PALMETTO, Fla. — In a field in Palmetto, an intense buzzing is easily heard — and nearby, surrounded by white boxes filled with bees, Matt and Allison Davis stand in beekeeper outfits.  

“That is the queen," said Allison, pointing to one bee surrounded by thousands of others. “She is right here, she has got a little speck of paint on her.”

The pair are cleaning up the hives, and collecting some of the crates filled with honey. 

What You Need To Know

  • Matt and Allison Davis are owners of a bee business called Noble Nectar

  • The couple have tried to avoid increasing their costs for their products, but ultimately had to do it because of inflation 

  • Despite the rising inflation, the couple says they try to remain optimistic as their business grows

“It’s honey, that is all honey," said Matt. 

From bee removal to beekeeping to harvesting honey, their work is non-stop. 

"We can get about 40 pounds of honey extracted from a box this size," said Matt. 

They started their bee business, Noble Nectar, back in 2016. They quit jobs they liked so they could do a job they love. 

The truth is, they say, it's more than just a business — they find peace and inspiration from being with the bees. 

“It’s like a well-oiled machine basically, how they work in the hive," said Allison. "Everybody has a job, everybody does their part to make sure that they survive. It would be amazing if people could work like bees do.” 

She smiles to herself under the beekeepers mask and says things are good for this business, other than the high inflation they're dealing with right now. 

“We were really, really hoping that they were going to come back down, and we were putting it off trying not to raise the prices, because we understand all of this has been hard on everyone," said Matt. "And we just couldn’t do it any more, we had to bump our prices a little bit."

Even in the honey game, they said the trickle down from inflation is real and sticky. 

“We actually, every year selling more and more honey," Allison said with a shrug. "We have had to raise our prices just a tad just to kind of keep up with things, we held off as long as we could but, you know."

They couldn't avoid increasing their prices, and bottles were just one of many costs they had seen double. 

“Some of the regular places we were ordering our bottles from, the prices went up immensely," said Allison. 

Label and sticker prices are up as well and they say their delivery service is harder because gas is more expensive. 

"It’s hurting us financially right now for sure with the gas prices," said Matt. "They are starting to trickle down a little bit, so that has been helpful, but it’s still a lot higher than it was."

Thankfully, they do have more customers than ever before, but with inflation, they say that success feels less rewarding. 

“It doesn’t feel like it's more because everything costs more now," said Allison. "So we are still kind of in the same place and we should be ahead of the game at this point."

But like true worker bees, this pair said they are not giving up. 

“We are all paying for it in some way or another," said Allison.