Aruba’s Bee Haven is a small family business that began as a hobby and it has grown into a full-time business. It all started with Ruben Montilla doing beekeeping as a hobby. Rubert Montilla, his son, joined him to help him and fell immediately in love with the bees. During the pandemic when everything was shut down, it was the bees that kept family Montilla going. There was a high demand for honey and this kept them up float. It then became a family business. Around this time Rubert met his partner, Ivirgna Hernandez, selling honey and she fell in love with him and the bees. In 2021 Aruba’s Bee Haven was officially opened at the Chamber of Commerce.
Slowly we became known for our delicious honey and people became curious to know more about the bee world. There were many requests for us to do tours to teach people about the world of bees.
Our business name says it all; a safe haven for the bees. We want to protect the honey bees for it one of the most important pollinators. One of our jobs is doing bee removals. We take the bee hives safely down and take them to an apiary. We have several apiaries on the island. The apiaries are away from crowed places, in the beautiful “mondi’s” of Aruba where the bees can be safe and happy.
Besides selling honey and doing bee removals we make products with honey like: handmade soaps, candies, lip balm and propolis (medicinal use). We sell candles made with natural beeswax, beeswax for personal use, propolis and bee pollen. Other services we give are; lectures for children, tours at our main apiary (Cashero 7), beekeeping services, teaching beekeeping.