Life & Work with John Ratcliff of Hendersonville

Today we’d like to introduce you to John Ratcliff

Hi John, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Ratcliff Honey Farms is a family business that started out as a just an interest and hobby for me. Several years ago, one of my friends bought a farm, and mentioned he wanted to keep bees on his new farm. I had always found bees fascinating and decided to learn more. I poured over all the information I could find: reading books on beekeeping, exploring the internet for information and videos on beekeeping, meeting with local beekeepers to pick their brains. As my family headed out of town on vacation, I unexpectantly caught my first swarm! Since that day, opportunities have opened up, and we’ve been able help hundreds of people all over the state when bees have moved into their homes or offices. This journey has taken us down roads where I never thought I’d go, and we have been blessed to meet and help many people. My now 16 year old son has helped me with the business as he has grown, and we work together on doing removals and working our bees. Currently we have about 60+ colonies that we manage year round. Ratcliff Honey Farms sell bees to people looking to get into beekeeping, and we also sell honey to the community. We average rescuing about 40-60 colonies a year. We volunteer at the Nashville Zoo and help direct and train the honeybee team at the zoo managing their bees, and we help the Adventure Science Center in Nashville with their bee program as well. I have served on the board of directors with the Nashville Area Beekeepers Association(NABA) for several years and just served as the President of NABA and was recognized as the Beekeeper of the Year for 2024. I also serve as the president of the board for HoneybeeTN.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Beekeeping and running a small family business is very rewarding, but does have some challenges. For starters, the very nature of rescuing honeybees inside a wall or structure can be a puzzle. Having to adapt and learn where the bees may end up once they enter a building was at first a bit of a gamble. Fortunately, tools and technology help overcome some of the guessing game, as well as gaining experience. The pandemic posed a significant challenge for us. We couldn’t just shut down, sometimes honeybees get inside the home and can be a real threat to homeowners. Learning how to manage honeybees and learning how to keep them alive once you remove them was and is a challenge. Constant learning and listening to other beekeepers and researchers on new threats to bees is always needed to maintain colonies of bees. Good time management leads to more ways to both enjoy your time outside of bees but allows you identify what really needs to be done for the bees to thrive. One huge challenge is weather. You never know what the weather may serve you, but you have to plan on the worse case scenario. Studying weather patterns as they approach your location is helpful and necessary in agriculture. We plan on the worst case scenario and hope that the weather will be kind.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
During the week I work as a Senior Cloud Data Engineer for a large insurance company. It has been a pleasure to work with many different people from around the country. I like to help and fix issues for people so that business can grow.

How do you think about happiness?
Getting to work with my family and sharing my love for bee with my son is awesome. Working with my community and teaching other people about bees is my way giving back to people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ratcliffhoneyfarm.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ratcliffhoneyfarm/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ratcliffapiaries/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ratcliffjohn