Have you heard of honeybee wranglers and the honey honor system? That’s the lingo at Honey House in Silt, near exit 97 off I-70. This is truly a locals’ secret, as the unassuming shack holds hundreds of gallons of honey from throughout Western Colorado. While many pop-up shops are becoming trendy, the buzz at this hive has long been thriving.

Five decades ago, Paul Limbach’s family started the Honey House. He came from a family of beekeepers and attended CSU to become an entomologist. Later, returning to the Silt family operation, he was a worker bee and grew the hive and business.

Derrick Maness is also into bees. So much so, he’s one of the rare bee wranglers in Colorado. Limbach was his mentor and taught him the trade; the allure was never lost with Maness. He started at age 14 with Limbach, 27 years ago. Maness and his company, Colorado Mountain Honey, purchased the Honey House and Limbach’s family hives in 2022. Maness is now the owner of Silt’s Honey House.

With Maness’ new honey empire came 3,000 hives spread across 100 locations statewide, including the Roaring Fork Valley, Meeker and Hayden. However, these hives and their bees travel great distances via 18-wheelers.

“My beehives are on pallets to allow me to move them with a specialized forklift. I wait until January when it’s cold. Bees stay in their beehives to keep the hive warm,” explains Maness. “We use this to move them with the least amount of possible stress, because bees come in different sizes and produce different amounts of honey.”

These bees are so prized that they actually spend spring break in California and require a bee wrangler to ensure their safety and transport; that’s Maness.

Bees are business, and a very buzzed about business, because of imposter bees. Maness has European honeybee hives. This insect was brought to the Americas in the 1600s. When people began to irrigate the Roaring Fork and Colorado River Valley, the native insects weren’t able to handle the crops; therefore, the European honeybee was imported.

“I drive the bees to pollinate the Chowchilla almond orchards each year in California,” shares Maness. The location is about an hour away from Yosemite, where spring can occur six weeks earlier. By hauling bees from snowcovered Colorado to the sunny orchards, Maness is able to benefit both his hives and the almond orchards. “I take them to a food source to get stronger and help the farmers, and in turn, the spring feast for my bees makes bigger yields when they return to their Colorado hives.”

The nutrient-rich bees return to Colorado and get right back to work. Colorado Mountain Honey offers eight varieties of honey in the house: Trappers Lake fireweed and White River National Forest high altitude wildflower, Meeker to Hayden blend, dark amber wildflower, rabbitbrush honey and more.

The reason for so many varieties is because honey is hyper-localized per the hive, since honey is dependent on different flowers for pollination and flavor, and that is impacted by what can grow, where and at what elevation.

“Plants are putting roots in soils, and that’s what’s amazing about bees. They live off nectar and sugars from plants. Each plant has a chemical makeup, and bees are in tune with that,” says Maness. “The pollen is literally vitamins, keeping all the minerals right from the backyard, and that impacts flavors, since every area is different from one another because of the altitudes, weather systems, trade winds and more.”

The Honey House is an honor system operation and is open every day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. You are allowed to take what you want. Simply add the total, and leave cash or Venmo for your purchase. Aside from honey, there are other bee-based products that also operate on the honor system, including raw pollen and bee’s wax. The shack has enough room for a halfdozen people to comfortably explore the inside of Maness’ hive.

Originally published in the Fall 2023 issue of Spoke+Blossom.

Silt's Sweetest Shack: Dip Into The Honey House