Welcome to Victory Garden Apiary, now located in beautiful Crisfield, MD. Our number one goal is preservation of the honeybee colonies in our area and public education on honeybees. We also occasionally sell honeybee colonies, honey, beeswax and bee products to support our cause. Future plans include guided apiary tours and possibly a small honey tasting area. If you’re interested in checking us out, please contact us for information!
Announcement:
Due to time and health constraints, we are no longer performing structural removals (also called cut-outs) beginning in 2023. We are certainly able to offer advice and expertise, but we cannot perform these types of complex hive relocations going forward. We will still offer swarm removal services. The information on the “Bees In Structures Or Trees” section of this website is still relevant, no matter who performs your removal.
From Facebook
The bees removed from the maple tree on Tuesday are cleaning and recovering. I'm providing them with sugar syrup and pollen substitute to give them a little boost. They have a rough go ahead as we approach the colder months. We'll give them all the help we can say they can continue doing their thing in the spring.
This past Tuesday, we assisted our friends at Eastern Shore Tree Experts with a bee tree. This silver maple was hollow and at risk of causing damage to people and property. The bees were very low on resources and definitely would have starved over this coming winter. We transferred them to a hive box and brought them back to the apiary where they'll receive some much needed food.
Welcome to beekeeping in July. This is called "bearding". In addition to being stinking hot and humid, there's not a ton of forage in our area this time of year. The workforce doesn't have a lot to do, so they spend a lot of time hanging on the outside of the hive to keep the inside cooler. The bigger the hive, the bigger the beard.![]()
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#saveTheBees #beekeeping #bee #beefarm #beekeeper #beesofinstagram #bees #apiary #apiculture #Delmarva #delmarvalous
I built this solitary bee house to use as an example of proper nesting materials for native bees. The students at Y.E.A.S. used it as part of their presentation. If you're using a solid block of wood with holes drilled in it, your heart is in the right place, but it's less than ideal.![]()
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The bee house now lives on this post near one of my apiaries. New beekeepers need to be aware that when they introduce their honeybee hives to a new location, they're also introducing competition for forage with the bees that already live there. Providing habitat and adopting other native bee friendly habits will help keep everyone healthy and happy.![]()
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#saveTheBees #beekeeping #bee #beefarm #beekeeper #beesofinstagram #bees #apiary #apiculture #Delmarva #delmarvalous
Nothing like a swarm call to wrap up the afternoon.![]()
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#saveTheBees #beekeeping #bee #beefarm #beekeeper #beesofinstagram #bees #apiary #apiculture #Delmarva #delmarvalous
Had a great day today at the Youth Environmental Action Summit at Salisbury University, where I assisted two high school seniors with their presentation on native bees. ![]()
Craig and Bryan are two amazing young men that did a great deal of research to bring their audience the information they needed to be in the know on bees native to the eastern shore of Maryland, which often take a back seat to the honeybee. They did a fantastic job and were both honored with awards at the end of the event. Their enthusiasm for their topic and environmental topics in general definitely came shining through.![]()
Craig definitely wins the best hair award in my book.
While cleaning up at the old house, I discovered a swarm trap that fell down and was grown over with vines and thorns. Of course, this one was full of bees. It was in really bad shape, requiring a lot of duct tape just to hold it together for transport. The box will hold 7 deep frames, but only had 1 medium installed. ![]()
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The box landed at an odd angle that I wasn't able to replicate. Reorienting the comb is tough on the bees and they started pulling out brood after sitting on a concrete block for a rainy day. I transferred the comb into frames on the next sunny day. I believe they will recover and carry on.![]()
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#saveTheBees #beekeeping #bee #beefarm #beekeeper #beesofinstagram #bees #apiary #apiculture #Delmarva #delmarvalous
It has been a heck of a swarm season. Seems like I've been wrangling bees non-stop.![]()
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#saveTheBees #beekeeping #bee #beefarm #beekeeper #beesofinstagram #bees #apiary #apiculture #Delmarva #delmarvalous
Last year I placed some bees at Wildwood Lavender Farm just before my surgery, expecting to bounce back in no time. Little did I know what recovery would really be like, taking me out for the remainder of the summer. I wasn't able to check on the bees for the entire season and they stayed in a single deep box over the winter. Miraculously, one of the two hives survived. I got a good look at them this past weekend and gave them some clean drawn comb to give them a boost into this season. Let's hear it for healthy local honeybees!![]()
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#saveTheBees #beekeeping #bee #beefarm #beekeeper #beesofinstagram #bees #apiary #apiculture #Delmarva #delmarvalous
The bees from yesterday's swarm marching into their new home. There were three queens in this swarm! That's not unusual for large hives that are producing lots of swarm cells (queens). They would have ended up killing all but one in the long run, but I separated them to use in other new splits.![]()
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#saveTheBees #beekeeping #bee #beefarm #beekeeper #beesofinstagram #bees #apiary #apiculture #Delmarva #delmarvalous