Honeybees (Apis mellifera) and native bee species have ecological, economic, social, and cultural importance to smallholder coffee farmers. While the ecological contributions of bees to the sustainability of coffee systems are well documented, particularly in relation to the coffee crop, fewer studies have examined socio-economic dimensions of beekeeping for honey as an agroecological diversification strategy for coffee producers. Yet, understanding the multiple values of different diversification strategies is important as many coffee farmers in different parts of the world are finding it increasingly difficult to make a living on coffee alone and are adopting alternative strategies, such as on-farm diversification. In this Participatory Action Research (PAR) study, we examined the opportunities, limitations, and trade-offs of beekeeping (with A. mellifera) as an agroecological diversification option for smallholder coffee farmers in Chiapas, Mexico. We applied a mixed-methods approach, which consisted of monthly surveys with 25 beekeepers of Campesinos Ecológicos de la Sierra Madre de Chiapas (CESMACH)/Apicultores Miel Real del Triunfo (ART) producer cooperatives for 12 months and five focus groups between 2018 and 2019. We found that beekeeping is less labor-intensive than coffee, and there are opportunities to integrate beekeeping into the annual farming cycle of coffee and maize production without causing competing labor demands or additional time pressures. We also found that beekeeping could generate economic gains for peasant families; however, profitability hinged on various factors, such as the price for honey, yield per hive, and the number of beehives. Our results further show that beekeeping yielded multiple non-monetary benefits by contributing to the nutrition and health of farmer families and their communities, serving as a vehicle for horizontal learning and relationship building, and contributing to the emotional well-being of beekeepers. Finally, producers who hoped to gain economically from beekeeping were generally interested in growing their apiaries but expressed concerns about limited technical knowledge and the impacts of climate change. Given the multiple social, economic, and ecological benefits of beekeeping, it has great promise as a part of agroecological food and farming systems. We argue that efforts to promote beekeeping as a diversification strategy should take a holistic approach, underscoring the potential of apiculture to enhance the well-being and resilience of beekeeping families and strengthen food sovereignty and local economies (including solidarity economies) in peasant communities. These findings can be useful in supporting beekeepers and their organizations in strategic planning for enhancing the long-term sustainability of beekeeping.