The Tropical Blossom Honey Co., Inc. in Edgewater, Florida

In Edgewater Florida, there is the Tropical Blossom Honey Company, Inc., housing Florida's finest varieties of honey. This is the headquarters of the famous company, located on U.S.1 (106 N. Ridgewood Avenue) in Edgewater, just before the Edgewater Post Office, when heading south. This company has been in business since 1940, when David and Helen McGinnis first started. The company has remained multi-generational, having been passed onto their son and daughter, who are still active in the company.

I interviewed the original owner's daughter, and she talked with me about how her parents traveled all around the world for the American Beekeeping Federation and U.S. Agricultural Department, and the current state of the bee colonies, and how their numbers are dwindling in Florida, and nationwide.

She said that the current opinion over dwindling numbers deals with various hypothesis, including a possible bee "dementia". She said the bees are leaving the colony, becoming disoriented, and not knowing how to get back, though their deaths are questionable, since there aren't large numbers of dead bees around the hives. The babies and food are being left behind, and if this continues, it could adversely affect Florida and the nation's food supply, for without the bees, there is practically no pollination and vegetation.

This dwindling of the bees has affected her business, and beekeepers nationwide, but she remains optimistic, for current measures are underway to try to prevent this from getting worse, and to figure out what exactly has happened. Mites are only part of the bee problem, along with the weather having severely affected the cones as well. Deadly frosts do damage to bee cones, the ideal weather for honey being well into the spring and summer months, and this past season was indeed cold, with various cold fronts.

Tropical Blossom Honey Co., Inc. Original bee mascot!

Credit: Linda Stamberger

Copyright: Linda Stamberger