Astor Apiaries' Lead Beekeeper Joins The Bee Conservancy

We are so excited to finally announce some big news. Our lead beekeeper, Nick Hoefly, has taken on the role of Apiary Manager for The Bee Conservancy, a project of the nonprofit Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs. The Bee Conservancy (formerly The Honey Bee Conservancy) has been around for over a decade and works to protect all bees and secure environmental and food justice through education, research, habitat creation, and advocacy. Their initiatives, such as their flagship program Sponsor-a-Hive, have served hundreds of thousands of people across the United States, and protected an estimated 10 million bees to date.

The Bee Conservancy (TBC) reached out to Astor Apiaries as one of the premiere urban bee farms in New York City, especially for its expertise in efficiently managing apiaries across many locations. Since the end of last year, Nick has been writing and developing an effective program to help TBC and its beekeepers consistently monitor and manage hives at all of their Bee Sanctuaries across NYC. In addition to this new program, Nick will be involved with educating and supporting new TBC beekeepers and volunteers on best practices and responsible beekeeping. This is a great benefit, not only to TBC, but also to the NYC beekeeping community at large as more hives will be properly and responsibly cared for. One of the largest threats to urban honey bee hives is mismanagement of pests and disease by the beekeeper through neglect or simply not knowing how to fully care for a colony of bees.

"As a master beekeeper and NYC apiarist, Nick brings vast knowledge and skill to the management of our Bee Sanctuaries. We are thrilled to have him on the team mentoring our beekeepers and caring for the bees that are essential to our educational, environmental, and food justice programs."—Rebecca Louie, Executive Director

Finally, we are not losing Nick, far from it. He is still in the day-to-day operations of the apiary, including caring for hives, running events, and generally managing the team here at the apiary.

"As an apiary, this new partnership with TBC offers a great opportunity to get behind positive environmental initiatives that we would not have the resources to manage on our own. We also see it as a way to give our own Astor Apiaries students and beekeeping customers an opportunity to be more involved in urban beekeeping here in NYC."—Nick Hoefly

Please visit The Bee Conservancy's website to learn more about their programming and ways you can get involved. If you have the ability, donations are a great way to support the amazing work they do for all bees and pollinators out there.