OUR BEGINNINGS

Our great-grandfather, Earl Rulison, began keeping bees in 1893. He showed an early interest in honey bees when one day he found a swarm and came home and told his mother. She encouraged him to try to hive the swarm, and in God's providence, he was successful.  Starting with a few hives of bees on the family farm near Minaville, NY, he began selling his honey to the local community.

Earl passed the business on to two of his sons, Howard and John, who each had a son, Mark and Gary, that continued Rulison Honey Farms into the third generation.    

MEET OUR BEEKEEPERS

Now, over 125 years later, the 4th generation of beekeepers in our family are still keeping bees at the same location. Rulison Honey Farms remains a  family business, owned and operated by Mark Rulison, sons Matthew and Ben Rulison along with beekeepers, TJ Stears and Don Overbaugh. 

​For the last two decades keeping bees alive has been a challenge for beekeepers because of mites, viruses, and many new chemical products that are being used in agriculture. We too have experienced these problems but we know the value of bees for pollination and our environment and we continue to work to keep our bees healthy so that we can supply you with nature’s finest sweetener --nectar from the flowers.

We are proud to continue the tradition of producing the finest local honey in the Mohawk and Hudson Valley regions of New York State, throughout which we have more than 2000 hives situated in over 40 locations.    Our family farm is committed to the responsible stewardship of one of our world's most valuable resources: honey bees.