We Made the List: Mitchem Bee Company Named a 2026 CO—100 Honoree
There is big news buzzing around Mitchem Bee Company: we have been named a 2026 CO—100 Honoree by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and CO—, its digital platform for small businesses.
Out of more than 12,000 applicants nationwide, Mitchem Bee Company was selected as one of America’s top 100 small businesses. We were also recognized as a Growth Accelerator, a CO—100 category honoring businesses that use innovative and effective strategies to achieve meaningful growth through areas such as marketing, product innovation, and customer service.
We are proud. We are grateful. And, just as importantly, we're still focused on the work that got us here: caring for healthy hives, sharing exceptional Florida honey, supporting our customers, and protecting the pollinators that make it all possible.
A National Honor Rooted in Florida
Here's the excerpt: "Mitchem Bee Company is a small, family-owned beekeeping business based in Leesburg, Florida. Our story began in 2023, when founder Jake Mitchem took over Riverview Apiaries from his uncle and mentor, Scott Irving.
Scott brought three decades of beekeeping wisdom to the operation. Jake has carried that knowledge forward while building the Mitchem Bee Company brand around a clear purpose: produce honest, high-quality honey while helping people understand and protect the natural world around them.
Jake is a lifelong Floridian with a degree in Food & Resource Economics. His agricultural background and love of the outdoors guide the way he approaches every part of the business: from hive management and habitat conservation to customer education and product development.
He is supported every step of the way by his wife, Megan, and their young son, Gator. That family support is part of the heart behind the business. When you order from Mitchem Bee Company, you are not ordering from a faceless corporation. You are supporting a family, a local operation, and a long-term commitment to responsible beekeeping."
What It Means to Be a Growth Accelerator
The CO—100 recognizes 100 of the best and brightest small and mid-sized businesses in America. Honorees represent businesses from across the country and a wide range of industries, all demonstrating innovation, resilience, community impact, and a commitment to growth.
The Growth Accelerators category celebrates businesses that have developed creative and effective strategies to move forward.
For Mitchem Bee Company, that growth has come from staying true to what matters:
- Offering raw, unfiltered honey that is never heated or unnecessarily processed
- Sharing single-origin honey from specific floral sources, including Florida Wildflower, Orange Blossom, Tupelo, and Saw Palmetto
- Serving customers with Southern hospitality
- Expanding educational efforts around bees, honey, and pollinator protection
- Rescuing hives and helping homeowners better understand honey bees
- Developing products that celebrate the hive, including chunk honey, bee pollen, lip salve, and other hive-inspired goods
- Building trust through transparency, consistency, and personal service
Growth does not mean losing your identity. In our case, it means finding more ways to share the Mitchem Difference with more people.
That means helping a customer choose between a bright, citrusy Orange Blossom honey and a deeper, more complex Wildflower honey. It means explaining why raw honey may naturally crystallize. It means answering questions about bees, hives, flowers, and sustainable stewardship.
It also means making it easier for families across the country to enjoy raw honey from Florida and our other 100% USA-made single-origin varietals while supporting a small American business.
Quality That Starts With the Bees
Recognition is exciting, but the foundation of Mitchem Bee Company has never changed.
Our honey is 100% Made in the USA, raw, unfiltered, and single-origin. Each varietal reflects the floral sources available to our bees and the landscapes where our hives are placed.
Unlike heavily processed honey products that may be blended from multiple sources, our goal is to preserve the distinctive character of each harvest. Florida Orange Blossom honey offers a bright floral sweetness. Wildflower honey captures the changing character of the season. Tupelo honey is prized for its smooth, distinctive flavor.
Every bottle represents the work of thousands of bees, careful hive management, and hands-on harvesting.
If you are searching for the best honey in Florida, start with the source. Look for honey that tells you where it came from, how it was handled, and who stands behind it. Explore our raw honey collection, or compare favorite varietals with our 2-ounce raw honey sampler.
A Business Built Around Stewardship
Our work goes beyond bottling honey.
Beekeeping is a responsibility. Healthy hives need suitable forage, clean water, thoughtful management, and a safe environment. Honey bees also need the support of homeowners, gardeners, farmers, and communities.
That is why we continue to champion a simple philosophy: Mow less. Plant more. Don’t spray.
This message is easy to remember and powerful in practice.
When you mow less, you give flowering plants more time to provide food for bees and other pollinators. When you plant more, you create additional habitat. When you don’t spray unnecessarily, you help reduce risks to the insects that keep ecosystems and food systems healthy. This is particularly true in spring and fall, as "dead" foliage acts as both habitat and food for the next generation of pollinators.
Through hive rescues and homeowner education, we help people understand that a swarm or hive does not always need to be destroyed. Often, the right answer is safe, responsible relocation. A little knowledge can make a meaningful difference.
This is the message we are honored to carry onto a national stage.
Next Stop: Washington, D.C.
From October 19–21, the honorees who are able will travel to Washington, D.C., for premier CO—100 events at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce headquarters.
The experience will include a VIP opportunity, networking with fellow honorees, and access to the CO—100 Small Business Forum, which brings together small-business leaders for growth strategies, expert insights, founder stories, and meaningful connections.
Unfortunately, we'll be unable to make it, as we'll be hosting a booth at the Waynesville, NC Apple Harvest Fest, which we're very excited about!
At the awards dinner, 10 businesses will be recognized across 10 categories, with one company ultimately named the CO—100 Top Business of 2026.
We are honored to be part of that room, albeit in spirit only, alongside business owners from across America. But we will also be carrying our community with us: the customers who have ordered a bottle of honey, shared a recipe, visited us at an event, recommended our products, asked questions about bees, or simply believed in what we are building.
Thank You for Helping Us Get Here
This recognition belongs to more than one person.
It belongs to our bees, whose work makes every jar possible. It belongs to Scott Irving, whose mentorship helped lay the foundation. It belongs to Jake’s family, especially Megan and Gator, for supporting the long days and big dreams behind a growing small business.
It belongs to our customers and community, too.
Your support allows us to keep producing raw unfiltered honey, rescuing hives, educating homeowners, caring for habitat, and sharing the story of responsible beekeeping. Every order helps us continue doing business in a way that values quality over quantity and long-term stewardship over shortcuts.
You can read our official Mitchem Bee Company profile from CO— or explore the 2026 CO—100 honoree list.
From our family to yours, thank you for helping Mitchem Bee Company grow. We are proud to represent Florida, proud to support American-made food, and proud to keep spreading the message that protects the future of our hives:
Mow less. Plant more. Don’t spray.
And if you would like to taste the Mitchem Difference for yourself, we would be honored to share a bottle with you.