a ring around the top and it's not crystallized honey but I don't know what it is. this was enough to make me come and look at the reviews before I even tried it once I saw the reviews I was just petrified. I had no idea my local Nob Hill grocery store was selling a product that was not only unsafe by not having a safety seal but also so lowly rated and from a incredibly small time local business owner. Just for the sake of it I tried a little bit of the honey and it tasted absolutely nothing like lavender just regular old clove honey. I bought lavender honey before from a beekeeper in my local area and it was delicious and it had strong hands of lavender. I'm questioning as to whether or not he's actually just using clove honey and labeling it a bunch of different flavors to sell it better. On top of all of that I'm now concerned about how the bees are treated because of the reviews I've seen on this page and I feel horrible for buying this product in the first place. Not only that but I paid $12 a jar and I'm a single mother who works from home. This was a luxury purchase for me some thing I did for myself to treat myself and now not only am i out $12 i'm having to throw away this honey But I feel horrible i supported a business that ethically I would've never have supported in the first place. 100% I'm gonna say some thing To my store manager about how they should not be carrying this in their store and if they continue to carry it they at least need to ensure that there's a safety seal on there. I'm tempted to go by the display stand in the store where this honey is and leave a little Post-it note that says check reviews on yelp before purchasing just so people know what they're getting into. read more

Don't buy bees from this guy. Join a local beekeeping organization and let them help you decide the best place to purchase your honey bees. Review all places and apiaries to make the right decision. Do not settle for less. read more

I've purchased bees twice from this guy and this is the LAST time. I won't go into details with the first shipment except to say he is disorganized and my shipment of bees came about two months late and only after I emailed about 20 times. I just got another nuc from him yesterday. Most of the bees were dead and the wooden box he advertises that they'd come in wasn't what they came in. Instead it was a disposable box. The queen isn't caged and it was the poorest shipment I've ever received bar none. I emailed him about my concerns yesterday and have yet to receive a response. I'm calling my credit card company Monday to file a dispute. If this is how he does business, he's a thief. You don't take nearly $300 and send a box of dead bees in a disposable box. Not to mention, he sent the wrong tracking number the first time and they arrived a week later than expected and I took two days off early from work to pick them up. He's an unethical beekeeper and a crappy business man. This is not how you treat customers! I'll post pictures of the disposable container and dead bees later. They probably suffocated from poor packaging. Don't buy from him!! read more

Zero star rating for this business. I selected one star because this website makes me do it. The guy is a serious prick. Do NOT do business with this asshole. Rude and if you request a refund you'll be told that you'll get your money when he's 'able to get to it'. I placed an order and had to cancel due to a funding problem with my business partner. Mike accused me of 'indecision'. He's a total jerk and I later found out that he sells bees exposed to insecticides. Do yourself a favor and buy from someone else. read more

Bad Experience. Guy promised me insulated NUC'S for a 100.00 more bux on top of his regular hefty rate. He was late as it was and I was worried as it was getting on in the season... I paid extra as he demanded... and I got uninsulated, poorly ventilated, very old wood NUC'S filled with Varroa Mite infested bees. This wank is a crook in my book. read more

Buyer beware, do NOT use this seller. There were so many things wrong with this transaction from the start, and I gave them chance after chance to make things right, and nothing. To start, I ordered a 5 frame nuc for pick-up in Southern California. The company is based in Nor-Cal, so there was only one weekend pickup date, and I selected that at checkout. When it came near time to pick up the bees, I got an email saying I needed to pick them up near San Francisco! I emailed the company several times, nothing. I tried calling over and over but nobody picked up and the voicemail was full. Finally I got an email back saying sorry, they had no more So-Cal bees available, and they would ship my bees. This was not ideal for me because I'm a first time beekeeper and I was concerned about trauma in shipping, heat, etc. But I decided to move forward. My bees were shipped, and they didn't arrive. The PO tracking number said they were "delayed indefinitely". Finally after about 10 days, the mailman delivered my box, and all you could smell was death. The whole box reeked of dead bees. Trembling, I opened the box, and to my surprise, there were some bees still alive, but over half my workers were dead and rotting in the bottom of the box. There was condensation inside the box to the point it was leaking out and water in the bottom of the box from obviously poor ventilation caused by a plastic disposable nuc box that was only punctured with pinholes. I installed the nuc, thought I might've gotten a glimpse of the queen, and crossed my fingers. When I installed the nuc, I noticed that while I had paid for a 5 frame nuc, there were only 4 frames. Worse, only maybe 1 1/2 frames were built out!!! The other 2 frames were brand new, untouched. And the 1/5 frames I had were built out, but there was nothing in the combs. No honey, no pollen, no brood. Nada. Being a newbie, I started asking around to beekeeping friends and groups because I was confused. All the videos I had watched of 5 frame nucs had 5 actual built-out nucs laden with honey/brood/pollen stores. I came to the conclusion that my nuc must have been a double division which was falsely advertised as a full nuc. At the time I was assuming there had been brood and honey stores initially, but that the bees had eaten them to avoid starvation during the long delay at the PO, which I naturally assumed had been the fault of the PO. I started contacting the seller, giving him the benefit of the doubt for the PO mishap, which obviously (so I thought) was not his fault. I told him I was filing a claim at the PO, but also told him I had some concerns about my nuc not being what it was advertised to be. I told Mike I was having trouble finding the queen and asked for help. He told me to give the bees sugar water and they'd be fine. He blamed everything on the PO. Meanwhile I filed an insurance claim with the PO, because my bees were supposedly insured. Turns out they were only insured for $50, which the PO paid out, but my "insured" bees were not insured for full value. Then the final blow was when I stumbled on Yelp reviewer Philip G's review, and finally I had answers. Philip G is a local beekeeper in San Francisco, and he was called to rescue the PO because a ton of bees had escaped due to poor packaging, all Beekeeper Mike's bees. My bees were among this lot, because the date of his incident lines up with where my bees were then. Philip G cites inhumane shipping conditions, dead and rotting bees, poor ventilation, and inappropriate shipping containers for the bees. So it turns out that the whole PO incident was not even the Post Office's fault, it all came back to Beekeeper Mike! I wrote back to Beekeeper Mike, told him I knew that the PO incident was actually due to bad packaging, and told him the PO had only paid $50 on my claim. But I do have some bees and a chance that my colony will still survive, so I wanted to be fair. I asked for a partial refund of half the price of my colony, MINUS the $50 the PO had repaid. So my total with shipping was around $230 and I asked for $115-$50= $65 to be refunded. I told him I didn't want to cheat him by asking for the full hive to be refunded when my hive might still pull through. I told him if it was easier, I would accept a nuc next spring (for pickup!). I told him I would give him a week, and if he didn't make things right in the small amount I was requesting, I would contest the entire charge on my credit card, because the product I received was not as advertised, the box was not insured for the full value, as he said it was, and most of my bees died in transit due to his inhumane shipping practices. You guessed it... nothing back from him. I even gave him a little more time. So now I am going to make sure the world knows about him, his inhumane treatment of bees, his repeated practice of providing 2 frame nucs instead of 5 frame nucs, and some of the most terrible customer service I've ever received. read more

FIRST: This guy does not belong in the bee business SECOND : I bought a 5 frame nuc in Jan and stipulated a pickup in his Simi Valley Location...in April. I called several times in April and got no answer or no response from my emails for days. Then I was notified that due to heavy rains Pickup wasn't available. Next time I hear from them, I'm told they will be ready for pickup in mid April in Northern CA...not cool living in San Diego area. Next event is an email asking for the SECOND shipping charge of $25+ to send them to me...And he gives me a shipping day which he misses. Starting that date, I go (physically to the Post Office) every day for 5 days only to be notified they are delayed. Postmaster tells me this guy is a constant problem to them and they have had returned shipments to him due to poor packaging. They also told me they had send out a postal inspector but he was met with NO Trespassing signs.. Then 6 days after schedule delivery, the shipment magically arrives at the post office with 60-70% dead bees including a dead queen. He tells me to take pics and call the post office.. Two days later I get another email from him thanking me for picking up my bees in Portola Valley...HUH?????????? I have no bees; i'm out $235 plus an additional $25 for shipping which was already charged in the $235..And I get NO apology for getting me dead bees.. NOT ONLY do you have the total risk with this guy,,,he doesn't pay the post office enough to get the girls overnighted or at least second day. Gives new meaning to "Buyer Beware"... You may choose.to believe the above comments or not, but I assure you they are both truthful and accurate. Save yourself time and money and the biggest issue is dead girls..The industry has enough problems as it is, without a poorly run wanna be bee corp. hank limoge read more

I'm a first time beekeeper and I decided to pick up a package of bees from Beekeeper Mike because he was nearby. The website made it seem like I could pickup the bees on one of several weekends. Apparently this was incorrect and the system is actually that he tells you which weekend you have to pick them up. Anyway I missed the first pickup and when I called I was greeted with some serious hostility. The rudest representative from a business I have ever experienced bar none. Refused to even let me ask a question let alone answer them. My friend picked up the bees for me and reported that Beekeeper Mike is an asshole in person as well. What a shocker. Despite the piss poor customer service the price was fair, the location was good, and my bees seem quite happy thus far. read more

"I also am having a very BAD experience with Beekeeper Mike. I ordered 3 shallow Nuc's from his website, paid for them in January. Got an email to pick-up on April 14th. When I arrived to pickup the Nuc's he said he did not make Shallows this year. I expect a refund of my $603.57 - he was unable to fulfill his promise to provide product - he will NOT refund the money!!!!....He will not answer my phone calls (about 20 messages) nor my emails (about 10). DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS GUY!!! HE IS A SCAMMER. My name is Rex Boggs - Mike at least have the decency to return my calls or emails" read more

I have to agree with the other poor reviews of this business. A year ago I bought a 5-frame nuc from these guys and it went well, with healthy bees and an easy pick up. This year was quite different. As others have stated, communication is virtually non-existent with these guys. My nuc showed up at my door in a plastic bag, and on its side from the post office. When I opened it up, there were only 4 frames, not 5, and hundreds of dead bees. Also, only two frames had any sort of activity on them, and there was also a queen cage. This tells me that they dumped a bunch of bees into the nuc and added a queen for the trip, hardly the definition of a nuc, which is supposed to be an established hive. The bees were in very tough shape, with no food, and poor ventilation. I failed to take pictures, but they looked a lot like the first reviewer's pictures. Emails have gone unanswered, and as stated, the voice mailbox is always full. Do not buy bees from this place. They do not care about your bees, only your money. read more

Ok, so heres the thing. Mike is very odd. You cant get a word in to save your life when your tryen to talk to him. I stuggled to understand and extra fee, that I felt shouldnt have been added rite before our bees got shipped. But at the end of the day, its unfair to rate him on anything but his end product,...his bees. We got our 5frame box of bees plus queen for a fair price. Our bees are doing amazing. So in my opinion we got a great product. Super healthy full frames, beautiful bees. Amazing Queen. My son is just starting out as a bee keeper, and already im starting to notice he has this crazy wonderful obsession with his bees. So maybe bee keepers are just ODD FOLKS? Anyway, Mikes a good guy, he really seems passionate about his bees...he wants you to really enjoy your experience, hes just a tad differant. Iv never met him...weve only talked on the phone. But my only suggestion to him would be maybe put someone else in charge of customer service? Because if you base him on his personality and not his product you may just shy away. I hope you can get past (him) and get some amazing bees! Mike if your reading this I hope no offence is taken. And thanks for some amazing bees. read more

We received a 5-frame hive from Beekeeper Mike that is in terrible shape. The bee's are weak, the hive is queenless, the frames are disgusting and old, there are very few bees alive. The hive looks like it was thrown together from scrap honey frames. The hive has no brood or honey to feed the bees. It looks nothing like the nuc we got from another supplier. They did not alert us in a timely manner regarding the shipping date, which their website claims they do. When we called with questions about the shipping date and specifics about the bees, they were very rude. I would never order bees from this company again. read more