Hello
Austin Smith is a commercial beekeeper from Petal, MS. He and his father are owners of Smith’s Honey Farm, LLC, producing honey and queens along with pollinating crops for some produce growers. They currently operate just over 2,000 colonies. Smith’s Honey is sold in many grocery stores, produce markets, and retailers throughout Mississippi. He is a certified member and the current president of the Russian Honey Bee Breeders Association. He is active in MS Beekeepers Association, having served as President of the organization in past years and also serving as the current Vice-President. Austin attended Jones County Junior College from 2003-2005 and graduated with an Associates of Arts. While at JCJC, he was President of the Phi Theta Kappa Chapter, Rho Sigma. After Jones, he transferred to Mississippi College and completed his undergraduate degree in Chemistry with a minor in Biology (B.S. summa cum laude ‘07) and graduate degree in Biology (M.S. ‘08). He was an Instructor at Jones from 2009-19. He taught Microbiology and Biology.
About Smith's Honey Farm
Smith's Honey Farm produces and sells honey, pure beeswax candles, and products using honey and beeswax. We also raise and sell nucleus colonies and queens each spring and early summer. Beekeepers can purchase queens and honeybees (nucleus colonies) from us. We want others to fall in love with beekeeping just as we did.
Smith's Honey Farm was founded in 2001 as a hobby for the Smith Family. What started as a hobby has grown into a family beekeeping affair. We produce regional honey from flowers in south Mississippi. With the headquarters of the operation in Petal, MS, we have apiary locations in several locations in south MS. Our bees are able to forage many acres of woodlands, open fields, and wetlands for a variety of nectar and pollen from plants like Privet Hedge, Gallberry, Tallow, Yaupon, Peppervine, etc. In the late summer, we have bees that work the fields of cotton and soybeans in the Black Prairie Region of Mississippi.
Our mission is to develop, test and use beekeeping methods that improve the health of the honey bee. We are members of the Russian Honey Bee Breeders Association, which is an association of honey bee breeders with a set of very rigorous breeding standards. We strive to manage a sustainable beekeeping system that minimizes the use of harsh chemicals and employs the natural defenses and heritable behaviors shown to improve the honeybees mite tolerance and resistance to disease, which answers the question of "why we use Russian honey bees!" Additionally as part of our mission, we want to provide our honey customers with the best honey that bees can produce from the wildflowers of South Mississippi.
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