COLUMBIA, TN. (WTVF) — There's a lot of destruction being cleaned up this week after an EF3 Tornado hit Maury County last week. One of the largest producers of queen bees in the area was destroyed in the storm.
The farm is called Two River Honey Bees in Columbia, TN. The owner says they've lost all of the storage buildings and most of the bees. Over the weekend and this week, they've been clearing the area and retrieving leftover hives.
They've been working to put them back together. They say they're not sure which ones will survive.
They shared this message on their Facebook page shortly after the storm:
"As many of you may know by now, Columbia, TN area was hit with a EF3 tornado last night and it ripped right through our farm destroying most of the farm. We lost all the storage buildings, most of our Nucs, Mating Nucs, AI Queens are prepared for the season. We had some great neighbors who came and helped us to clear the driveway that helped us to get the left-over hives. We put them back together and are not sure which one will survive. Tomorrow, we start the cleaning of the down trees and other structures so that we can salvage what is left behind. Those who have ordered Nucs and breeder queens for this season, I will reach out via a separate email by end of this week. We are going through the left over boxes to see what is good and what can be recovered."
Two River Honey Bees have been reaching out to those who ordered breeder queen bees to keep them updated on next steps, but this has raised a lot of concern and local support from people all over Middle Tennessee, including a GoFundMe.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
