Pick up daily 8-6 from the self serve CAUTION!!!!! ……that grocery store honey |
Backyard Beekeeping in Naples, Florida…
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9/16/2023 – Finally …….a beer made for all the backyard beekeepers out there…..Sometimes you just want to go where they know your name…….. |
8/4/2023 – NaplesBees had the largest honey harvest ever!!!! About 852 pounds of delicious wildflower capped honey was harvested from the 23 hive apiary. It is just always amazing how the bees can surprise one with their activity when a nectar flow happens. Straight from the hive to the bucket and bottle within hours. Fully capped honey cells harvesting of nature’s pure honey…. it simply doesn’t get any better honey than this.
2/20/2023 – The NaplesBees apiary hives are starting to increase their size as evident on multiple hives exploding with new foragers emerging and doing their figure eight location dance upon first emerging from the hive. They will remember their hive’s exact location to return to when they do their traveling for as much as 5 miles from their hive entrance. The audio heard in the video is the actual roaring sound the bees produce when hundreds are hovering in front of the hive entrance. It only lasts for a few minutes before the hive settles down to continue the normal coming and going of foraging bees.
12/8/2022 – An apiary wide check of all the honey supers showed that the bees have been able to make some honey despite the devastating effects of local flora loss due to hurricane Ian winds, but the amount of honey is significantly less than normal. A second honey harvest for the year 2022 will probably not be possible, but, hopefully, one can be done early in 2023. I am always careful to leave enough honey for the hives’ own use during the cooler winter months as this is their main source of nutrition during this time period.
10/16/2022 – The NaplesBees apiary hives survived the area 9/23/2022 hurricane Ian. A lot of the surrounding vegetation was stripped by the high winds, so the bees’ nectar and pollen may be in short supply for them for a while. But nature is resilient and life goes on.
6/28/2022 – We did our first honey harvest of the year and the honey is a medium dark amber color which is typical for us this time or year. When available, get a bottle of this delicious and healthful honey here There was a nice newspaper article appearing about SWFL backyard beekeeping and the honey harvest here .
3/30/2022 – Removals and swarms are again starting the season off as very active here.
11/4/2021 – We did our second honey harvest of the year and it was a good size harvest.
9/1/2021 – There has been a lot of apiary bee activity in the last few months. The NaplesBees apiary is at 23 strong hives, which is the capacity here for space/time/energy!! Bees Boyz and Girlz now has a new “holding” apiary for hives that need a home and can’t be kept here. The goal is to have a temporary place for hives with the intent for them to become a source for existing or future area backyard beekeepers.
6/11/2021 – We did our first honey harvest of the year.
4/12/2021 – Removals and swarms are starting the season off as very active here.
3/23/2021 – A limited number of established hives are for sale here.
11/13/2020 – We did our second honey harvest of the year.
8/7/2020 – We did a FUN removal of a large hive with the help of 4 young beekeepers. See pictures here.
7/2/2020 – We did our first honey harvest of the year.
6/27/2020 – The Bee Boyz and Girlz group did a live removal from a North Naples house roof. See details and pictures here.
6/1/2020 – Bee Boyz and Girlz get together group formed.
5/19/2020 – Short time lapse video showing a NaplesBees hive’s bees working together on getting rid of a rubberband used to hold comb sections in place! They work it to the edge and then it quickly falls off as bees gather their weight on the dangling end.
4/17/2020 – NaplesBees apiary is getting busy fast! Populations are growing as many nurse bees transition to become foraging bees. Watch full screen!
4/12/2020 – Easter Sunday morning swarm removal video here.
3/11/2020 – A very large hive was removed. See details and pictures here.
3/3/2020 – A very small hive was removed from a cypress tree. See details and pictures here.
2/21/2020 – A difficult but successful removal from a street Comcast box. See details and pictures here.
1/2/2020 – A small swarm on a tree trunk was removed. See a picture here.
1/2/2020 – A beekeeping friend in Marco Island is keeping hives in a creative way at his waterfront house located on a canal. Notice in the right picture a couple hives with little weathervanes!
Click here for Older News from previous years
Below are views of the NaplesBees apiary:
August, 2023
July, 2018
(click on the picture for larger view)
some hive entrances face east and some face west
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view looking left and right from the BeeCam1 stand