Mountain Spring Honey Company is a Sanpete County-based business with a 100-year history. Jim Jones purchased the beekeeping business from a second-generation apiarist in 1999, and has grown it into a thriving company serving farmers and consumers throughout the mountain west and California.
Mountain Spring Honey Company specializes in providing pollination services for other agricultural companies, as well as extracting and selling raw honey both commercially and to the average consumer.
Jim is a third-generation beekeeper. His grandfather, Willard Stephenson, started an apiculture business in the 1930’s, and later sold the business to his son (Jim’s uncle). Jim started working for various beekeepers, including his uncle, while attending Utah State University. His love for apiary work grew. After earning a degree in business, Jim decided to pursue beekeeping full time. He has been a commercial beekeeper ever since. Mountain Spring Honey Company is still a family run business, just as it has been for generations. Jim is passionate about his bees, his family and this company. He truly cares for these amazing insects that provide us with over one-third of the food we eat, and you can taste the end-result in every ounce of honey his bees create and Mountain Spring Honey Company sells.
Pollination Services:
From a pollinating standpoint, Jim understands how to create highly-efficient hives for bees to work hectares of crops, assisting in earth’s best form of natural fertilization for the foods we eat, everything from almonds, to oranges, to alfalfa. This requires a solid knowledge-base in apiculture that can only be found in working and caring for bees as long as Jim and his family has done.
Taste the Difference:
At Mountain Spring Honey Company, consumers also taste the difference. Because Jim is passionate about so many aspects of beekeeping, he understands that good honey comes from a perfect blend of good, varying blossom nectars. He fields his bees in the perfect blend of alfalfa and wildflowers to create a depth of flavor not captured by the generic honeys sold on most grocery store shelves. Mountain Spring Honey Company only ever sells all-natural, raw honey, without additives, while ensuring the honey is not overheated during the extraction process, helping retain all the original nutrients you need to enjoy the health benefits of raw honey.
Honey Bee Facts:
Honey bees are super pollinators: thousands of bees work in one hive. A colony of bees is like a family, with three main categories of bees in a hive: the queen, the worker bees and the drones. All worker bees are female, while drones are males. Each bee begins its life as an egg. It follows a similar progression as a butterfly: egg to larva, larva to a pupa, pupa to adult honeybee. Adult honeybees advance through different jobs in the hive, from nurse bees to gathering bees.
Bees are responsible for pollination. They pollinate over one-third of the food that we eat. As a product of their hard work, honeybees also provide us with honey and beeswax.
Here are some fun websites to visit for more information on this subject:
https://www.natgeokids.com/au/discover/animals/insects/honey-bees/
https://www.abfnet.org/page/71
https://www.thoughtco.com/fascinating-facts-about-honey-bees-4165293
Honey facts:
Honey has long been highly regarded by people in history. It is known for its delicious taste, antiseptic properties, long shelf life, and health benefits.
Different types of honey are produced by bees according to the nectar they consume. Mountain Spring Honey Company honey is produced in Sanpete and Juab counties. It is mostly made from the alfalfa nectar, but also contains nectar from the various wildflowers which are so prevalent in these areas. Our honey is classified as “light amber” and has a deliciously sweet taste.
Raw honey has a long shelf life. Raw honey is not heated during extraction and has many health benefits. One property of raw honey is that it will crystalize. This means that it takes on a harder granulated look, which is actually honey’s natural state. Raw honey that has crystalized shows that it has not been heated, or overly processed. It is important to store honey in this more natural state so that it does not ferment.