Our Story
My name is Richard Homer, I am a semi-retired 60 year old. I love gardening and being outdoors. Years ago I noticed a huge decline in bees in my garden and fruit trees. I used to be able to listen to a symphony of bees in my large cherry tree in bloom. The number of bees I was seeing was way off of normal.
My interest in the plight of the honey bee was heightened by a few news stories about Colony Collapse Disorder, and the large losses the commercial beekeepers were seeing across the country. I also saw a documentary “The Vanishing of the bees”. I was intrigued and a bit alarmed. Like the canary in the coal mine to warn the miners of bad air or harmful chemicals. I saw the bee as the Canary in my Garden. I started to look into possibly having bees in my yard (.25-acre lot in suburbia).
I was a little naive about how a hive would impact my personal yard with pets and grandchildren visiting and of course how my neighbors would feel. I had a Nephew in Law that had gotten bees the year before and also lived in a suburban setting. He invited me over to see his hive and experience a hive of bees for the first time. I was hooked! What fascinating creatures the humble honey bees are. The more I learned and experienced the more intrigued and fascinated I became. I got my first hive and was so enamored by these industrious hard working insects. They grew from one box until they filled 4 boxes with bees. With 22 frames of honey, I was able to harvest 5 gallons of honey my first fall and leave that much in the hive for the winter. The next spring I expanded to 4 hives and then 15 the next year, then 50. I now have over 700 hives that I manage adding more every year. My goal was to bring bees back to the city. So all my hives were hosted by families all over the city. It has become a passion of mine to care for my bees and love telling others about these amazing creatures. I teach classes now and help others learn how to successfully keep bees and provide a resource to get fair priced equipment and bees each year. I hope you enjoy your journey of discovery as much as I have.
Richard Homer
Master Beekeeper MSU
Seth Homer
My name is Seth Homer, I have beautiful wife who supports me in this crazy bee adventure of mine. I am a father of 3 kids who I adore and love. I love the outdoors, gardening, woodworking and spending time with my family. Before, I never thought too much of bees and didn't really know much about them. Until my Dad who always seemed to have bees flying around in his car introduced me to beekeeping. He approached me to help grow this business and to join his efforts to provide our local beekeepers here in Utah with bees and equipment, as well as sending our bees down to California to the almonds for pollination. We started with 200 hives plus his original 50 and have now grown to over 700 hives in the last 5 years. We now have been providing our own bees and equipment to our fellow beekeepers here in Utah and surrounding states.
I have been fascinated by these little insects ever since I visited my first commercial bee operation experience up in Logan, to get my hands dirty and see what I was getting myself into. I learned how much we needed them on this planet of ours and quickly saw all the challenges beekeepers faced trying to keep healthy hives. I couldn't believe at that time 40-50% of the colonies in the United States were dying each year. I wanted to have a better understanding of why this was happening. Well, since I've been beekeeping I quickly realized that it's a challenge to keep bees and it's not like it once was 20 years ago. We have had our fair share of challenges and failures here at Homer's Honeybee. But one of my favorite quotes says, "Before you succeed you must first learn to fail" -Michael Jordan. A goal of mine is to help the beekeeping community be successful at keeping bees each year and help them learn from their failures and mine.
One of my favorite parts of this business is helping others. I don't know everything about bees but I am learning all the time and have had to learn quickly from day one. Luckily, I have had a great teacher/mentor/father by my side. I enjoy teaching what I do know and what has worked for us. There is nothing better than to hear someone's success, that their bees stayed alive through the winter and knowing I had a little part in that. I hope your bee adventure is as fun and successful as mine has been.