Apiaries

An apiary, also known as a "bee yard", is a location where beehives of honeybees are kept. The base of the word comes from the Latin word "apis" meaning "bee", leading to "apiarium" or "beehouse" and eventually "apiary."

We chose to develop our apiaries to fortify the pollination of our crops and plants throughout the gardens, and also to use some of the generated excess honey in our recipes, of course! Each year, we maintain multiple hives in our Tree Nursery Apiary, located a few hundred yards away from the main botanical gardens. We also annually install one package hive into our Observation Hive, a colony that is encased in glass for educational use with visiting students, located in our Bee Shed Apiary. 

Our Honeybee Supplier

We have received packages, nucleus "nucs" beehives and mated queens from Heritage Honeybee, LLC, located near Sullivan, WI. They have supplied us with healthy colonies for years! Check out their website by clicking the honeybee below. 

The Benefits of Beekeeping

We have seen marked increases in the produce yields on years where our beehives are full and healthy.  After all, 75% of the crops we eat need to be pollinated by an animal or insect to develop fruit. 

We have seen our own crop yields increase 25-40% since the addition of beehives to The Christopher Farm & Gardens property. Honeybees only seek pollen from one type of plant at a time, so they are incredible efficient at pollinating our crops, jumping from flower to flower of the same plant species before heading back to the hive to offload their pollen.

Robyn Jacobchick and Keith Weiland open one of the honeybee hives located in the Tree Nursery Apiary to check on the health of the hive.

 

The History of Beekeeping

There are records and evidence that honeybees have been kept by people all over the globe for thousands of years for honey and pollination purposes. There have been apiaries discovered in ancient Egypt, with hives made of molded mud that date back to before 2422 BCE. Honey was even discovered in clay pots within the pharaoh Kink Tut's tomb - and it was still edible!