The Honey Guy

“People will say, ‘I can taste the flowers in your honey.’ And that feels so good.”

By Cheryl Allen
Posted 9/6/22

After eight years of beekeeping, he has 35 colonies stacked up in his yard and 1600 pounds of honey to sell.  His name is James Miller, but you might find yourself calling him the Honey …

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The Honey Guy

“People will say, ‘I can taste the flowers in your honey.’ And that feels so good.”

Posted

After eight years of beekeeping, he has 35 colonies stacked up in his yard and 1600 pounds of honey to sell.  His name is James Miller, but you might find yourself calling him the Honey Guy.

“I’ve always wanted to be a beekeeper,” the Wellman resident says.  “I remember when I was in my teens, or even as a kid growing up, bees were challenging because, hey, they sting you. But watching bumblebees, I would always let them land on me if they would.  They just intrigued me, and I always thought it’d be cool to be a beekeeper.”

“I didn’t think about it for a long time,” he continues, “But when I moved back here and finally had a chunk of land and enough money to be a beekeeper, I went to the Johnson County Fair, and they always had a Purple Martin booth that was combined with the honeybee booth.  And I was hanging out with the Purple Martin guys.  The one guy that was hanging out working in the booth said that there were going to be honeybee-raising classes.  And, oh, my ears perked up.”

He went off to Indian Hills Nature Center in Cedar Rapids once a month for a year to learn about bees.  He started two colonies of his own in his backyard. He researched honeybees online, subscribed to two bee magazines, went to conferences.  He became a member of Iowa Honey Producers and joined bee clubs in Coralville and Mount Pleasant. 

His interest became a passion, and that passion provides our community with delicious, raw, local honey.

“In different parts of the world, or different parts of the country, you’re going to have completely different flavors,” Miller explains. 

In Texas, for example, honeybees bring in nectar from the mesquite, which produces a very dark honey.  In California, bees visit orange blossom, avocado, and alfalfa. 

“I definitely prefer the summer honey that has more of the clovers and the soybean and different stuff that’s going around all summer.  I think it makes a really good, flavorful blend,” Miller says.

Miller’s honey is raw, meaning that it isn’t heated or heavily filtered.  Big honey manufacturers have to pump their honey, Miller explains, and that requires that they heat it so it becomes more fluid.  This tends to deteriorate the honey and affects its flavor. 

“The raw honey I have has just been run through two different size screen strainers, one that takes the big bee chunks out, and a smaller screen that’s still big enough for all the pollen particles and all the good stuff to come through.  And it’s never heated,” he says.

Miller sells his honey at local farmer’s markets through much of the year.  On Thursday nights he sets up his booth in Washington’s Central Park from 5-7 p.m., and on Saturdays he sells in Muscatine at the corner of 3rd and Cedar from 7:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.   He returns to both cities for large fall craft shows and holiday markets.

 

“Its amazing how many people who always bought honey in a store will come to the market and taste real raw honey right from the hive, basically, and they can’t believe that it’s that good,” Miller says.  “People will say, ‘I can taste the flowers in your honey.’  And that just feels so good to hear those comments.  And then I get a really good following of people.  People were waiting for me to come back this summer.  They were asking all the other vendors, ‘Where’s the honey guy?’”

He chose his business name, Wild Cat raw honey, because of its connection to his roots in Wellman.  Before Wellman High School consolidated with Kalona and West Chester to form Mid-Prairie in 1960, Wellman’s mascot was the Wildcat, and Miller’s mom was a Wellman Wildcat.   In 1979, to celebrate Wellman’s centennial, August Schell Brewing manufactured a Wildcat Beer for the city. 

Miller’s honeybees have produced an extraordinary amount of honey this summer because his colonies rapidly reproduced this spring.

“If I get in a box and notice swarm cells all over the place, that’s the time I’ve got to look for the queen.  I can move her into a new box with a bunch of bees and leave a couple swarm cells in the old box.  That way I’ll have two new colonies because the old box will raise a new queen. That’s how I ended up with a lot of bees this year.  I was a little late in inspecting and they were getting ahead of me and wanting to swarm, so I had to quickly find the queen and split them.  So this year I came through the winter with 20 colonies.  I sold eight of those, and now I have 35.”

The resulting 1600 pounds of honey is close to his limit, Miller says. 

“It’d be nice to make an even ton someday.  I’m pretty close to it.  I’m only 400 pounds off,” he laughs.

It took five years for Miller’s beekeeping to become profitable.  He invested in bees and boxes, and for a while, used a hand crank to extract honey from the frames before upgrading to an electric extractor.  Instead of painting his bee boxes the standard white, he painted them shades of brown, because that is the paint he had on hand, having purchased it when the Wellman lumber yard went out of business at least 15 years ago. 

Today he looks ahead to trying a few new products and gadgets.  He would like to offer more cut comb, which is honey still in the honeycomb, cut into blocks.  There is an uncapping tank that he has his eye on.  He contemplates whether any of his bee boxes need to be replaced.

And sometimes, he sits down to enjoy a bit of nature’s perfect food.

“A good corn bread and honey,” he recommends.  “You just can’t go wrong.”