Buying Bees

This Spring, Christian is buying more honey bees for the lower fields near his stream. He will buy a nuc, which is 4-6 frames of honey bees ready for the new hive.

Recently, New Jersey nearly passed new laws restricting 5 acre land owners and less to only two hives, which met with terrific disapproval from hobbyist and professional beekeepers. The bee mite and colony collapse disasters challenging honey bees survival and all the good they do pollinating has challenged this critical NJ's state insect and our affected crops (tomatoes, blueberries, cranberries, fruits & vegetables etc.). Many enthusiasts have been inspired to help save them after a loss of 10 million hives and near extinction of wild bees in some areas. Hopefully new guidelines rather than costly regulations will allow all existing hives in NJ to continue as in Washington DC where 4 hives are allowed on a quarter of an acre.

We kept honey bees for many years at our house, and now it is fun to pass our equipment on to the boys. Christian uses the tack room in the big barn to store his beekeeping equipment.