Filler Family Apiary and Farm

06/13/2025

Our honey will be used tonight at Hawkins Family Farm Pizza night. If you are looking for a fun unique outing this is the place to be. You do need to order your pizza before going.

🍕 Pizza nights are back! 🍕 Our first harvest special of the season features smoked turkey, garlic scapes, spinach, bok choy, and honey. Pre-order at the link in the comments!

06/06/2025

💃🐝 How Do Bees Talk to Each Other?
With dancing, scents, and vibrations—no buzzing group chat needed! 😄

Honeybees use the “waggle dance” to tell their sisters where to find food. The direction and length of the dance shows where the flowers are and how far to fly. 🌸🗺️

They also use pheromones (fancy chemical signals) to say things like:
👑 “The queen is healthy.”
🚨 “Danger nearby!”
🏠 “Here’s the way home!”

It’s like a secret bee language—and they’re masters at using it. 🐝✨ Nature is seriously impressive.

🐝

06/04/2025

🍯🐝 Do All Bees Make Honey?
Not quite! While there are over 20,000 species of bees worldwide, only a few actually make honey—and honeybees are the superstars of the bunch. 🌍✨

🧺 Honeybees (like the ones we keep on the farm) store nectar in their hives and turn it into honey to feed the colony year-round.

Most other bees—like bumblebees and solitary bees—don’t store extra food. They’re still amazing pollinators, but they don’t stock the pantry like honeybees do. 🍯

So next time you taste local honey, remember: it’s the sweet work of some very specialized bees!

🍯

06/02/2025

👑🐝 What Happens If the Queen Bee Dies?
No queen, no problem—at least not for long!

If the queen bee dies or disappears, the hive knows almost immediately. Her special pheromones stop spreading, and the workers jump into action. 💨

They choose a few young larvae and start feeding them royal jelly—a superfood that can turn an ordinary bee into a new queen! 👑✨

Within days, a new queen hatches, and the strongest one takes the throne. Long live the queen!

Bee hives are incredibly organized and resilient—nature’s royalty never skips a beat. 🐝💛

🐝

05/30/2025

🚶‍♀️🐝 How Far Do Bees Travel for Nectar?
Bees may be tiny, but they’re serious commuters! 💼🌸

A honeybee can fly up to 5 miles from the hive in search of nectar—but most keep it local, staying within 1–2 miles. That’s still a big journey when you're only half an inch long! 😮

In one day, a single bee might visit hundreds of flowers, helping pollinate gardens, farms, and wild spaces along the way. Talk about a hard-working neighbor!

Next time you see a bee, give a nod—they’re on a mission. 🐝💪

🐝

05/28/2025

😴 Do Bees Sleep? You Bet They Do! 🐝
Just like us, bees need rest to stay sharp—especially those hard-working foragers! 💤

At night (or during breaks), bees find a cozy spot in the hive, stop moving, and enter a restful state. Their antennae droop, and their little bodies go still. It’s bee nap time! 🛌✨

Sleep helps them remember flower locations and navigate better. So if you see a still bee, don’t worry—it might just be catching some Zzz’s. 😌

🐝

05/26/2025

🐝 How Many Bees Live in a Hive? 🤯
A strong honeybee hive in summer can have 50,000 to 60,000 bees—yes, really! 🏠✨

That includes:
👑 1 queen bee
💪 30,000+ worker bees (all female!)
🛏️ A few hundred lazy drones (the males)

Each bee has a job—nurses, guards, foragers, cleaners—and together, they run one of nature’s most efficient systems. It’s like a buzzing little city!

Next time you peek into a hive, remember: you're looking at an entire superorganism at work. 🐝💛

🐝

05/23/2025

🌼 Plant These for the Bees (Indiana Edition!) 🐝
Want to help pollinators thrive in your own backyard? These bee-loved plants grow beautifully right here in Indiana:

🌻 Black-eyed Susan
🌿 Bee Balm
🌸 Coneflower (Echinacea)
🌼 Goldenrod
🌱 Anise Hyssop
🌷 Milkweed (bonus: butterflies love it too!)
🌺 Wild Bergamot
🌾 Clover (white or red)

Native and pollinator-friendly plants not only feed the bees—they also bring your garden to life! 💛🌸

🛑 Avoid pesticides, plant in clusters, and choose blooms with staggered bloom times to keep the buffet going all season long!

🌸

05/21/2025

🐝 Why Do Bees Swarm? 🐝
It might look scary, but a swarm of bees is actually a sign of a healthy hive!

Swarming is how bees create new colonies. When their current hive gets too crowded, the queen and about half the workers leave to find a new home. It’s their way of saying, “Time to grow!”

✨ Fun Fact: Swarming bees are usually very gentle—they're focused on relocating, not stinging.

If you see a swarm, don’t panic. They’re just on the move! And if you're lucky enough to witness it—you're seeing nature’s magic in action. 🌸🐝

🐝

05/20/2025

Restocked at Soulweaveralchemy today!