About Sweet Time Apiary
Sweet Time Apiary was established in 2005 by myself and my wife Nancy at our farm in Whitefield, Maine. We initially intended to start out with 2 hives.. that sounded like a reasonable number.. we could handle that. We were quickly talked into getting 3 hives (by a person selling bees). I built a nice platform that would hold 6 hives... and very soon of course, we had 6 hives. Then I was complaining to a friend of mine who also happens to be a migratory beekeeper that I couldn't get any more bees... to which he replied "I'll sell you some bees." Well, to make a long story short, he made me an offer on 20 hives that I couldn't refuse. The hives were sitting in a blueberry field up in Hope, Maine. Bringing them home in our pickup truck was quite an experience.
This last purchase brought our hive count to 26. Then a few weeks later, my wife and I caught our first swarm. which brought us to our current hive count of 27. Cleary, it isn't going to stop there, but just how big we're going to get is still uncertain. We'll be establishing an out-apiary perhaps as soon as this summer and look forward to taking on small pollination projects next year.
The learning curve has been steep, and we're still climbing. It seems every day there is a new challenge or another head-scratching situation to fathom: What are they doing? Why are they doing it? What should we do, if anything? We learn something new every day, and the many online resources available have been valuable sources of information, encouragement, and inspiration.
It is our intention to raise our bees organically through the use of sound, natural, and sustainable management techniques. The use of chemicals, medicines, and insecticides to combat bee diseases and pests has resulted in a greatly weakened bee population and greatly strengthened diseases and pests- the loss of 50% of the bees in this country last winter from Varroa mite infestations and related ailments is proof of this fact.
The manner in which we intend to keep our bees is closely tied to our mission statement It will no doubt take us a while to achieve our goal of a chemical-free and treatment-free apiary but we are certain it can be done and in fact, must be done. We have already split from the mainstream beekeeping herd by our decision to raise bees naturally. We will produce superior bees and honey.
