Kickapoo Honey

Blue River, Wisconsin | 21.7 miles

VFC has a long standing partnership with Kickapoo Honey. We began purchasing and selling their honey in 2001 and they are now our primary honey supplier. As spring brings warmer weather and plenty of flowers, we thought it was a natural choice to share the story of who is behind sweet and local Kickapoo Honey.

Kickapoo Honey is owned and run by Tim McDonald and Diane Roy. This husband and wife team began their foray in beekeeping about 20 years ago near Portage, Wisconsin. At that time, Tim had a close friend who was an avid bee keeper. On a serendipitous day, Tim’s friend talked him into keeping a bee colony at his home. From that time, Tim’s love of bees took off. As the years passed by, one colony grew to two, and two colonies grew to 40. For the last 15 years, Tim has worked full time beekeeping and running Kickapoo Honey and his partner, Diane, who has a full time job off the farm, spends her spare time and vacation time helping with their operation. Now they keep around 250 honey producing colonies and around 150 nucleus or replacement colonies of bees. Their bee colonies are located from Richland Center to Prairie du Chien, in orchards and on private land owned by many of their generous friends. All their colonies are located within a 75 mile driving loop of their farm outside of Blue River, Wisconsin.

In an average year, Kickapoo Honey produces between 30-40 fifty-five gallon drums of honey, which is about 19,500-26,000 pounds! Tim and Diane package, market, and distribute their honey to food stores from Madison, Wisconsin to La Crescent, Minnesota. They feel honored to produce local and clean honey for folks in their community.

Next time you visit the VFC, pick up some Kickapoo Honey from the bulk section or our honey section in aisle #2. When you purchase Kickapoo Honey, you can be assured that your purchase supports a wonderful local small family business.