Cedar Key Apiary

2026 Spring honey is all uncapped and extracted. From here it will need to settle, moisture content confirmed and then bottled.

Anticipate some ready for sale within two weeks.

The flavor is fantastic!!

Beehives create new queens, and swarm naturally to reproduce. It’s always important to stay ahead of swarms as they deplete the resources of the hives.

Typically, as the egg laying capacity of the old queen diminishes the hive decides to raise a new queen. In this case, the old queen usually leaves the hive with many of the worker bees and that’s called a swarm.

Swarm management is really more of an art, but the science is important. The beekeeper should inspect the hives regularly during swarm season and once queen cells are built a swarm is almost certainly going to happen. To avoid a swarm we create a new hive with the queen cells making the old hive believe the swarm is already occurred. Space management is important as well with additional space constantly being added to a growing hive to stay ahead of their growth.

Still, despite the best management practices, bee swarms happen and we keep several traps in the apiary year-round to catch them.

Cedar Key Apiary honeybees are doing much better this year. The wildflower honey they are making is beautiful golden and very tasty.

Overcoming the hurricanes for the past two years was a struggle. Our bees had more focused care over the Winter and their sheen is glistening indicating healthy bees this Spring.

Healthy happy bees!! 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝!🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝!

Florida is in an extreme drought and fresh water sources for all kinds of wildlife are in a critical state. The small pond that we dug at the apiary a few years ago is completely dry.

This is the prime time for honey flow, and it will probably be affected somewhat by the drought with the moisture affecting nectar in wildflowers. Fortunately the honey flow looks better than anticipated at this time especially comparing it to the last few years with hurricanes impact.

Honeybees need significant water and it’s important that a water source be provided at the apiary so they don’t become a nuisance in animal water troughs swimming pools, birdfeeders, etc.

Here is a dedicated watering fountain for the honeybees that is very active.

A friend of mine sent this to me and at first blush it’s interesting.

Hopefully it is true but I can’t find anything else on the internet about this except this Facebook post.

I do some presentations every now and then to different groups about beekeeping and one of the often asked questions is do your bees know you? I tend to believe the bees being a wild animal more or less tolerate a beekeeper‘s behavior. It depends how a beekeeper reacts in actions and temperament and actions as to whether the bees will attack. A great part also depends on the bees attitude and status. Happy 🐝 are bees that are making lots of babies, have lots of food and have nice weather. Angry 🐝 , are bees that are lacking food and in the middle of lousy weather.

Worker bees typically live less than 60 days so I’m not sure that there would be a lot of continuity in the worker 🐝 remembering the beekeeper. It’s possible that every 30 days a newly hatched population of 🐝 might develop some awareness of the beekeeper. In my opinion, the 🐝 pretty much remain a wild animal and that a beekeeper is a manipulator of the honeybee behaviors.

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