https://www.facebook.com/101154902029227/

beeman_z, Milford, NJ (2026)

03/11/2026

Days of Our Hives: Episode 88

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
Beekeeping is tough

It has been a rollercoaster of a couple weeks..On Feb. 28th I attended the New Jersey Beekeepers Association winter meeting..We heard some very good speakers on a variety of subjects. I was there to to pick up our ribbons and awards from the NJBA State Honey Show. We entered 16 categories and came home with 13 ribbons plus Best Exhibtor and Division Best in Cut comb and spreads. I watched our blue ribbons winners auctioned off at the end of the afternoon. The light honey brought $47/lb. Our light has won the last 3 years in a row. Our Chunk honey sold for $48./lb. And our cut comb sold for $50/section!! I was Best Exhibitor for the second year in a row. I was on cloud 9 with our awards.
But then came our hive inspections as the bitter cold winter weather broke. Sadly, over the last week, we have discovered we have lost 42 of the 57 colonies we entered winter with. Our worst loss ever. Nearly 75% of our colonies died. How depressing! So sad to stand in the bee yard and scan all the hives knowing the majority are dead. What could I have done differently? I don't know. The exact causes are a mystery with many of the colonies. Some I know why, but most I don't. I had to inform my many customers I couldn't fulfill their orders for bees this spring. On a positive note the survivors are strong and their genetics will be a good source to rebuild our numbers with. We have our work cut out for us thus spring

02/01/2026

Days of Our Hives: Episode 87

Late in 2025 I got a hair-brained idea to build a teak grafting frame for entry in the 2026 National Honey Show , hosted at the North American Honey Bee Expo in Louisville KY. While reading the rules there is a category tailor made for me, Woodcraft in Beekeeping. I thought what piece of wooden ware is somewhat complex and challenging. Building a hive box is kind of a drawer box with no bottom...i didn't find it too exciting. After watching Cory doing Harbo Assays and learning how to do it myself from watching Cory I thought, thats it! a grafting frame, a simple but useful tool that I can modify the design and make it a little more elegant...then I raised the bar for myself by adding ivory inlay and 12 hand carved lambs tongues, wedged thru-tenons and hand cut dovetails . I managed to come home with the Blue Ribbon and title National Champion. It was weeks of work designing, sourcing the thumb screws and building and finishing it. The attached photos are of some of the steps of construction and below in the comments is the typed description of the object i was required to submit with it... I put it in the comments because its too long to be included here.

01/12/2026

Days of Our Hives: Episode 86

It's good to be home after a whirlwind tour at the North American Honey Bee Expo 2026 (NAHBE), held in Louisville KY. Many thanks to Doug for his tireless hours behind the wheel. If you're a beekeeper and want to expand your knowledge, grow your apiary, see the latest innovations or just hang out with the friendliest group of Honey Bee Nerds, this is the place to be!! NJ Bee Nerds are the best of course. NAHBE has it all, the National Honey Show Championships, 298 participants, 1200 entries, 3 days of lectures by the experts, hundreds of people in every lecture hall, shop the largest bee keeping trade show in the USA and a chance to mingle and chat with many of the experts in the field,from around the world, not to mention the YouTube celebs.

I had a great time, of course I packed Doug's car with 17 honey show entries. Im proud to say I came home with 6 ribbons from 4 different categories. I earned 1st place and National Champion in the Woodcraft in beekeeping with my Teak grafting frame w/ hand cut inlay, hand cut dovetails and lamb's tongue chamfers. 3 of the ribbons were in the photography categories (2) 4ths and a 6th. A 2nd place in Gadgets (they did not award a first) and 3rd in the chunk honey (again they did not award a 1st). The honey shows are challenging, I can't imagine the collective hours spent by the entrants in preparation for the competition.
We were honored to be one of the NJ representatives at the North American Honey Bar.
And I got to speak and shake hands with many of my Beekeeping Heros. I'm looking forward to NAHBE 2027!
Thanks to Kamon and all the staff for putting on a great Expo!

12/21/2025

Days of Our Hives: Episode 85

Happy Winter Solstice!
The Mount Joy Honey Hut is restocked for those last minute Christmas gifts. All colors are currently stocked as well as honey sampler flights in hand-crafted boxes made of sapele or antique cherry.
There is also honey produced by the surviving colony of bees I removed from Riegelsville Boro Hall over two years ago. They are currently alive and well.
We will keep it well stocked during the upcoming days.

Thank you and Merry Christmas!
Happy Beekeeping!

12/17/2025

Days of Our Hives: Episode 84

This past weekend I was bottling the honey produced by the descendants of the honey bee colony I removed from the Historic Riegelsville Boro Hall and Public Library in September 2023. This is the Great Granddaughter Queen of the colony I removed that week. The last video is one I took during that removal. They are still going strong. They were healthy bees in the video I shot in August this year right up until I sealed them up for winter. Now they are as snug as some bugs in a box during this cold spell.
Their honey is like their apiary mates this year, a rich amber with a bold flavor and smooth finish.
I will be at the Riegelsville Library Cookie Bake and craft sale this Sunday with this honey as well as others and flight boxes of varietal honey. After the sale it will be in the Mount Joy Honey Hut.
Happy Beekeeping!
Merry Christmas

11/09/2025

Days of Our Hives: Episode 83

Yesterday I did a little early November bee work. I was removing feeders from the last handful of colonies. About 25% received an Oxalic Acid Vaporization.
But this first colony is one of my Missouri Mite Hunters from , they have had no mite treatments for two full seasons and they are going into winter looking strong. Recently they scored a 4.0 on the Harbo Assay,the highest score possible. This queen is marked as one of my VSH breeders for 2026, provided she survives the winter.
The second video is a of a forager gathering wax from old comb... I often watch them recycling wax and propolis I've left around the bee yards.
Most all the queens in the yards have shut down, meaning no brood or eggs. The colonies know winter is near, no pollen or nectar is available any longer. In January they will begin raising brood for the spring build up..but many cold nights will come before then.
Happy Beekeeping!

10/12/2025

Days of Our Hives: Episode 82

The quest for Hygienic Bees continues....but I'm seeing very positive results! I believe I'm heading down the right path to raise VSH ( Varroa Sensitive Hygiene) bees. I'm sorry, this is going to be a long one.
Varroa Mites are public enemy #1 to honey bees. They have been in the USA for nearly 40 years and they were the root cause of the die off of 80% of the honey bees in the US in the last year or two.
We have had the same treatments available, in different concentrations, but the same... However, there are some new ones on the market with promise. But a resistant bee is superior to all of our treatments.
With VSH the bees take care of the mites on their own. I started following Cory Stevens of Stevens' Bee Co. about 4 years ago. Cory is an entomologist and queen breeder. His bees have gone untreated for 15 years and continue to survive and thrive. He has been selecting for the VSH trait for years and has done all the hard work. After listening to Cory's talks I knew I had to bring some if his stock to our area.
Currently I have about 20+ queens of the 30+ purchased as virgin queens that then mated with drones in our area.
The gold standard for testing for the VSH trait is the Harbo Assay, a scale of 0-4 developed by Dr. John Harbo. As Cory says, "Test your best". I learned how from Cory's videos and I just completed testing the 3 colonies I see as top performers, all three are untreated. During the Harbo test you pull 100 or 200 pupae examining each cell and pupae for reproductive mites. Essentially the fewer the mites the better the score. The colonies I selected to test scored very high. Two scored a 4 out of 4 and one a 3 of 4..The 3 had a single mite in 200 pupae. 2 are Cory's queens 1 is a local swarm I retrieved a couple seasons ago. Provided these survive the upcoming winter they will be my breeding stock next spring. It's a long term goal but I think im headed in the right direction. My goal is to raise the resistance and in turn the survivability of our local stock. If you made it through my long winded explanation, Thank you!
Happy Beekeeping!

10/12/2025

Days of Our Hives: Episode 81

About a week and a half ago I had the honor of being a guest on Kevin Inglin's,The Beekeeper's Corner Podcast.
Link below

https://www.bkcorner.org/episode-283-the-guy/

If you don't know Kevin, he is a fellow Northwest New Jersey Beekeeper's Association member and past president, EAS Certified Master Beekeeper, founder and host to Managed Mentoring.com , a man with thousands of volunteer hours directed toward the betterment of Beekeepers and Honey bees alike. A friend and my mentor in my personal quest for EAS certification.
It truly was an honor to be invited to chat about bees, our family history, the association's history and my latest endeavor to raise VSH queens ,Varroa Sensitive Hygiene, using hygienic bees and several tools to test their behavior, one of them being UBO, Unhealthy Brood Oder, a pheromones test and assay.
more on those to follow.
Many thanks to Kevin! It was great fun and a chance to share some of my thoughts with a broader audience. If you have and hour to spare log in and give BK Corner a like and a follow. It's also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Happy Beekeeping!

09/30/2025

Days of Our Hives: Episode 80

Sunday I was in the bee yard much of the day. It's a race against the clock this time of year. I still had 3 swarm boxes with comb drawn down off the bottom of the deep frames. I will need these bait hives next spring so I need to get these colonies into standard equipment ASAP .The challenge is cutting the extended comb off the bottom and rubberbanding it into empty frames and doing it quickly during robbing season, before the other bees catch the scent of honey. I managed to transfer 1 of them and I marked the queen.
Then I did my first ever Harbo Assay. This is a method to assess the hygienic tendency of a colony or queen. Dr Harbo developed the test and scoring 0-4.. Essentially you're plucking nearly developed pupae from the capped cells searching for reproducing Varroa mites to check the colony for VSH ,Varroa Sensitive Hygiene. The queen was from Cory Stevens stock, she has not been treated for mites for two seasons and scored a 3 out of 4....to a nerdy beekeeper its very exciting. I have bees in my yard expressing measurable hygienic behavior! A first big step toward a stronger strain of local bees! Looking forward to the future!
Happy Beekeeping!

09/14/2025

Days of Our Hives: Episode 79

Our last summer honey harvest is nearly complete. After 10 days of pulling honey supers and late night extracting sessions I'm almost done.(a sore back to prove it) I still have have a couple boxes I still need to pull. As I thought the harvest was lower than the last couple years...about a 1/3rd less this year.. about 640lbs.this harvest.

Unfortunately, I may need to raise my honey price this year, operating costs continue to increase but harvest is down. Jars, lids, insurance, sugar to feed the small colonies, fuel etc continue to go up. Some of it a direct result of tariffs.

The harvest volume is down all due to the relentless spring rain that "grounded" the bees from flight. The colonies are strong and healthy so we are thankful. Next year the harvest will return. You can see by the total lack of light honey in the jars this year that bees missed out on Black Locust for the most part. What they did gather was blended on the same frame with Tulip Poplar.

I'm getting a little smarter as my years advance...this harvest I took a sample jar of each spin of the extractor so I know exactly what color is in each bucket.
More bee yard work today...it never ends
Happy Beekeeping!

08/30/2025

Days of Our Hives: Episode 78

The 2025 Honey Show Season has come to an end. We entered our products of the hive into 5 separate shows, a national show, an Eastern US show, a NJ state show and 2 county 4H fairs.
Our Bees did it again!
We were awarded over 50 ribbons and awards between the 5 shows. Best exhibitor in several. Our light honey is New Jersey's Best Extracted Honey 2 years in a row and we won Best in Show for both our candles and our chunk honey at the 4H fairs. And best exhibitor at the NJ state and both county fair shows.
But there's no rest for the weary, we will be laboring on Labor Day as we harvest the honey that we didn't get to earlier in the season. Unfortunately like all beekeepers in our region this year's harvest will be down significantly from years past. But we are grateful for what the bees provided. They are healthy and strong going into the fall, and that's most important with the catastrophic losses the Beekeeping industry has suffered over the last 18 months. I feel very good about the health of our bees. Its a lot of hard work but worth every hour I spend among them. We can learn a great deal from the bees!
Hopefully you will stop by the Mount Joy Honey Hut and get a taste of what the Honey Show Judges already know.
Happy Beekeeping!

beeman_z

03/11/2026

02/01/2026

01/12/2026

12/21/2025

12/17/2025

11/09/2025

10/12/2025

10/12/2025

09/30/2025

09/14/2025

08/30/2025

Address

Website

Alerts

Contact The Business

Shortcuts

Share

Category