Local Beekeeper Creates Thriving Agricultural Business in Northern Lafourche

It’s often been said, the most important skill of a successful entrepreneur is the ability to find hidden opportunities normal people see and pass by every day. Local beekeeper Eric Boudreaux is just that sort of entrepreneur – he was inspired to start his own business, Boudreaux’s Backyard Bees and Honey, after something as simple as a visit to his local store. 

Boudreaux, 42, is a Lafourche Parish native, having lived in the Choupic area all his life. 

Only two years ago, Boudreaux found himself searching for sideline business ideas, with a focus on out-of-the-ordinary businesses that lacked a significant amount of local competition. 

“I wanted to do something different that not many people do, and I wanted to make side money where I wouldn’t have a lot of people doing the same thing,” Boudreaux explained.

One day after a visit to a local retail store, his wife encouraged him to sample honey she’d just bought that she felt was particularly tasty. His wife’s honey purchase sparked his curiosity in how honey was produced. With the idea of making an even better tasting local honey of his own, Boudreaux’s early research eventually led him to the local Cajun Beekeepers of South Louisiana, a local Lafourche-Terrebonne Parish area beekeepers association. 

Shortly after meeting members of the local beekeepers’ group, he found a willing mentor to help guide his journey to becoming a beekeeper. With that connection in place, Boudreaux began work on building his own apiary, which is a collection of beehives. Boudreaux soon discovered his home in Choupic was an ideal spot to build an apiary, as the local geography provided favorable conditions. 

The unique flavor of each beekeeper’s honey comes from the types of pollen, blooms and plants that surround the hive, since the bees gather that pollen nearby to create honey. Boudreaux’s Backyard Bees and Honey happens to be in Northern Lafourche, a rural area known primarily for its rich farmland and agriculture. His apiary location is surrounded by blooming trees of all types, vegetation, farms, and crops in every direction – a perfect environment for beekeeping.

“Everyone that tries my honey says it’s the best honey around,” he said. “Where I’m [located], there is so much [vegetation] and blooms; so many different types of trees, and all of the honey is flavored by the pollen they’re bringing in.” 

Boudreaux says his beekeeping business has become a boon not only to his income, but to his parents’ vegetable garden as well. His parents are his next-door neighbors – avid gardeners who have kept a vegetable garden over the years with varying success. Having a local beehive to actively pollinate their plants has helped their garden thrive well beyond anyone’s expectations.  

“Before I started beekeeping, it was hard for them to produce for example cucumbers, because a cucumber has to get pollinated,” he explained. “Since I started beekeeping, their garden produces so many vegetables – it’s ridiculous.” 

Beyond selling locally produced honey, Boudreaux’s entrepreneurial spirit has led him to offer his own line of lip balms in several flavors, hand lotions, along with fresh creamed honey. Creamed honey is processed to control honey crystallization, and typically has a smooth, spreadable consistency – ideal as a sweetener or for spreading over toast, crackers and other treats. 

Boudreaux reports that each batch of his products normally sells out quickly, with Facebook being his primary marketing channel. 

The Choupic beekeeper says he hopes to eventually expand into even more product lines in the coming years, including something called a nucleus hive, which is a small honeybee colony created from larger colonies. Nucleus hives are typically sold to other beekeepers seeking to start or expand the size of their colonies. 

To learn more about Eric Boudreaux and his local beekeeping and honey business, visit his YouTube channel or Facebook page online under his business’ name, Boudreaux’s Backyard Bees and Honey.