08/12/2026
Last night was a powerful reminder that honeybees are livestock too. 🐝❤️
It is hard to put into words how thankful we are to Eric Wilson, Asotin County volunteer firefighters and all other fire and emergency crew personnel who responded last night.
When most people hear the word livestock, they probably picture cattle, horses or sheep. They may not think about honeybees. But to a beekeeper, these colonies are livestock. They are living animals that we care for throughout the year, and each colony represents months and months of work — feeding, treating, raising queens, building populations and keeping them healthy.
These colonies were strong and had honey supers still on them that we hadn’t even pulled yet. Seeing how close the fire came and then seeing photos of any boxes still standing this morning is incredibly emotional.
Firefighters had so many things to protect last night, yet somewhere in the middle of all of that, our bees mattered too. 🐝 thank you Eric Wilson 🙏Wilson Banner Ranch Asotin County Fire Department
To every firefighter and emergency responder who worked this fire: THANK YOU. Thank you for the long hours, the dangerous conditions, the heat, smoke and exhaustion. Thank you for protecting our community and all the homes near — and our livestock, even the smallest livestock among us.
From our family and Pacific Northwest Bee Co., we are beyond grateful. ❤️
The following was an update from Eric this morning:
We spent a lot of time protecting them. Later, fire took the wooden panels and got to the hives. We went back at saved what we could. Got a little help from ACFD when they noticed us struggling. The nucs are lost. I had to break them open to put the wax out. I opened a few supers that were on fire at the lid and washed water down around the face and edges. I’m not sure about the smokey honey, but you still have bees. 🫶
