PIA's Bee Farm

PIA's Bee Farm Welcome to Pia's Meliponary. We are all about bees, beekeeping, honey, pollination and sustainable living. We offer food, fruit juices, unique items & more
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We have three outdoor kiosks

20/08/2026

Today, August 20, marks what I jokingly call my “almost-death anniversary.”

A year ago, I received so many bee stings that my body simply could not handle the amount of venom. It was more than just the pain of multiple stings; it became a medical emergency. The term I was trying to remember is massive envenomation, where a large number of stings can deliver enough venom to seriously affect the body.

Things went bad very quickly, and epinephrine helped bring me back from a very dangerous situation.

I spend my days keeping bees, teaching about bees, and encouraging others to appreciate them and yet the same creatures nearly ended my story.

But August 20 came again, and I'm still here.

A reminder that even experienced beekeepers should never underestimate a colony, protective equipment, or the body's reaction to multiple stings.

Happy almost-death anniversary to me. 🐝💉❤️

20/08/2026

Renewing our accreditation as a Learning Site for Agriculture (LSA).

Looking back at what happened since becoming an LSA, I think the accreditation gave us more than a title. It gave us a platform to share what we know, learn more, and help bring practical beekeeping knowledge to farmers and communities.

Among the accomplishments we are grateful for:

In June 2023, Pia’s Bee Farm was featured in the Department of Agriculture calendar as a representative of the livestock sector through beekeeping.

In 2025, our beekeeping work was featured in promotional materials for the National Livestock Expo, further highlighting bees and beekeeping as part of Philippine livestock and agriculture.

We served as resource persons for ATI-supported trainings in Guinayangan, Quezon; La Trinidad, Benguet; and Lipa City, and also shared our experience and technical knowledge in our capacity as an LSA in activities in the Davao Region and MIMAROPA.

We continued to strengthen the reason why Pia’s Bee Farm was certified as a learning site not simply by keeping bees, but by becoming a place where farmers, students, government personnel, and aspiring beekeepers can see actual colonies, actual problems, and practical management in the field.

We also continued investing in our own learning, including specialized beekeeping training in California, so that the knowledge we bring back to the farm can also be shared with the people who come to learn from us.

Being an LSA has opened many doors. It connected us with farmers, universities, government agencies, researchers, and fellow beekeepers from different parts of the country. It gave us opportunities to teach, but just as importantly, opportunities to learn from the communities we visited.

The biggest advantage of being an LSA is not the certificate hanging on the wall. It is being part of an agricultural extension network where a working farm becomes a classroom; where knowledge does not stay inside books or training halls, but is demonstrated, tested, improved, and shared farmer to farmer.

As we submit our documents for LSA renewal, we hope to continue doing what Pia’s Bee Farm was accredited to do:

Keep bees. Keep learning. And keep sharing what we learn. 🐝🇵🇭

17/08/2026

She sat on my hand, carefully cleaning her proboscis after a short chance to forage.

And all I could say was, “Sorry… it’s raining again.”

Almost two weeks of rain, then two precious days of sunshine and now the skies have darkened once more.

This is the season where beekeeper intervention is important. We have anticipated this weather and we have a good stock of food supplement for the bees.

10/08/2026

September is just around the corner. And we will be in a road trip in unfamiliar territory.

Aklan, Capiz, Iloilo and Negros, we will be visiting you soon.

I’ve always preferred Apis mellifera. Circumstance simply brought me to native bees and somehow, they brought me much fa...
07/08/2026

I’ve always preferred Apis mellifera. Circumstance simply brought me to native bees and somehow, they brought me much farther than I ever expected.

If not for stingless bees, I probably would not have travelled to so many communities around the country, met so many farmers, trained people in places I never imagined visiting, and eventually found myself working with institutions like NARTDI.

If not for Apis cerana, I would never have had the unusual experience of keeping bees in Balesin, an island I could never afford to join. I was there because of the bees.

And now, stingless bees have brought Pia’s Bee Farm into a formal partnership with the National Apiculture Research, Training and Development Institute for research, training, extension and capacity building.

Mellifera taught me beekeeping. Native bees showed me where beekeeping could take me.

Native bees really are something special. 🐝🇵🇭

(Photo Courtesy of DMMMSU Edu Ph)

01/08/2026

8 years ago ng tinanim ko Santol para dagdag kainan ng bees. 3 years na sya namumunga.

Kung relate ka sa ginagawa ko, sa senti music..congrats, singkwentahin ka na...

30/07/2026

Today, we said, “I do.” 💍🐝

Not in front of a priest, but before our partners and witnesses. No wedding rings were exchanged, only signatures, commitments, and a shared vision for the future of Philippine beekeeping.

Today’s MOA signing between National Apiculture Research Training and Development Institute (NARTDI) and Pia’s Bee Farm felt much like a wedding: two institutions bringing their strengths together, promising to cooperate, support one another, and work toward common goals.

Like any marriage, the signing is only the ceremony. The real work begins afterward through communication, commitment, shared responsibilities, and the willingness to stay together through both honey flows and dearth periods.

There may be no reception, no wedding cake, and certainly no honeymoon but we look forward to a productive and meaningful partnership.

NARTDI and Pia’s Bee Farm: officially partners in service, education, research, and the advancement of beekeeping.

May this union bear plenty of honey and absolutely no stings. 🐝💛

(Read if you want to know how we assess areas for beekeeping)This is a Rubber Tree Farm. A rubber tree farm can offer se...
28/07/2026

(Read if you want to know how we assess areas for beekeeping)

This is a Rubber Tree Farm. A rubber tree farm can offer several benefits to bees, especially stingless bees:

Rubber trees can provide pollen, an important protein source used for brood development. Studies in rubber plantations have found stingless bees collecting substantial amounts of Hevea brasiliensis pollen, showing that the trees can serve as a meaningful seasonal food source.

Rubber trees may also provide nectar, including secretions from extrafloral nectaries. This gives bees an energy source even when the nectar is not coming directly from the flowers.

For stingless bees, the farm’s greatest advantage may be the availability of plant resin and latex-like materials. Stingless bees combine resin with wax to produce cerumen and propolis. It's a very good area for propolis production.

The rows of trees also provide shade, wind protection and a cooler microclimate, which can help protect stingless-bee colonies from extreme heat. The vegetation growing beneath and around the rubber trees may provide additional flowering plants, extending the variety and availability of forage.

However, rubber should not be treated as a complete, year-round food source. A pure rubber monoculture may limit floral diversity after the rubber flowering period, so colonies will perform better when the plantation is surrounded by varied flowering trees, shrubs and ground vegetation. Research has also found reduced stingless-bee activity in simplified rubber monocultures compared with more diverse habitats. So, in this location, colonies should be positioned in the peripherals to reach diverse forage.

In simple terms, a rubber farm can provide stingless bees with food, resin, shade and protection but biodiversity around the plantation remains essential.

However, armed groups have reportedly become visible in the area again, allegedly demanding money through extortion.

Conclusion:

Feasible ✅️
Not Feasible ☑️

Three years ago, I planted this papaya at my sister’s house in Pomona, California.I watered it, checked on it, and gave ...
26/07/2026

Three years ago, I planted this papaya at my sister’s house in Pomona, California.

I watered it, checked on it, and gave it my own special brand of “organic liquid fertilizer” through frequent urination. Very natural. Very personal.

Now, after questionable gardening practices, my sister is finally harvesting the fruits of my urine.

But the papaya gave us another surprise: some of its seeds started sprouting while still inside the fruit. This phenomenon is called vivipary; when seeds begin to germinate before leaving the parent fruit. It may happen when the fruit becomes overripe or when the natural chemicals that normally prevent early germination weaken.

So technically, the papaya was already planting its next generation before anyone even finished eating it.

From one man’s frequent urination came fruit and inside that fruit, more plants were already preparing to grow.

Nature is amazing. My fertilization method is still under peer review.

24/07/2026

I was invited to speak during an anniversary celebration and share my story as a "successful" beekeeper.

The invitation made me reflect not on how far I had gone, but on what success truly means.

Where is the success?

Is it measured by the size of an apiary, the volume of honey produced, the number of awards received or the value of the equipment we own?

Or is it something that becomes meaningful only when it is shared; when knowledge is passed on, communities grow stronger and others are able to move forward with us?

If this is the success they saw in me, then I understand why I was invited. My success is not singular. It is collective.

So I will bring the whole barangay with me. Ubusin natin litson at dinengdeng nila..lesgow

Address

Zone 2 Bgy San Salvador
Lipa City
4217

Telephone

09212862362

Website

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