Close-up of a honeybee collecting pollen from a daisy

The Apiary

Bees are responsible for pollinating roughly 80 percent of all flowering plants. On foraging flights, bees collect nectar and pollen to take back to the hive. As they move from flower to flower, they transfer some of that pollen to the new plant, thus fertilizing it. Our bees can travel one to two miles from the garden while foraging and produce an average of 200 pounds of surplus honey each year.

Throughout the year, the beekeepers at SWQV Community Garden tend to four to five hives, which are located at the northeast corner of the garden.

How It Works

During the warm active months from March through September, when the queen is laying eggs and the workers are building up robust honey stores, our beekeepers conduct regular inspections every few weeks to maintain the health and productivity of the hives.
Inspections ensure the queen is laying eggs, the new brood is healthy, and the colony has sufficient space for growth. Organic formic acid treatments for varroa destructor mite control are performed twice each season in spring and fall.
At the end of the season, surplus comb for harvest is de-capped with a hot knife, and honey is extracted by mechanical centrifugation. Honey is then bottled by member volunteers and offered for sale to member gardeners in October.
In the cold months, the colony stays weakly active inside the hive in a state of torpor. Clustering together to maintain constant warmth for the queen, the bees consume 40 to 60 pounds of stored honey and pollen for energy and emerge only to eliminate waste. This is the quiet time of the season where the staff will perform occasional visual inspections but leave the hives undisturbed until reemergence the following spring.

A Word about Swarms

When a colony senses it has become overcrowded (a natural and regular occurrence in the spring), the old queen and about half the worker bees will swarm, that is, leave the old hive to establish a new colony. A swarm may be observed as a tight ball of thousands of bees gathered in a shrub, tree branch, or on the ground. Should a swarm occur gardeners should contact our beekeepers, who will collect the swarm and secure the bees a new home. We regularly partner with Don Shump at Philadelphia Bee Company to take extra swarms we do not have capacity for. Email or call info@philadelephiabee.com, 215-888-0893, and describe where the swarm is located. Please note: Although swarming bees might sound dangerous, they are unlikely to sting, more interested in finding a new home than they are in you.

How to Help

If you’re interested in learning about beekeeping at the garden or opportunities to volunteer to work at the apiary, contact Dean McNulty at mcnultyd01@gmail.com or Kurt Bresser at kurt.bresser@temple.edu.