TIFTON — Success is sweet, especially when your business is honey.

Weeks Honey Farm in Omega was held up a success story for the Small Business Administration and United States Department of Agriculture’s program.

Representatives and officials from the SBA and the USDA were visiting South Georgia for a SBA “Rural Strong” workshop. Rural Strong is a joint SBA and USDA program to connect programs, services and resources to people who have or want to start a small business.

The workshop was Apr. 12 at the Georgia Museum of Agriculture.

They stopped in for a tour of Weeks Honey Farm, which utilized the SBA and USDA’s resources to grow the business.

Company President Ray Crosby said that when he was looking to grow his business, he was unable to secure loans via typical lending institutions. He was directed to the SBA and USDA small business programs, which helped him secure funding.

The farm both harvests their own local honey and bottles honey from other small-time beekeepers.

“What makes us different than a lot of packers is we do not source any honey from any broker, from any corporation,” he said. “We get it only directly from other beekeepers. Those bee keepers enjoy selling to us because the honey is maintained in it’s original state. A lot of other bigger companies have other things in mind they want to do before the honey goes on the shelf. With this, they take pride knowing that what they worked so hard for is on the shelf.”

Crosby said that the farm only buys American honey. Imported honey is less expensive, but, Crosby said, it’s not about the money.

“For me, this thing is more about God, my family and a lot of other things than it is about money,” he said.

The family business has been running for 59 years through four generations. It began with two hives kept as a hobby and grew to where it is now: 5,000 hives and products sold nationwide.

Crosby toured visitors through the packing room and storage facility. Still a small outfit, the business is run and staffed by family and a handful of employees.

Crosby said he is adamant that they do things in a hands-on way, which means that the bottled honey is the same as what is harvested from the hives, something large-scale packers aren’t able to do.

Each bottle or packet of honey straws has “Made in the USA” on it, as well as a scripture from Proverbs 16:24, which was made part of the packaging after Crosby’s father passed away.

Crosby said that many people eat honey for medicinal reasons, to help with allergies, congestion and other seasonal issues. Crosby said that honey is a source of all natural energy and is a healthy snack for anyone over age one.