Business History

The Draper family has always been self-sufficient. The year was 1974 when Bernie Draper, the father, (now in heaven) had a dream of establishing a honey handling and bee supply business in Pennsylvania. It all began with one hive then Bernie's son, Bill and grandson Royal had increased bee-hive colony numbers to around 1,000, producing annually from 60,000 to 110,000 pounds of honey. But today we have scaled down to only 240 hives simply because the demand for high quality U.S.A. produced bee products keeps us so busy that we hardly have time to go out and work the hives not to mention it is increasingly hard to find good help. We hope as the 4th generation gets older that we can count on them to help us out, we then may then be able to increase the colony numbers back up to around 1000 hives.

We ship anywhere in the U.S.A. and have shipped as far as Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Sweden. Draper's honey products are delivered by our own vans from Portland, ME to Clearwater, FL to Indianapolis, IN.

ABC's "Good Morning America" featured Draper's as well as both local TV stations. They sponsor drug awareness on the radio and are active in the promotion of tourism in Tioga County, Pa. Personal contact with the Draper family is to be remembered. If you want to stop by and talk, then by all means do so. The customer is first at Draper's. (taken from an article in the local paper)

We welcome you to tour our facility. We have had tourist
groups from Russia, Egypt, and many other countries. We
can accommodate any size group but we prefer a call in
advance for larger groups.
Our hours are Monday through Friday 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
Saturday 8:00 am to 1:00 pm and closed Sundays.

Shop and browse at your leisure. We accept cash,
American Express, Visa, MasterCard, Discover Card, and checks.

As designated by the map, we are located close to the New York State
border on Route 328. Seven miles from the junction of Route 287 you
will see blue and white state road signs directing you to our place.

Update 05/22/09

The new Route 15 is open and none of the online maps show the new road.

To get to us from Route 15 North, travel past Mansfield, PA, take the exit for Route 287 at the end of the exit ramp turn right onto Route 287 continue North until you come to the junction of Route 328 (red light), turn right onto Route 328 East, continue on for approximately 7 miles. You will see out blue and white state sign directing you to take the next left turn.

If you are traveling on Route 15 South from New York State, you can take the Lawrenceville exit (Route 49) at the end of the exit ramp; turn left once you get to the red light turn right onto Route 287 South. Continue South until you come to the junction of Route 328 (red light), turn left onto Route 328 East, continue on for approximately 7 miles. You will see out blue and white state sign directing you to take the next left turn.

For all of you GPS users out there we located on Hudson Hill Road even though our
physical address is 32 Avonlea Lane it won't show up on your system yet as it is a
new 911 address. Once you are on Hudson Hill Road you can't miss us!

If you are just passing through,
stop by and visit
- but a word of caution -
you may catch the bee fever yourself!