Honey Haus Farm is a small, family-run apiary located just outside Salem, Missouri, in the heart of Dent County. Owner and beekeeper, Christina Thompson, continues a cherished family legacy begun by her grandfather, Clair Floyd, who kept bees on the very same farm and was well known for producing and selling Floyd’s Honey.

Inspired by his passion, Christina and her husband, Jeff, founded Honey Haus Farm in 2018. Today, they work diligently to raise chemical-free hives and craft a variety of raw honey, wax-based products such as lip balms and soothing balms, as well as small-batch homemade jams and apple butter.

Rooted in tradition and dedicated to quality, Honey Haus Farm is proud to share pure, natural products made with care—straight from their hives and homestead to you.

Fun Facts about Bees and Beekeeping:

• Beekeeping is one of the world's oldest professions, with depictions dating back to 900 BC.  

• Honey never spoils, is antimicrobial, and is full of a variety of vitamins and essential minerals, antioxidants, and amino acids. It is a mixture of simple sugars glucose and fructose.  Studies have even shown that this works best in preventing fatigue and enhancing the performance of athletes. 

• A pot of honey was found in good condition in King Tut's tomb and mead (honey wine) is one of the oldest fermented beverages. 

• Bees have five eyes, see ultraviolet light, and are one of the few thermogenic insects and can use this superpower to literally cook intruders.  They are also the only insect that produces food for humans.

• An average hive has 50,000 to 60,000 worker bees.  There are several jobs in a hive, based on the age of the bee - a system called "temporal polyethism".  The jobs include roles like cleaners, nurses, guards, foragers, and even undertaker bees.

• All worker bees are female.  Drones, male bees, are only produced during mating season and are evicted from the hive at the end of the season.  

• The queen bee lays between 1,000 and 6,000 eggs every single day and all larva are fed royal jelly for the first few days after hatching into larva, workers then get fed honey and pollen by nurse bees.  A hive with a properly laying queen is called "queenright".

• If a hive becomes queenless they can rear their own queen if they have eggs that are less than three days old. New queens are made from larva being fed exclusively royal jelly throughout their entire development.  

• Only female bees have stingers.  Worker bees can only sting once and then they die but a queen can sting multiple times if provoked.  

• Bees are great communicators and use waggle dances to inform other bees about the direction and distance to resources.

• Honeybees don’t poop inside the hive. Instead they leave the hive on warm days for “cleansing flights”.

• A pound of honey requires visiting about 2 million flowers and flying 55,000 miles.  A bee can remember routes up to 3-4 miles.

• Bees fly about 15 mph and beat their wings around 200 times per second (11,400 times per minute) for the infamous bee buzz.

• The primary patron saint of beekeepers is St. Ambrose, with several other saints also holding this title, including St. Gobnait, St. Valentine, and St. Bartholomew the Apostle.

• "Telling the bees" is an old European custom where beekeepers inform their hives about major life events (births, deaths, marriages) as if the bees were family or spiritual messengers, believing that failing to do so brings misfortune.