Meet Emily and Shayne
The story behind Wild Antho
We are at least the fourth generation of this family to keep bees. We raise queens, nucleus colonies, and honey on a farm near Armstrong, B.C.
Emily's story
Our roots in beekeeping
I was born on a bee farm in Grand Forks, B.C. If the family tales are true, my first sting came at two weeks old. I spent my childhood travelling from bee yard to bee yard. I pressed out pollen patty in the winters and ran the smoker in the summers, sometimes happily and sometimes not so much.
At the dinner table it was bee talk, all the time. I vowed my whole childhood that I would never keep bees.
By high school my summers were split between swimming and beekeeping. I worked mostly with my Mum, catching queens, feeding 4-ways, and running grafts. That carried on until I graduated from university. Then I met Shayne, and there was a buzz in the air.
Shayne and I kept bees in our backyard and in our neighbours' backyards. We raised our own queens and sold a few nucleus colonies. In 2018 we bought a farm near Armstrong and became full-time beekeepers. Our focus is nucleus colonies and queens, with a sideline of honey. We overwinter about 1,500 colonies. Through the summer we run close to 1,000 more small colonies to raise queens.
I always think we are at the size I want to be. Then the next year, somehow, I end up with more colonies. I love it. Bees are a puzzle. Putting colonies together and taking them apart is like puzzling all day.
Read more about me, or meet my mother, Liz Huxter. Every Wild Antho queen descends from her stock.
Our stock
Decades of experience breeding queen bees
We want Canadian beekeepers to have a good local queen in early April. Our focus over the next few years is overwintering more queens, so beekeepers have a local option early.
Come and visit us
The farm is on Round Prairie Road, north of Armstrong. Text us first to set a time.
At least four generations
Milk and honey
My father grew up on the family dairy farm in England. The hives sat alongside the herd, and had for generations. Milk and honey, he called it. His father kept those bees. His father kept them before him, and his before that, further back than anyone can name.
I am the fourth generation anyone can count, and only the fourth because that is where the records stop. My father Terry is a botanist, and teaching botany at a university in Alberta is what brought him and my mother, Liz, to Canada from the UK. In 1980 they left both careers to buy a bee farm in Grand Forks. My mother became one of the most respected beekeepers and queen breeders in Canada, and every Wild Antho queen descends from her stock. My younger brother left a banking career to keep bees too.
The name
What Antho means
Antho is short for anthology. It is also the root word for flower. It comes from the Greek anthos, and an anthology was first a gathering of flowers.
Talks and workshops
Talks for clubs and conferences
I have presented to bee clubs around British Columbia and at provincial conferences, including the BCHPA and Bee Tech, on how we run this farm and what we breed for. A good number of our customers first heard of us in one of those rooms.
If your club or conference wants a speaker, or a workshop on queen rearing at the farm, ask. I will consider it around the season.
Questions
Common questions
Do you teach beekeeping or run courses?
Wild Antho does not run beginner courses at the farm. Emily Huxter does speak to bee clubs and at conferences, and will consider a club workshop or a conference talk, so ask through the contact form.
Do you sell hives, frames, or beekeeping equipment?
No. Wild Antho sells bees: queens, queen cells, breeder queens, and nucleus colonies. For boxes, frames, and gear, Urban Bee Supplies in Delta, B.C. is a great place to start.