Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1115953
64 MAY 2019 CONTACT beverlybees.com Bees are fast at building combs, Anita says. "It's a total mess," Brian agrees. "Forty thousand bees with all that wax and all that honey—removal can take all day." e Deelys started offering pesticide-free live bee removal as a means of improving the health of their own home hives, as honeybees that have swarmed after the winter are gener- ally an indicator of a healthy colony. It's a win-win; home- owners get their bees removed, and Beverly Bees gets a new colony for free. is gives the Deelys more hives for produc- ing award-winning microbatch honey, a wide range of skin- care products, and candles in hundreds of different shapes. Interestingly, when you visit the Deelys' bee farm, you don't see rows of hives stretching off into the distance; while Anita manages around 100 honeybee hives, only a few are on her property. "We spread our bees out, which is more natural," An- ita says. So her hives can be found throughout the North Shore and into Southern New Hampshire, through a hive-hosting program that enables homeowners to get all the benefits of having bees, with none of the hassle. Beverly Bees places the hive, maintains it, and extracts the honey, and each home- owner gets 2 pounds of raw honey from their own backyard. Beverly Bees bottles all their honey in microbatches, keeping the sweet treats from specific areas together, as each batch has its own unique terroir and flavor. e approach works well—microbatch honey from a Beverly Bees colony in Danvers recently took a top prize at the annual Good Food awards, beating out more than 2,000 entries in a blind tasting. Sadly for honey lovers, all of Beverly Bees' honey, includ- ing that award-winning batch, was just about sold out at press time, but a new harvest should be available starting in July. In the meantime, think about this: One pound of honey represents about 2 million flowers. And make sure to be kind to the bees. I N - D E P T H The most important step to being bee-friendly is avoiding pesticides, says Anita Deely of Beverly Bees. She sells "No Spraying" lawn signs, after an early hard lesson of losing all her bees to mosquito spraying. "A lot of people don't realize that spraying for ticks and mosquitos hurts bees too," she says. "Even doing treatments for grubs in your lawn can be harmful." Here are a few other tips: + Plant herbs and let them flower. Honeybees love mint, oregano, chives, basil, and thyme, as well as many others. And herbs make for delicious honey. + Arrange a group of the same type of plants together, to make for an appealing foraging spot. + Learn to love weeds. Dandelions, milkweed, and clover are all important food sources for honeybees. IN THE KNOW PLANTING A BEE-FRIENDLY GARDEN POOLS • HOT TUBS • SAUNAS 978 - 887 - 2424 Route One, Topsfield CALL NOW for FREE Site Evaluation!