Thompson Family Bee Farm

15/02/2022

It's always a little awkward to celebrate the day of someone's death, but regardless, Happy Saint Valentine's Day as we honor the patron saint of beekeepers!

19/05/2021

Happy World Bee Day! Here's some quick tips to help you help the bees in your own backyard.

12/04/2021

The girls are bringing pollen into the hives and the queens are laying eggs. Who else is happy to see spring in full bloom?

07/04/2021

Dandelions are vitally important nutrients for bees and other pollinators as they emerge from their winter "hibernations". Please don't spray them; monoculture lawns are bad for the environment.

20/09/2020

This is an orientation flight - young bees leaving the hive for the first time spend the first afternoon flying in front of the hive to get a good look at it to help them find home when they fly further out in the future.

17/09/2020

A day working from home means that I get to spend lunch break in the bee yard. With cicadas, apparently...

10/09/2020

I really like the look of business cards and jute twine as rudimentary labels.

20/08/2020

Gearing up for the fall harvest.

31/07/2020

Honeybees working the raspberry bushes.
Everyone enjoys a cool summer morning, even the bees.

06/07/2020

🍯 🐝 🍯 🐝 🍯
Both of the hives that were left queenless by their splits now have good clusters of queen cells, so they are well on their way to making themselves queenright.
This will be our first time with more than three hives. We're excited for the future!
🍯 🐝 🍯 🐝 🍯

03/07/2020

After the second split of the season, we now have 4 hives in the bee yard. Not a lot of activity at the entrance because they're mostly at the internal feeder.
Everyone say hi to the new Yoda Colony!

26/05/2020

Honeybee education time!
Volume up!
Like and share our page to help us with our mission of education.

25/05/2020

This is a solar wax melter. It's a simple way to process beeswax into a more condensed and useful product. It's just a wooden box painted black with a glass lid.
After 30 minutes in the sun in 80° weather, and it's already 190° inside.

25/05/2020

A tradition as old as beekeeping itself dictates that a beekeeper must keep his bees informed of all major life changes, lest he risk the bees leaving the hives for a friendlier beekeeper. One year ago today, Chris informed our bees of the Thompson Family wedding in this way...
Happy anniversary to Chris and Emily Thompson!

21/05/2020

Ain't no party like a drinking party.

20/05/2020

Happy World Bee Day!

May 20 is World Bee Day in celebration of the 1734 birth of Anton Janša, considered to be the pioneer of beekeeping. It's a chilly and overcast day, but it's still business as usual at the Thompson Family Bee Farm!

14/05/2020

The girls took shelter during today's storm, but they got right back to work when the skies cleared.

11/05/2020

The hydration station seems to be getting more popular by the day!

03/05/2020

This is popping up in the news again, so I thought I'd throw in my perspective as a beekeeper.
This guys are scary, but let's keep the fearmongering under control. Last fall, the exact same thing happened in Washington state, and a group of beekeepers found the only nest and destroyed it before it spread. Now, it appears that a new case has shown up. Researchers and beekeepers are again trying to track it down and solve it before they spread.
Secondly, please don't confuse these with the so-called Cicada Killers that are so prevalent around here. Cicada Killers are massive and look terrifying, but they're not aggressive unless you're a cicada. I mean, don't grab them out of the air, but don't panic.

A new invasive species of giant hornets from Asia has been discovered in the Washington state area, and scientists are now rushing to locate the destructive insects to exterminate them before they spread throughout the United States and become impossible to eradicate. The hornet, called the Asian Gi...

26/04/2020

The ladies seem to like the new watering station.

20/04/2020

More unwelcome health advice?

18/04/2020

Dandelions provide some of the first food sources for pollinators, including honeybees, every spring. Please don't spray them!

11/04/2020

Honeybee education time!
This is dry propolis,a kind of organic "glue" that bees produce. Bees use propolis in the same way that men use duct tape - if moves and shouldn't, propolize it; if there's a hole where there shouldn't be, propolize it. The problem is that bees and beekeepers disagree on a lot of those "should"s and "shouldn't"s - it's the reason that we have to use a hive tool to pry open a beehive. In the wild, feral honeybee colonies also use it to line the walls of the tree cavity they inhabit to help keep out other critters. Some people believe that consuming propolis has health benefits, but I can't say that I've tried that yet.

11/04/2020

🍯 🐝 🍯 🐝 🍯
A weekend with a stay-at-home order seems like a good time to clean up beekeeping equipment. Stay healthy, everyone!
🍯 🐝 🍯 🐝 🍯

30/03/2020

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Going into our second year of beekeeping, we decided to try something new. Today I set up a swarm trap on family property on the edge of a large wooded area. With any luck, we'll catch a swarm cast off from a feral hive this spring.
🍯 🐝 🍯 🐝 🍯

25/03/2020

Did you know?
Many managed beehives in Africa were started when farmers discovered that wild elephants are afraid of bees, and the sound of beehives kept them away from their crops while also providing another crop in the form of honey.

21/03/2020

Earlier this week, an English bee farm set up to research ways to combat the varroa mite, the greatest threat to honeybee colonies today, was destroyed by vandals. This senseless act of violence benefits nobody.

I feel that destruction like this, as well as government and HOA policies against the keeping of honeybees, are all a product of a lack of education on the topic. Honeybees are not aggressive and do not represent a credible danger to people.

That is the main reason for this page: to spread this kind of education while also promoting a small family bee farm.

Veteran bee enthusiast Ron Hoskins says he hopes whoever was behind the vandalism got stung.

17/03/2020

A Comprehensive Guide to Yellow Stripey Things.

Check before you spray!

15/03/2020

Throwback to Christmas 2019.

15/03/2020

With spring just around the corner for most of us, remember...

15/03/2020

15/03/2020