Queen Bee Gardens LLC

In a valley at the foot of the Rocky Mountains just east of Yellowstone National Park in northern Wyoming is a small farm where Clarence and Bessie Zeller raised their family of 3 sons and 3 daughters.To support the family, they produced honey. Honey like no other in the whole world! This honey is made by bees they call "Little Johnnies". Started from the wild bees Clarence's father took from the bee trees on the Shoshone River bottoms. Little Johnnies are mean, and they attack just for the fun of it. They just love to sting, but they gather the sweetest nectar which makes this special honey they call "The Nectar of the Gods".When the boys were grown, they each had to try their wings, and went out to see the world. The sting of the "Little Johnnies" was like the Pied Piper calling them back to the farm and their beloved bees.In 1976 they decided to make use of an old family recipe from Bessie's ancestors in Scotland and make honey candy for sale. They had made taffy as kids and had lots of fun stretching it. They had all the necessary ingredients for delicious candy-that special honey, the recipe, and the desire. But, would it work? More recipes were developed, and in 1979 they started making honey pecan pralines, now known as Pecan Pearls. This candy is so smooth it just melts in your mouth, with just enough pecans to make it chewy. It's a taste that defies description. The only thing to do is to try it. You'll love it. You'll also love the Honeymoons, Truffles, English Toffee and other mouthwatering confections they have added to their line since that long ago beginning.After we had been a company for 10 years or so, one of our sales reps said: "The Pecan Pearl would make a great center for a truffle." My grandmother looked at him and said: "What is a truffle?"We now have 22 different kinds of truffles and try a new one out with the public every year. While the family was at a food show in California in March of 1993 our factory burned to the ground. We moved into an abandoned facility in town, cleaned it up and made it work. We were told that we had 6 weeks to get product out the door again. It took us 7. I don't think I have ever seen someone go grey as fast as my dad did during that 7-week period. In 1995 we started entering our confections into contests to see if they were any good. We thought they were good but didn't know how we stacked up to competitors. Turns out, we were right! Our confections won every time we entered. At the last contest, other companies asked if the product in the contest was from Queen Bee or not. They were told it was and stated, I'm not entering against them, I can't win. We had to enter another one of our products to go up against our product so there could be a contest. After that they quit having the contest. We have come up with a lot of amazing products since then that I am sure would win, but I don't have a contest to enter them into. In 2003 we bought the abandoned building next to us and expanded into it. In 2010 we bought the building next to it and moved our storefront into that building in 2013. People can still come and buy candy but can no longer see the production happening as they do so.