Welcome to Our Apiary!

 We are so happy to announce the arrival of our bees to our apiary! We have just installed the first 2 beehives this year with 2 packages of Apis mellifera (also known as the Western and Italian honey bee).  We are looking forward to a great year and harvest with these beautiful ladies on the team!!! 

We will have wildflower honey (harvested from various wildflowers and clovers across Durham), honeycomb, beeswax, and hive parts (supers, frames, covers, stands, etc.) for purchase as they become available.So check Back Often!!

Also, "bee" sure to keep an eye out for our Mason Comb Jars! Each of these jars (in Pint and Quart sizes) are super special! The bees actually build the comb right in the jars, thus making each one unique and completely untouched by human hands! once the comb is built out and capped, the jars are removed and filled with harvested honey and sealed.  These are the perfect gift for the real honey fanatics! 

As we grow and get into the bee season, we will update information about our honey, comb, and other bee products as we go through the seasons here.

We are starting our with 2 colonies and will be building 10 custom complete Langstroth hives to begin the season strong. As the bees grow, so does the apiary. We plan to split the strongest hives every year to expand the apiary and production, all while tending to the bees' every needs.  How a Langstroth hive works is the hive is divided into 2 parts, the brood section and the honey section. Each Honey Super is stacked on top of the Brood Boxes on the bottom of the hive. This allows the bees to have a large enough home with plenty of heat and food to last through out the winter.  Each Hive can have up to 6 to 8 honey supers! An additional honey super is placed on top of the hive as the bees fill them up with honey. At the end of the season, the supers are collected and the honey is harvested. The harvested frames and supers are then set next to the hives for the bees to "clean" them.  The bees are so efficient at cleaning the frames, that not a single drop of honey is left behind!

Beekeeping is a wonderful and important trade that everyone can enjoy.  At LOR we are working with our bees to find new and more efficient ways to supplement their nutrition and streamline their colonies to be healthier, stronger, and productive.  We can accomplish this by various feeding methods, re-engineering the hives according to what the bees like, and grooming the colonies that show the best working, strength, and hygienic practices while keeping the gene pool diverse enough to prevent a genetic collapse.  

LOR is researching various affects of different materials and designs for the hives as well as different natural foodstuff supplies including microalgae for a nutritious boost! Check out our research section to get more information!