Beekeeping became an industry in Florida in the 1870s and
reached its peak a century later, cultivating more than 360,000
colonies and ranking first in the nation in honey production,
according to the Florida State Beekeepers Association. Although
the discovery of two types of mites in the 1980s led to a
nationwide decline in beekeeping, roughly 250,000 colonies still
exist in Florida, and the state remains in the top five in honey
production, the association says. About 14,000 of those hives
belong to Wendy Goldstone and Richard Spinale, a beekeeper of
more than 30 years, who together established the Bee Unique
store on South Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach. In addition to
dozens of specialty honey- and wax-based products, from sauces
to candles, they curate six kinds of signature raw honey:
clover, wildflower, saw palmetto, cinnamon and Florida’s world-
known orange blossom and tupelo honeys. All-natural, unprocessed
and collected straight from the hive, raw honey is said to
contain a number of health benef