Barkman Honey LLC

Barkman Honey is a fourth-generation, beekeeper-owned family business headquartered in Artesian, South Dakota, with roots stretching back to the 1920s. Founded formally in 1960 by Esra and Richard Barkman, the company has grown from a humble Kansas family tradition — born during World War II when sugar was rationed — into one of the more established honey producers and brands in the United States. The company maintains a deep operational and philosophical commitment to honeybee stewardship, ethical sourcing, and product quality, positioning itself as both a honey supplier and an active advocate for bee health and habitat preservation. Barkman Honey operates its own apiaries through Barkman Apiaries and maintains beekeeper partnerships across the United States, ensuring a vertically integrated supply chain rooted in transparency and traceability. Customers and retail partners can trace products down to the specific bees and pollinator flowers that produced them, a differentiator the company markets as 'Truly Transparent. Truly Traceable.' The company markets honey under several distinct consumer brands. Its flagship brand, Busy Bee, has been in market since the company's founding and focuses on raw honey with full supply chain traceability. Bee Harmony Honey is positioned as a premium offering, featuring hand-selected batches sourced from beekeepers using responsible practices and subject to careful tasting and testing protocols. Additional product lines include classic bear-bottle formats and bulk honey options, giving the company reach across retail, foodservice, and industrial channels. Barkman Honey's product portfolio spans raw honey, traceable single-source honey, and bulk honey, catering to quality-focused retail buyers, private label customers, and CPG brands seeking ethically sourced sweetener ingredients. The company places strong emphasis on product integrity, promising that its honey remains unadulterated and sourced only through trusted beekeeper relationships that align with its quality standards. Beyond commercial operations, Barkman Honey invests meaningfully in the broader beekeeping ecosystem. The company sponsors bee health research programs in partnership with Cornell University and the University of Florida, supports habitat conservation through organizations such as The Bee and Butterfly Habitat Fund and Project Apis m., and runs consumer education initiatives through its dedicated platform Beesponsible.com. These efforts reflect a corporate identity that extends well beyond honey processing into industry stewardship and beekeeper recruitment. With over six decades of continuous operation and a supply network spanning multiple U.S. states, Barkman Honey serves as a reliable, values-driven supplier for buyers seeking domestically rooted, traceable honey products across retail and bulk formats.