The first finished bottles of Desert Farms Apiary Raw Honey are here! After weeks of preparing the honey house and getting our bottling operation running, our honey is now being filled, corked, tamper-sealed, and finished with our new product tags. Take a first look at the finished 4 oz, 8 oz, and 16 oz Muth bottles as we prepare for our first customers and upcoming local markets.

It’s finally bottling time! Desert Farms Apiary has officially started processing our existing honey inventory for bottling. Before that golden honey reaches the jar, it passes through our HillCo honey clarifier, where wax particles, foam, and other remnants of the extraction process are allowed to naturally separate from the honey. Here’s a look at what the clarifier does—and why it’s an important step in getting our honey ready for you.

Desert Farms Apiary is growing! We’re installing seven new nucs in the bee yard, bringing us to 12 colonies heading into winter. The new colonies will start in single deeps with drawn comb from our recent apiary acquisition and receive supplemental sugar syrup to help them establish strong winter stores. If they overwinter successfully, we’ll begin expanding them into double-deep colonies next spring as the apiary continues to grow.

The girls are finally home! After a 5 a.m. move from the Grandview/Sunnyside area, our live honey bee colonies have officially arrived at Desert Farms Apiary in West Richland—along with five more supers of honey. A huge thank you to Tyler for lending a hand with the early-morning move. This is another big milestone as Desert Farms Apiary moves from startup into full operations.

Desert Farms Apiary is taking another major step from startup to production. With six active colonies, five buckets of raw honey, seventeen honey-filled frames, and a newly acquired collection of professional processing equipment, we have begun organizing the honey house for our first full processing run. While we wait for our HillCo clarifier, heated bottling tank, warming cabinet, and other essential components to arrive, the work of cleaning, inspecting, and preparing our new inventory is already underway.

Today we raised the Desert Farms Apiary flag beneath the American flag over our West Richland farm, marking an important milestone: we're officially moving from startup to operations. The bees are here, the infrastructure is taking shape, and what began as a plan for an accessible, veteran-owned apiary is becoming a working farm. Here's to the next chapter.

Desert Farms Apiary is taking a major leap forward with the acquisition of the remaining apiary operation from Jade’s Farmstand of Sunnyside, Washington. The acquisition includes six established honey-producing colonies currently located in Grandview, extensive hive equipment and drawn comb from an operation that once supported approximately 20 colonies, nearly new professional honey-processing equipment, and a substantial inventory of harvested and unprocessed honey. With the bees soon relocating to their new home in West Richland, this acquisition marks an exciting new chapter in the growth of Desert Farms Apiary.

Strait Family Farms, LLC — DBA Desert Farms Apiary — has reached another important milestone: official certification by the U.S. Small Business Administration as both a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) and Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB).

For our growing farm in West Richland, Washington, this recognition is another step toward building a sustainable and accessible agricultural operation. As we continue developing the apiary, improving our land, and expanding farm infrastructure, our veteran-owned status also strengthens our ability to pursue agricultural grants, veteran-farmer resources, surplus equipment opportunities, technical assistance, and other programs that can help a small farm grow.

From military and federal service to beekeeping and agriculture, the mission has changed — but the commitment to building, serving, and contributing continues.

A new tractor means big progress at Desert Farms Apiary! Our Kubota BX2380 has officially arrived and is already hard at work clearing brush, leveling ground, and helping us transform the bee yard into a productive, pollinator-friendly space. See how the property is taking shape and how the right equipment is helping us build an accessible, sustainable small farm in West Richland, Washington.

Things are really starting to take shape in the bee yard! What began as an overgrown section of pasture is steadily being transformed into a clean, usable space for Desert Farms Apiary. With our new tractor on the property, we've been making progress clearing brush, leveling the ground, and preparing the area for the next stages of development. There’s still plenty of work ahead, but each pass brings us one step closer to creating a productive, accessible home for our bees.

Desert Farms Apiary has reached another exciting milestone! Strait Family Farms, LLC — DBA Desert Farms Apiary — is officially certified as a Washington State Veteran-Owned Business. This recognition reflects the service and experience behind our farm and marks another step forward as we build a veteran-owned, accessible agricultural operation here in West Richland. From beekeeping and pollinator habitat to locally produced farm products, we’re proud to continue a tradition of service in a new way — by growing something right here in our Washington community.

Building Desert Farms Apiary is about more than keeping bees — it’s about transforming a small piece of Eastern Washington into a productive, pollinator-friendly farm from the ground up. From restoring irrigation and reclaiming overgrown pasture to preparing the bee yard, improving forage, and investing in the right equipment, every project brings the vision a little closer to reality. Follow along as we build a veteran-owned, accessible farm centered on honey bees, local agriculture, and making the most of our land in West Richland.