Cole’s Farm NC

Cole’s Farm NC We are a veteran-owned, family-operated honey bee hobby farm located in the southwestern side of Onslow County in Eastern Carolina. Our goal is simple.
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📍 Jacksonville, NC Beekeeper
🍯 Raw NC Honey • Straight From the Hive
🌿 Spring Wildflower • Summer Sourwood
🐝 Swarm Relocations • Veteran Owned
🏅 Certified NC Journeyman Beekeeper
👇 Get a Jar of NC Honey We decided to name this venture after our son Cole in hopes that he will join us one day tending to the bees. We strive to share our passion through the delivery of raw, unprocessed local wildflowe

r honey. We also specialize in honey bee swarm relocation and are proud members of the NCSBA. Jeff’s interest in becoming a beekeeper piqued in the Winter of 2016 after a co-worker, who just started beekeeping the year prior, kept talking about these fascinating creatures, honeybees. He read Beekeeping for Dummies and spoke to Mr. Floyd Parker, one of Onslow County's Master Beekeepers. Afterward, the decision was an easy one to become a Beekeeper.

🐝 Sometimes, you have to make decisions today for the bees you want to have tomorrow.After pulling the honey supers from...
09/04/2026

🐝 Sometimes, you have to make decisions today for the bees you want to have tomorrow.

After pulling the honey supers from the hives, I decided to do something different this year.

Rather than immediately putting the medium supers back onto the colonies, I’ve set them out on our newly cleared land and am letting the bees rob them clean.

The reason? I’m transitioning back to double-deep colonies for overwintering—something I haven’t done in easily six or seven years.

There has been nothing wrong with overwintering colonies as a deep and a medium. That setup has worked very well for me. But my goals for the apiary are changing.

When I was primarily focused on maintaining my colonies, early-spring splits weren’t a major priority. Now that we have the space to expand, I want to create a system that gives me more opportunities to increase our colony numbers.

By overwintering in double deeps, my goal is to have stronger colonies and more flexibility when spring arrives, potentially giving me more colonies that can be split early in the season.

It’s something I’ve mentioned occasionally during my inspection videos, but this is the bigger picture.

In beekeeping, you’re always planning ahead.

Right now, we’re still in summer. Fall hasn’t even arrived yet, but I’m already making decisions based on what I want the apiary to look like next spring.

That’s one of the things I love about beekeeping. Every season builds upon the next, and the decisions you make today can have a major impact on what you’re able to accomplish months down the road. 🐝

🐝 One link. All the buzz. ➡️ https://linktr.ee/colesfarmnc
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The beeyard expansion is officially underway! 🐝Over several days, I worked through the full process of turning newly cle...
09/02/2026

The beeyard expansion is officially underway! 🐝

Over several days, I worked through the full process of turning newly cleared land into a protected apiary space—installing T-posts, running polywire, setting up the gate, and getting the energizer fully up and running.

This is a big step toward making this space fully functional, and I’m excited to share the progress with you all.

🎥 Watch here: https://youtu.be/ts7nh-Chad8

🍯 The Next Chapter: Let the Science BeginThe last frame has been harvested. The honey has been extracted. And now, two s...
09/02/2026

🍯 The Next Chapter: Let the Science Begin

The last frame has been harvested. The honey has been extracted. And now, two small sample tubes are making their way to the Penn State University Honey and Pollen Diagnostics Lab.

These little tubes may not look like much, but they represent the next—and very important—step in the story of our 2026 Sourwood honey crop. 🐝🍯

After moving 20 colonies to Andrews, North Carolina, specifically to take advantage of the Sourwood bloom, we harvested what we hope will be a very special mountain honey.

But there’s an important distinction between calling something “Sourwood honey” and actually knowing how much of the honey came from Sourwood nectar.

That’s where the laboratory analysis comes in.

The samples I’m sending will be analyzed to help determine the floral composition of this crop. In other words, we’re going to let the science tell us what the bees found.

Because while we may have moved the colonies to Sourwood country, the bees were free to forage on whatever was blooming around them. Sourwood was their target—but they certainly didn’t have a map telling them which flowers they were supposed to visit. 😉

The results should help us better understand just how much Sourwood contributed to this harvest, along with what other nectar and pollen sources may have found their way into the honey.

And I’ll be honest…

I’m really looking forward to seeing the results.

There’s something pretty fascinating about taking a bottle of honey and being able to look beyond its color, aroma, and flavor to understand the botanical story behind it.

So these two little tubes are officially on their way to Penn State.

Now we wait. ⏳

And when those results come back, we’ll finally know what the bees brought home from the mountains of North Carolina.

Until then, the 2026 Sourwood story continues…

🐝 One link. All the buzz. ➡️ https://linktr.ee/colesfarmnc
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🍯 The Very Last FrameThere’s something bittersweet about holding the very last frame of a honey harvest.This beautifully...
08/31/2026

🍯 The Very Last Frame

There’s something bittersweet about holding the very last frame of a honey harvest.

This beautifully filled and fully capped medium frame marks the very last frame of our 2026 Sourwood honey crop—and there’s something special about seeing it resting on the HillCo Roller Uncapper, with “July” carved into the top.

Bitter, because another harvest is coming to an end.

After months of preparation, moving colonies, monitoring the nectar flow, working the bees, transporting equipment, and finally harvesting and extracting the honey, that last frame is a reminder that this particular chapter is now coming to a close.

But it’s also incredibly sweet. 🍯

Sweet because all of that work has resulted in more honey for our customers—and, just maybe, a very special Sourwood honey.

Before we put a Sourwood label on a single bottle, however, there’s still one important step left.

A sample will be sent to the Penn State University Honey and Pollen Diagnostics Lab for analysis. This will help us determine just how much of this crop is truly Sourwood, along with identifying the other nectar and pollen sources that contributed to what the bees produced.

That distinction matters.

The bees don’t read our plans or know that we moved them to Andrews specifically to chase Sourwood. They simply work the flowers available to them, collecting nectar and pollen from the landscape around their colonies.

So now, we wait for the science to tell us exactly what they brought home.

If the results confirm what we’re hoping for, we may soon have something particularly special to share with you—a honey born from the Sourwood forests of the North Carolina mountains and the hard work of 20 colonies.

And that’s what makes the last frame so bittersweet.

It’s the end of a harvest…

…but it’s also the beginning of sharing its story. 🐝🍯

Stay tuned. The next chapter will be finding out exactly what’s inside these bottles.

🐝 One link. All the buzz. ➡️ https://linktr.ee/colesfarmnc
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🍯 THIS is the moment I’ve been looking forward to for years! 🐝There’s something incredibly satisfying about walking into...
08/28/2026

🍯 THIS is the moment I’ve been looking forward to for years! 🐝

There’s something incredibly satisfying about walking into the honey house and seeing honey supers stacked high—especially when you know exactly what it took to get them there.

At the end of June, I loaded 20 hives onto the trailer and hauled them from Jacksonville all the way to Andrews, North Carolina, where they would spend the next several weeks working the legendary Sourwood flow. 🌿🐝

Now, around the end of July, it was time to bring the next part of the journey home: harvesting the honey.

What you’re looking at is the result of those weeks in the mountains—a combination of 19 medium supers and 9 deep supers, all packed into the honey house and waiting their turn to be extracted.

For me, this is every bit as exciting as opening a hive and discovering supers packed full of honey. After years of beekeeping, finally seeing this much honey stacked up in my own honey house is a moment I’ve been waiting a LONG time to experience.

And now comes the question…

🤔 How much honey do YOU think is hiding inside these 28 supers?

Take your best guess! 👇🍯

Are we talking 300 pounds? 500? 700? Maybe even more?!

Drop your prediction in the comments BEFORE I reveal the final harvest total. I’ll be curious to see who comes closest! 🐝🍯

🐝 One link. All the buzz. ➡️ https://linktr.ee/colesfarmnc
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We finally pulled the trigger on something we’ve been putting off for over a year…Over 3 days, we cleared out 0.65 acres...
08/26/2026

We finally pulled the trigger on something we’ve been putting off for over a year…

Over 3 days, we cleared out 0.65 acres to expand our apiary—and seeing it open up in real time was unreal.

It’s crazy how much space we’ve had this whole time without realizing the full potential. This is just the beginning of what’s to come.

🎥 Watch here: https://youtu.be/_Ea5r7ln2yo?is=aVb9hhCuPsx6KeBA

There’s something pretty satisfying about seeing the entire apiary back home and sitting on its new stands. 🐝🏡For the fi...
08/26/2026

There’s something pretty satisfying about seeing the entire apiary back home and sitting on its new stands. 🐝🏡

For the first time ever, I’m running individual hive stands—and I’m really excited about this change.

As I’ve shared previously, my old setup was essentially one continuous hive stand, with multiple 4x4s sharing the same cinderblock bases. That system served me well for many years, but it eventually became a limitation.

Why? Because if I wanted—or needed—to move a single stand, I couldn’t simply move one stand. I would first have to unload 8–10 hives from two adjoining stands just to reposition one.

That’s a lot of extra work, unnecessary disruption, and definitely not the most efficient way to manage an expanding apiary.

With individual stands, I now have much more flexibility. 🐝

It should make routine hive inspections more efficient, give me greater flexibility when moving colonies, and—perhaps most importantly—open up more possibilities when it comes time to redesign and optimize the layout of the bee yard.

Sometimes improving a system isn’t about making a huge change. It’s about identifying the little things that create limitations and finding a better way forward.

After years of using the old setup, seeing all of these hives sitting independently on their new stands is definitely a new view for Cole’s Farm NC.

And I have to say… I really like what I see. 😁🐝

🐝 One link. All the buzz. ➡️ https://linktr.ee/colesfarmnc
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Back Home in Jacksonville!Continuing last week’s storyline, the hives safely made the trip back from Andrews, NC. I was ...
08/24/2026

Back Home in Jacksonville!

Continuing last week’s storyline, the hives safely made the trip back from Andrews, NC. I was up around 4:00 AM, on the road before 5:00 AM, and arrived in Jacksonville around 1:30 PM.

Jennifer and I immediately got to work unloading. By this point, with just the final hive waiting to come off, we have been steadily offloading for just over two hours.

And there’s something else I’m excited to share…the modified overwintering shims worked!

As I shared previously, I added metal screen to the shims I normally use during winter, converting them into screened inner covers for transporting the hives.

After losing a large colony on the trip to Andrews, I suspected heat and insufficient ventilation may have contributed. So I wanted to improve airflow for the return trip.

The result?

Zero losses.

I’m sure the early departure helped too. Leaving before 5:00 AM minimized the amount of time the hives spent traveling during the hottest part of the day. But I also believe the screened covers contributed by providing additional ventilation while the colonies were confined to the trailer.

It’s one thing to have an idea. It’s another to put it to the test and see it work.

This one passed the test!

There’s also a major difference between this trip and the one to Andrews at the end of June.

We’ve now cleared approximately 6/10 of an acre for our new bee yard. I’ve shared glimpses of the transformation over the past several weeks, including the new individual hive stands.

More space is great, but I’m especially excited about having more usable and accessible space.

We used our zero-turn mower and towable dump cart to move hives from the trailer to their stands with as little lifting as possible.

Less lifting. Fewer trips. Less wasted energy.

Working smarter instead of harder, that’s a win.

20 hives went to the mountains, experienced the Sourwood flow, and 17 safely made it back home.

Now, the next chapter begins in Jacksonville.

🐝 One link. All the buzz. ➡️ https://linktr.ee/colesfarmnc
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The final preparations are underway… 🚚🐝After a few weeks in the mountains chasing the Sourwood flow, it was time to get ...
08/21/2026

The final preparations are underway… 🚚🐝

After a few weeks in the mountains chasing the Sourwood flow, it was time to get everything ready for the trip back to Jacksonville. The truck is hooked up, the trailer is loaded and secured, and everything is positioned for an early-morning departure back across North Carolina.

This truck and trailer are the newest additions to the Cole’s Farm NC beekeeping operation. I purchased the truck in March, and then quickly followed it up with the trailer in April—with a very specific purpose in mind: to make trips like this possible.

The plan was simple… haul the bees from Jacksonville to Andrews, let them work the Sourwood bloom, and then haul them back home once the flow was finished.

And so far, this combination has performed phenomenally.

I couldn’t be happier with the truck’s performance, and the trailer has proven to be every bit as capable as I had hoped. Together, they’ve handled the job of hauling several thousand pounds of bees and equipment across the state—and, hopefully, a few hundred pounds of some very special mountain honey along with them. 🍯🐝

What started as a new truck and an empty trailer just a few months ago has now become an important part of our beekeeping operation.

And now comes the part I’ve been waiting for…

Did all of this work actually pay off? 👀🍯

Stay tuned, because we’re about to find out how our very first attempt at producing a Sourwood Honey crop turned out—and whether chasing the bloom all the way to the mountains was worth the trip!

🐝 One link. All the buzz. ➡️ https://linktr.ee/colesfarmnc
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This swarm trap turned out to be WAY more than I expected… 🐝What I thought was just “activity” ended up being a fully es...
08/19/2026

This swarm trap turned out to be WAY more than I expected… 🐝

What I thought was just “activity” ended up being a fully established colony with drawn comb, a strong population—and a healthy queen already laying.

This marks Swarm No. 20, and it comes right before some big changes to the apiary…

This is also the final look at the current beeyard before we start clearing 0.65 acres for expansion 👀

🎥 Watch the full video here:

https://youtu.be/ZvivnU7kfbo?is=Jwm2v7fJEdvOWErc

Address

200 Bribster Court N
Jacksonville, NC

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 7pm
Tuesday 9am - 7pm
Wednesday 9am - 7pm
Thursday 9am - 7pm
Friday 9am - 7pm
Saturday 9am - 7pm
Sunday 9am - 7pm

Telephone

+19103336585

Website

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