Honeybees

In 2021 we brought in honey bees through a partnership with a local honeybee company called Apiverte. We are the hosts for two of their EZHouses, which are beautiful painted sheds that each contain four colonies of bees. Their EZHouses are a very innovative take on bee hives and provide a lot of advantages over the classic stackable boxes (called Langstroth hives) for both beekeepers and bee health. Apiverte comes about once a week during the season to check on the bees' health, as well as to harvest the honey three times per year. We expect that our annual harvest will be around 300 kilograms of honey. 

Our bees spend spring through fall working away and making wonderful honey. They visit our entire farm, including our gardens and orchards as well as wildflowers throughout the fields and forests of the surrounding areas. They are valuable workers for us as they improve the pollination rates of our fruits and vegetables, giving us another added benefit on top of the honey.

The honey itself is delightful. It is all kept unblended in single batches, so that one can taste the seasons by the spoonful. Spring honey tends to be lighter and more delicate, while the fall honey has a stronger flavor and a darker golden hue. All of our honey is left raw (unpasteurized) and unadulterated without any additives or fillers, making it very different from the stuff found in most grocery stores. We carry our honey in a variety of sizes, and even stock honey still in the comb, a very special treat.

Finally, we will run one or two bee events per year in conjunction with Apiverte. They come with their harvesting trailer, honey samples and other bee products, and people can get first-hand experience with the bees and learn from the bee experts. Our first event in August of 2021 was a great success, with lots of visitors and lots of honey.