Erika Thompson (born 1986) is an American

beekeeper A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees, a profession known as beekeeping. The term beekeeper refers to a person who keeps honey bees in beehives, boxes, or other receptacles. The beekeeper does not control the creatures. The beekeeper ow ...

with more than 11 million followers on

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

. She posts videos of herself handling bees with her bare hands and wearing no protective gear. She lives in

Smithville, Texas Smithville is a city in Bastrop County, Texas, United States, near the Colorado River. The population was 3,922 at the 2020 census. History Thomas Jefferson Gazley arrived in 1827 and set the pace of development for Smithville by building the ...

, and keeps almost 50

beehive A beehive is an enclosed structure which houses honey bees, subgenus '' Apis.'' Honey bees live in the beehive, raising their young and producing honey as part of their seasonal cycle. Though the word ''beehive'' is used to describe the nest of ...

s in her backyard.

Early life

Thompson was born in 1986 and grew up in

Katy, Texas Katy is a city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is in the Greater Katy area, itself forming the western part of the Greater Houston metropolitan area. Homes and businesses may have Katy postal addresses without being in the City of Katy. The city ...

, United States. She attended the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

. After college, Thompson worked as a communications director for a nonprofit. She lived in the Austin area until 2019.

Career

Thompson worked for the Texas Hotel and Lodging Association and the Austin chapter of the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

and her hobby was beekeeping. In 2016, she founded Texas Beeworks in the Austin, Texas, metropolitan area. She has stated that her mission is to put "hives before honey". She also says that the mission of her company, Texas Beeworks, is to promote public awareness about bees and beekeepers. Her organization removes bees for free. In 2018, the television quiz show ''

Jeopardy! ''Jeopardy!'' is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead g ...

'' recorded video clues about bees for an episode of the show. The videos featured Thompson's organization Texas Beeworks. The show aired on Memorial Day in 2019, and by that time Thompson had already left her job to become a full-time beekeeper. Thompson typically posts videos of herself relocating beehives; she scoops up handfuls of bees with her bare hands and wears no beekeeping equipment while handling the bees. By 2021, she had amassed 6 million followers on

. By 2023, she had 11.4 million following her account which she named Texas Beeworks. One of her TikTok videos quickly amassed 60 million views. She finishes each of her TikTok videos by saying "It was another great day of saving the bees".

Controversy

In 2021 some TikTok followers questioned whether the videos of her handling bees using no protective equipment were fake. There were questions about whether or not she had sedated the bees. She was also accused of staging bee rescues. Thompson responded on Instagram by saying it was a "series of untrue and hurtful attacks". In 2021

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

interviewed another professional beekeeper who stated that Thompson's videos set a "dangerous precedent" on how people should interact with bees safely. To respond to the controversy Thompson released a statement to the cable news network.

As a professional beekeeper, it's my mission and my purpose to help people understand how important the work of bees and beekeepers is to our world. The content I share is real, and shows how beekeepers help people and bees in need every day—wearing protective gear when necessary. Only experienced beekeepers should be handling bees and performing bee removal services.

Personal life

Thompson lives in

. She has an

apiary An apiary (also known as a bee yard) is a location where Beehive (beekeeping), beehives of honey bees are kept. Apiaries come in many sizes and can be rural or urban depending on the honey production operation. Furthermore, an apiary may refer to ...

with two rows of boxes at her home. Her backyard has approximately 50 beehives.

References

External links

Video BBC - Texas beekeeper viral videos saving bee nestsVideo CNN - Beekeeper's hive rescue method has the internet buzzingVideo Good Morning America - Beekeeper's viral videos create big buzzVideo - Texas Beeworks on Jeopardy!
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Erika Living people 1986 births Women beekeepers 21st-century American women farmers 21st-century American farmers American beekeepers American TikTokers People from Katy, Texas University of Texas at Austin alumni