Apiary
2021
Setting up
Site Work
Equipment
Assembly
BeeKeeping
Placing bees
Maintaining their health
Extracting honey
Starting my own apiary has been a dream for many years, one I intended to pursue in 2020. Then 2020 arrived, and everything that came along with it. I decided, however, that 2021 would not get away from me, and so in the fall of 2020 as well as winter 0f 2020-2021 I began purchasing equipment and materials needed to pursue this dream. In addition to the bees, and hives, there are is a surprising amount of gear needed and I have had a huge learning curve from the beginning. Over the next few months I am going to share my experiences here, and what I have learned. It has been an overwhelmingly positive experience and I am thrilled to be experiencing it and living it.
The simple honeybee Apis mellifera pollinates approximately 80% of the world’s crops, and it is in dramatic decline. A world without honeybees is a world that will struggle to feed it’s almost 8 billion person population, even more than it does now. For that reason, and others, I started my small apiary, in my small corner, to help honeybees have a fighting chance against a host of environmental, social, parasitic, and chemical factors that endanger it’s continued existence.
All images © Wayne Davids
bees on a frame producing brood
hive brood boxes & honey supers
yours truly in a bee-jacket
bees on a frame producing honey
bees with partially capped honey