Our New Apiary At 206W

We Shut Down Our Elkton Apiary And Say Goodbye To A Dear Friend - Richard MacMullen

Richard "Rich" MacMullen passed away on May 24, 2024. Born on December 4, 1940, he was a lifelong resident of St. Augustine. We had two honey bee hives at his place for over four years. In that time he supplied us with, and taught us how to effectively grow Datil peppers. Rich is and will always be instrumental in the flavor of our Smoked Datil Honey. A pillar of this community and an extremely generous man with his time and knowledge. We miss you buddy!

Crescent Beach Becomes Home To Two Of Our Colonies And Our Newest Apiary

Friday The 13th Brings A Bear And Shut Down To Our Nursery Apiary

A bear showed up at our Nursery apiary and stole some honey. The bear knocked over our Delta hive and took the entire super of honey there ... 9 frames! When we showed up to inspect the damage and pack up the remaining hives we noticed that there were still bees on the frames in the brood chamber. Fortunately we were able to get the hives relocated before it showed up again.

We placed four hives at Weldons Nursery in Satsuma, Fl when we started beekeeping close to four years ago. At one point we had over 20 honey bee colonies at this location and it really enabled us to get up and running fast. Junior Weldon was very kind to us and allowed us to grow our honey bee colonies in a fantastic environment for free. We will always be thankful to him and, we wish him well.

First Honey Harvest Of 2022

Spring Swarms Start Off The Season

The Island Welcomes Two More Colonies And The Addition Of A New Apiary

We were contacted by friends of our Island Apiary hosts, and they wanted bees in their backyard too! This new apiary is located between the beach and SR A1A in a beautiful neighborhood with plenty of resources for the honey bees. Two more hives mean more delicious Island Honey in 2022.

Our New Apiary At 206E

We placed four honey bee hives at our new apiary located on SR 206 between the Intracoastal Waterway and US1. These honey bees are foraging on 14 acres of wild blueberries, blackberries, and gallberries.

Preparing For The Fall Season

We added a new apiary this Summer and it is a good thing - the bees have been busy! Also, we redesigned the Elkton apiary and it is now host to six of our honey bee colonies; Bravo, Mike2, Quebec, Yankee, and two Nucs from Island swarms that we caught over the Summer. We brought our Uniform honey bee hive back to the Shores apiary where we are starting to rear our own Queens. We are early in the process, but things are looking good and we are learning more about honey bees and specifically the Queen.

The New Nursery Becomes Home To Our Charlie And Foxtrot Honey Bee Hives

One of the swarms that we caught earlier this year has been residing in the same nuc that we placed it in upon retrieving them. We castled the nuc and the colony has thrived making it necessary to move them to a 10 frame Langstroth hive > Charlie. Our Foxtrot honey bee hive will reside here for the Fall while we redo our Elkton apiary to allow for two more hives there.

Nurseries Make The Best Apiaries And We Added Another One In St. Augustine

We split our Zulu hive and placed the existing queen in a new honey bee hive called Zulu 2. We did the same thing with our Alpha hive and moved Alpha 2 to the new nursery. These hive reside at a local nursery in St. Augustine and are surrounded by plants and local neighborhoods with tons of pollinators for them.

March Madness Kicks Off The Season With The Addition Of Our Yankee, Zulu, and Alpha 2 Hives - And Five Captured Swarms

We caught three swarms, and two on the same day from our Shores apiary with the help of Bo Sterk from Bees Beyond Borders. We caught another swarm from a kind family in The Shores, and Flagler Hospital called us to remove a swarm next to their Urgent Care facility. A crazy start to the season has helped us complete the cycle with the addition of three hives. With any luck the swarm colonies will get us over 25 total honey bee hives by this Summer.

(shores) Yankee < Golf Swarm 
(nursery) Zulu < Purple Nuc 
(nursery) Alpha 2 < World Golf Village Swarm
*** Romeo > Astor
*** Romeo Split w/ Mated Queen > Astor

Our Elkton Apiary Welcomes An Original

We relocated our Foxtrot honey bee hive to our Elkton apiary in preparation for the splits and swarm season approaching. This honey bee hive is one of the first colonies that we purchased when we began beekeeping and we haven't had to buy honey bees since then.

Xray Becomes Our Newest Hive And A Great Experience For An Island Family

We were contacted by a family that lives on the Island and wanted to host a hive for us. Their children are getting to see and learn how very important honey bees are for all of us and we enjoy sharing knowledge with them about their new house guests each time we inspect our Xray hive.

The Nursery Apiary Welcomes Our Whiskey Hive

We removed a swarm from The South that decided to take up residence in a large flower pot. We laid them on a white sheet and watched them march into their new home safe and secure. Our Whiskey honey bee hive now resides at our Nursery apiary.

Tango Becomes Our First Honey Bee Hive At Our Elkton Apiary

We relocated our Tango honey bee hive to Elkton because of the amount of hive beetles that they were dealing with on the island. The new apiary is rich in food resources for the colony and we are excited to see how different the honey is compared to our St. Augustine apiaries.

We Moved A Nuc Into A 10 Frame Box - Our New Victor Hive

We have had this colony in a 5 frame Nuc but the queen is constantly laying eggs which prompted us to move them to a larger home with more space. This should prevent this colony from swarming anytime soon. Victor is the newest edition to our St. Shores Apiary.

We Caught Our Uniform Hive And Moved It To The Nursery

We removed a colony of honey bees from under a deck in The St. Augustine Shores and moved it to the nursery. The colony had lots of comb and brood and we are hopefully that it will soon be ready to make that delicious honey.

Anastasia Island Welcomes Our Tango Honey Bee Hive

One of our Nucs was quickly outgrowing its home and we were fortunate enough to have a couple that wanted bees in their yard. By popular demand we will soon have Island Honey!

A Swarm Becomes Our Sierra Hive And Resides At The Nursery

As we were packing for a trip out to the Nursery to inspect the hives there, our Alpha honey bee hive swarmed into a tree. Chris went up the tree and captured the swarm and we took it to the Nursery, where it resides now.

One More Trip To The Nursery. One More Honey Bee Colony

We took the remaining mated honey bee queen that we purchased and added it to our Mike honey bee colony that was struggling. This should help the colony acclimate and start building their colony up very soon.

New Queens For The Nursery

We purchased four more queens for our honey bee hives due to swarms and whatever causes them to act like honey bees. We introduced mated queens to our Echo and Hotel hives at the Nursery apiary and our Quebec hive at the Shores apiary the next day.

Two More Colonies At The St. Augustine Shores Apiary

We welcomed to new colonies to our St. Augustine Shores apiary. Our Siera and Tango honey bee hives were Nucs that we allowed to requeen themselves during our early Spring splits. Both look amazing and should be moving to their new home at the Nursery apiary soon!

Relocating Honey Bee Hives To The Nursery

We moved our Hotel honey bee hive and a Nuc that we were allowing to requeen itself from our South apiary to the Nursery apiary. 

Swarm Prevention - New Queens in St. Augustine and Splits for the Nursery

We were fortunate enough to buy five mated Red Pin Line | VSH Queens while we were at University of Florida's 2020 Bee College. We immediately requeened the five hives in St. Augustine and split our Hotel, Alpha, and Golf hives;

Hotel > November
Alpha > Oscar
Golf > Papa

We pulled frames of resources and brood from the Nursery, created two more hives and brought Quebec and Romeo back to the St. Augustine Shores Apiary.

Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike! Guess What Day It Is!

We caught a swarm at our St. Augustine Shores Apiary and moved it to the Nursery. Our lucky 13th honey bee hive is Mike.

Back To The Nursery

We moved our Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, India, Juliet and Kilo Hives back to the Nursery for the new season. We are looking forward to the new setup and we will have the ability to place many more honey bee hives at this location.

St. Augustine For The Holidays

We moved our Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, India, Juliet, Kilo and Observation Hives to our St. Augustine Shores Apiary for the Winter. This allows us the opportunity to keep a closer eye on them during the roughest part of the year for them.

The South Rises Again

We moved our Hotel hive to our South Apiary after some renovations and we are excited to see how the new setup works out. 

Small Hive Beetles Claim A Hive

We lost our Charlie hive to small hive beetles. We battled them for a long time, but it was more than the hive could handle. The queen was by far our best one and the hive's resources have helped out most if not all of our honey bee hives.

We Moved A Hive To The South Apiary

During the honey harvest we noticed that Charlie's queen had swarmed but had left some bees and resources. We placed the Lima hive in Charlie and they are back up and running with amazing resources and lots of space.

Charlie Queen Cells Create A New Hive

We pulled some queens cells from our Charlie hive during the swarm season and placed them in a NUC with resources. Now our Lima hive resides in a 10 frame hive at the nursery.

The Nursery Welcomes A New Hive On Earth Day

Our Kilo hive was placed at the nursery on Earth Day. This colony re-queened itself from some queen cell frames in a NUC, from our Golf hive.

Hives Nine & Ten Moved To The Nursery

March was a busy month for us and we caught two swarms at the St. Augustine Shores Apiary, Number nine being our India hive. During the "swarm season" we pulled some frames with queen cells on them from our Echo hive, placed them in a NUC and let our Juliet hive re-queen themselves.

Captured Swarm Moved To Nursery

Our Hotel hive is a swarm that we captured at The St. Augustine Shores Apiary and is located at The Nursery.

Four More Honey Bee Hives Purchased

Delta, Echo, Foxtrot and Golf hives are located at The Nursery.

Third Honey Bee Hive Purchased

Charlie hive is located in in The South.

First Two Honey Bee Hives Purchased

Alpha and Bravo hives are located in The St. Augustine Shores.