Our Beekeeping Story

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A family member recently forwarded me a copy of two newspaper clippings from “The Sentinel”, a daily newspaper based in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The articles were written in 1924 and 1925 and discuss my great grandfather’s activity as a local beekeeper and President of the Cumberland County Beekeepers Association. Over 90 years later, I found myself standing in the middle of a small farm field, dressed in beekeeper’s garb and anxiously awaiting the opening of my friend John’s beehive. Bees filled the air, there was a roar of buzzing and the aroma of honey and fresh propolis touched my senses. Peering into this first beehive, these small creatures and their society immediately fascinated me, and I wanted to learn more about them.

I conducted a year of research, read numerous books and took several beekeeping classes offered by local beekeeping clubs and our state apiarist in order to educate myself. However, nothing allowed me to learn more than diving into hives and attempting to evaluate what I was looking at inside the hive and problem solving. My educational and professional background includes biology and public health, but I have a family history steeped in farming and agriculture. Soon, our apiaries were launched, and they grew almost exponentially.

Garden State Apiaries continues to breed the highest quality local nucleus colonies and production hives with honeybee stock that is adapted to the State of New Jersey’s diverse environment and microclimate. Our vision is to provide New Jersey beekeepers with excellent honeybee stock with responsibilities to the honey bees that we keep, the habitat we provide them and the hive products that we produce for our local communities to enjoy.