Update...

I moved into town and gave the bees to a fellow who had been helping me and an old friend in N.C. just starting out. This info will be left up here as long as the web server keeps showing hits.

I've been keeping bees in Southeast Virginia on and off since I was 16 or so. I currently maintain two locations, one at home and one at Henley's Farm in Pungo. The Henleys are genuinely nice folks who operate a "You Pick" operation at the family farm and a retail farm stand in "Downtown Pungo" at the intersection of Princess Anne and Indian River roads.

In return for the pollination services my bees provide to their wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetables, the Henleys provide me with an excellent beeyard location and sell all the honey I produce at their stand except for the honey I sell on my desk at work.

Field Notes

Now sort of a BeeBlog, origionally a series of short newspaper articles that first appeared in " The Forager ", the monthly newsletter of the Tidewater Beekeepers Association.

Department of Agriculture Honey Reports

Next time you're talking to another beekeeper from around here and he launches into a "fish tale" about how he got XXX pounds of honey this year off each colony, click the above link and select the Honey, 02.27.04 report. That's right, the average in Virginia is a measly 38 pounds. That figure counts the colonies in the Shenandoah Valley, where the grass is definitely greener. Now you don't feel so bad do 'ya?

Fall 2001 Honey Crop

Some photos of the fall honey crop during extraction with some almost unpaid family labor.

Foulbrood!

In the late summer of 2001 I confirmed the scourge of all beekeepers. Paying attention to all the new bee miladies one sometimes forgets the old ones.

Moving Bees

These are photos from 1998 when I used to move a lot of bees around for pollination. I don't do that nearly as much anymore.

Note: This page has many small photos. If you are on dialup, get a cup of coffee :-)

Feeding Bees

There are about as many ways to feed bees as there are beekeepers. Here's how I do it these days.