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Allison Gap Honey Honeybee Farm & Garden located in Allison Gap in Saltville, Virginia 💛 registered Monarch Butterfly Waystation

08/23/2026

My favorite late-evening activity this time of year is investigating the sunflowers because of finding things like this!! Bumblebees will hide under and even inside of flowers overnight to rest. 😍🐝😍

🐛🦋Monarch Fun Fact🦋🐛Less than ten percent of monarch eggs laid in the wild will survive to become butterflies. Between t...
08/17/2026

🐛🦋Monarch Fun Fact🦋🐛

Less than ten percent of monarch eggs laid in the wild will survive to become butterflies. Between the dangers of insecticides, the scarcity of available milkweed, other insects that eat the eggs, parasites that lay eggs inside the growing caterpillars and even changes in the weather that can stall their development, monarchs are fighting for their lives from the second those eggs are laid on a milkweed leaf. And that's not even getting into the fact that once they become butterflies, they fly thousands of miles during their migration to overwinter in central Mexico or Florida.

08/17/2026

After missing the first few caterpillars molting into their chrysalises, my daughter and I finally got to witness it! This led to a chain reaction as more than a dozen more molted within two hours, one after another. Here is my favorite bit of commentary from Ellie! The Caterpillar Dance!

08/16/2026

Here's some pollen pants for your Sunday afternoon 💛🐝🌻

We have had a CRAZY few days!! While the sporadic thunder storms have really put a damper on getting into the bee yard, ...
08/15/2026

We have had a CRAZY few days!! While the sporadic thunder storms have really put a damper on getting into the bee yard, I've been kept busy inside with more than FIFTY monarch caterpillars!!

This is your warning that I'm about to get REALLY obnoxious with the Monarch caterpillar and butterfly posts, because this is an amazing time of year for these beauties. If you don't already know why, you'll see me sharing all about it soon enough. 🐛 Here's a photo dump of our last ten days!!

Kids should 100% be in charge of naming all critters. I called it a Swallowtail and my 6yo said it's actually called a "...
08/10/2026

Kids should 100% be in charge of naming all critters. I called it a Swallowtail and my 6yo said it's actually called a "Blue-Bottomed Butterfly." 😂😂😂

Sunday morning reminder that sometimes, you should just let the weeds grow. If it's in a space you're not using, if it's...
08/02/2026

Sunday morning reminder that sometimes, you should just let the weeds grow. If it's in a space you're not using, if it's along your fence line, if it's not going to interfere with your garden at all, let it grow. Let the pollinators have their weeds 💜💜💜

Oh, hi!It's been a hot minute since I've used this page because my attention span runs out before I remember to post any...
07/14/2026

Oh, hi!

It's been a hot minute since I've used this page because my attention span runs out before I remember to post anything 😂😂 anyways. Good news and bad news!

The good news - the girls are working hard and the honey is flowing! It's a gorgeous sight inside those hives right now.

The bad news? I won't be spinning until September! I know some beekeepers harvest twice a year but I prefer to do it all at once, to really mix together those spring and summer flavors.

I promise, once I start, I'll be too excited to wait to share on here. 💛💛

06/20/2026

Orientation flight!!

When honeybees finish developing from eggs and emerge from their enclosed cells, they start work straight away. Their first role in the colony is nursing the thousands of larvae that are still growing. This is their only task for their first three weeks of life. Then, on a warm, sunny day, a group of honeybees at this age will leave the hive for the the first time.

Now it's time to teach their inner compass exactly where home is, so they'll never get lost returning from a day of foraging. Que the orientation flight!

Hundreds of bees will pour out of the entrance and each will start hovering in figure eight patterns while facing the hive. With each lap, they rise higher and wider until they memorized how to find home.

For a strong colony, like this one, orientation flights can look like a swarm! But unlike swarming, the bees return to the hive before starting their new jobs collecting pollen and nectar.

Enjoy the POV from under the hive, where the figure eight patterns are easier to distinguish!

06/06/2026

When you hear "pollinators," you probably think of bees, butterflies, and maybe even birds. But did you know that there are actually twice as many pollinating moth species as bees and SIX TIMES more than butterflies?!? Unlike honeybees, who collects and store pollen, moths are foraging for nectar and basically "accidentally" transfer pollen from plant to plant in the process. They gravitate towards lighter-colored flowers that glow against the moonlight.

Here's a night shift pollinator visiting my sunflower field last summer. 🌻

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Saltville, VA
24370

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