Hobby Farms
Beekeeper Erika Thompson Proudly Feels Emotional About Her 5 Million Bees
The Texas-based TikTok sensation tells us how humans could learn a lot from being more like the 5 million bees she keeps at her Austin home.
3K views PHOTO: Amanda Jewell Saunders
“I absolutely feel an emotional attachment to my bees,” says Erika Thompson, an Austin-based beekeeper who cares for around 5 million of the insects at her Texas Beeworks venture.
It’s a mid-morning weekday. Thompson is taking stock of the aftereffects of the gargantuan winter storm that ravished parts of Texas during February 2020. Her usually bright voice lowers to a more hushed tenor as she explains, “A lot of colonies made it through. But nobody was prepared for that weather, including the bees. Unfortunately some of the colonies that weren’t quite as strong didn’t make it through.”