When most people discover a wild bee colony in their backyard, they run screaming. But Annie Laurie Thompson was intrigued by the bees when she discovered them in 2011, after having the wild bees removed, she bought her own bees and began harvesting honey.
Today, Thompson’s yard is home to three hives of more than 275,000 bees. Since 2016, she has been selling honey through her business, Basic Bee Shop. She stocks jars of honey, honey cubes, cocktail cubes, bourbon honey, spicy honey and custom beauty products like salve and chapstick.
Thompson experiments with essential oils, natural spices and spirits to create new honey products. From her kitchen in Shenandoah, she mixes, blends and bottles new recipes like Basic Bee Shop’s Hot Honey, a spicy capsicum oil-infused honey.
“I enjoy beekeeping so much because of the good it does for our daily lives,” Thompson says.
With the help of her husband, Thompson harvests honey twice a year. Her bees produce nearly 40 pounds of honey per hive during harvest seasons.
She didn’t intend to start a business, though. After the bees began producing so much honey, she says she had to find a way to get rid of it.
Now Basic Bee Shop sells its products online, at Mid City Makers Market and Coutlier Knife Shop in New Orleans. While she specializes in making honey-based food and drink products, one of her favorite parts of her business is making custom wedding favors. Entering her fourth year in business, Thompson growth plans include selling her products at local stores and developing a formula for chocolate-flavored honey. Until then, Basic Bee Shop will pop up at local events this fall like Mid City Makers Market and White Light Night.
“My goal is to provide the highest quality honey and all-natural unique products,” Thompson says, “while always keeping in mind our earth and the positive effects we can have on it.”
This story originally appeared in 225 Magazine.
