Ferrell Honey and Beekeeping

02/25/2026

It's almost that time of year! Bless you! 🤧

Pollen season is here! While I know it's not your favorite time of year, it is one of mine and these girls! She's got it all packed in her pollen basket!

10/14/2025

This was last year when I had a "pumpkin patch".

10/22/2024

💀The bees were bred specifically for Bernard Rose's 1992 horror . They needed to make sure that the bees were only twelve hours old, so that they looked like mature bees, but their stinger wouldn't be powerful enough to do any real damage. In addition to allowing the filmmakers to cover his face with bees, actor Tony Todd actually agreed to film a scene in which he had a mouthful of bees--and that, too, was all real.
In a later interview with TMZ, he recalled wearing a dental dam to prevent any bees from sliding into his throat, but was stung around 23 times whilst shooting. However, Todd managed to negotiate a bonus of $1,000 per sting telling TMZ "I had a great lawyer." 🐝

03/22/2024

The first swarm of the season.

03/13/2024

Pollen season is here! While I know it's not your favorite time of year, it is one of mine and these girls! She's got it all packed in her pollen basket!

02/01/2024

Not sure who has been enjoying the sunshine more, me or these girls. If you've ever had cabin fever, I imagine these girls get it too! They stay in survival mode during the winter. They huddle up, try to stay warm and try to get along with each other, lol. But when the temperature is right, they'll come out for some fresh air, pollen and any other resources they can find as well as get a little cleaned up. I'm just glad they all didn't freeze during Snowmageddon 2024.

05/23/2023

🐝💛

Did you know?🧐 Honey making is a process!

We also had a question about what the bees do with pollen they collect. They eat it! It’s chock full of amino acids and proteins. It’s mostly fed to the larvae. 🐝

05/02/2023

🐝💛🖤

04/28/2023

After we shook the bees off the branch, some returned to it because the queen's pheromones were there. We snipped it off and put it at the hive entrance. They immediately rushed in to her. They knew that was their new home!

04/28/2023

Swarm #2 of the season! We shook them from the branch and snipped a few branches they were returning to.

04/20/2023

The first swarm of the season and it was from our own hive, unfortunately. When this happens, the bees load themselves up with honey and move out and the queen goes with them. They don't like their current living conditions and want to relocate. 😆 Thankfully, they just moved to a little tree nearby. We put a box below the tree and shook them off the limb. In one of the pictures, you can see the bees fanning to let the other bees know the queen was inside. It's the one with their butts in the air, that's fanning!

Before they relocate they make queen cells so their old roommates aren't left without a queen. They are the things that look like peanuts. 🥜👑🐝 And they make multiple queen cells so their chances of a good queen are higher. This is a good opportunity to split a hive or in our case, give to the needy. We acquired some hives at our house that were queenless so we gave them a few frames with queen cells to hopefully, start their hive again. While we don't like our honey being reduced, at least we can give to our other hives and hopefully make a good situation out of our own swarm.

And if you look, you can see the royal jelly in a cell which is what makes a queen. 👑

04/15/2023

🖤💛 Love that kids are learning about the bees!