Andy’s Apiary Adventures

05/20/2026

a backyard inspection pic from far away. I’m not sure if you can see the beekeeper. Let me know if you can find him?? 😆

🐝🍯👑 🌾🚜👨🏻‍🌾

05/20/2026

I made it home tonight just as the sky opened up. I worked my day job then had a flat tire on the NJTPK on my way home. Once home I got my syrup loaded into the truck and left to hit up my two most southern bee yards to feed the colonies that are still behind. I’m happy to report I was able to place a honey super on one more hive today and use up all syrup feed I made yesterday. I got back home and got drenched from my truck to the front door.

05/17/2026

05/17/2026

Was given another swarm today. I moved them to my apiary at Petal and Pine Flower Farm.

05/15/2026

💐 we keep some of our bees here. Go check out this new U-Pick Flower Farm this season in Monroe, NJ! 💐 Petal and Pine Flower Farm 💐

A brand new cut-your-own flower experience is coming to NJ 🌸

Petal & Pine Flower Farm will officially be opening this June/July and we just can’t wait to finally welcome everyone out to the farm.

For the past few months our lives have basically consisted of planting thousands of flowers, building projects nonstop, moving dirt around, ordering way too many seeds, and trying to turn this little idea in our heads into something people will love visiting.

This summer at the farm we’re planning to have:
🌼 5 acres of pick-your-own flowers
🌾 A wildflower maze
⛳ Mini golf
🚜 Pedal tractors
🐐 Farm Animals (all the cute ones)
☕ A coffee truck with themed floral drinks
🛍️ A gift shop + farmstand
🎲 Outdoor games
📸 Tons of photo ops around the property

We really wanted this place to feel like somewhere you could spend a few hours. Walk the flower fields, build your own bouquet, grab a coffee, play mini golf, take pictures, and just enjoy being outside for a while.

There’s still a ton to do before opening day, but it’s finally starting to feel real around here and we can’t wait to show you what we’ve grown 🌸

📍35 Old Church Rd, Monroe NJ

Coming June/July 2026

05/13/2026

Andys been a busy bee lately. Taking advantage of the nice weather, checking on all the hives, feeding them heavy to encourage them to draw out the wax on the frames. Pics of my hives at Saratoga Farm. 🐝🍯👑 🌾🚜👨🏻‍🌾

05/10/2026

A fellow beekeeper called me over to give me a rather large swarm today and while we were shaking the bees into a nuc hive it began to rain pretty hard. I drove them to one of my bee yards that happens to be on a flower farm. The hive I’ve placed them on top of is currently Queenless, my my plan is to get them nice and established in this nuc for a few weeks then combine them with this hive that has some nice drawn out comb. This swarm felt like 3-4lbs of bees all together.

05/02/2026

Worked today at my normal job for some overtime and then worked some bee’s from 3:30 on. I just got home and it’s after 7:00pm I fed two colonies at one location and installed a 6 frame nuc I made from 2 strong colonies that had accepted a saskatraz queen into a hive that only had a couple frames of bees left in it with no queen. Gave that one and the powerhouse of a colony next to it some syrup and the called it a day. I’ve been awake since 3:40am and I’m spent for the day. I did notice on the way home that he black locust trees by my house have begun to bloom and I’m nowhere near where I wanted to be in order to take advantage of their nectar flow. I guess there’s always next year.

04/28/2026

Felt ambitious after work today and mixed up 12-14 gallons of lite syrup for the week and weekend and fed my backyard hive as well as tge 6 frame nuc and recently split hive I have at my chesterfield site and I’m happy to report that the nuc that I made from 2 different hives in 2 different counties has accepted the new saskatraz queen I put in it last week. This has been one of my personal goals I’ve wanted to achieve for over 2 years since I first learned about the saskatraz hybrids

04/23/2026

3:00pm finished up placing queens in new split colonies and now it’s time to relax for a few and make dinner. Next on the agenda is mixing 1 to 1 syrup for all 13 colonies starting this weekend.

04/23/2026

11:44 pm and I’m finally done moving splits. Tomorrow it’s time to introduce saskatraz queens to the splits