Renewal, Reflections, and Goals: Thoughts on the 2024 Bee Season

This is a photo of my first bee colonies. Things have changed so much since then!

As we truly enter Spring, the time of renewal and reinvigoration after a long winter, I thought now would be a good time to check back in with all of you and post a little reminder of what Honey Harvest Apiary is and what our overall goal is!

I started Honey Harvest Apiary last year after returning from a trip to the Peruvian Amazon in June of 2023. I’ll keep the details short (though I’m thinking of sharing the whole story in the future!), but basically Honey Harvest Apiary had been an idea of mine for years to that point. It wasn’t until this lifechanging trip that I was totally invigorated to live out my dream and passion of committing my life to honey bees. 

My journey with bees has taken me everywhere: like I said I’ve gone to the Amazon to study bees, I’ve hunted for wild colonies of bees in forests all along the East Coast, and I’ve mentored new generations of beekeepers as they start their own journeys! The adventures will keep continuing: this year alone I will be teaching beekeeping to high school students in Cape May County, I’ve already given talks to beekeepers in New Jersey and Delaware, and (the greatest adventure of them all!) continuing to establish my business in my home, South Jersey.

I see the honey bee as being critical to our ways of life down here. Part of our mission at Honey Harvest Apiary is to get you (yes, you!) passionate and knowledgeable about honey bees and our local ecosystems! That’s why we pride ourselves on selling South Jersey wildflower honey, it’s a direct representation of our floral ecosystems! Honey bees support the flowers, thus supporting local environments and our crops, thus forming the base that we all rely on to live our day to day lives.

I truly think we are unlike many other honey seller out here. We don’t import honey from other countries, cut it with corn syrup, and slap a label on it that makes it seem local, and we’re not just passively selling hive products to get by either! What we’re doing is telling an untold story of pollination and pollinators in our area, explaining why you should care about it, and giving you direct, tangible experience and knowledge of it. It’s why we bring an observation hive to events as much as possible: I want you to see the bees that make our products and support our livelihoods!

We’re still a new business, so I do think things will change and grow. We will always have new goals, new initiatives, I will have new adventures and new learning experiences, and hopefully the way we change and grow will also help South Jersey change and grow. That’s what we’re all about, South Jersey is its own dynamic community (kind of like a hive!) and not only are we a part of it but so are you! Make sure to keep up to date with us as we keep spreading the story of the bees and how they can help us :) - Christian, owner & Head Beekeeper