Telling the bees

The yard

Each yard is laid out for the ground it sits on. The usual pieces are a split-rail zigzag fence, the hives on stands inside it, planting beds on timed irrigation, and a marker plate on the gate with the yard's name. I decide the rest after I've seen the place: where the sun falls, what to plant, and where the bees can fly without bothering anyone.

Telling the bees

For centuries, households in Britain, Ireland and continental Europe told their bees the family news. When someone was born, married or died, a member of the household walked out to the hives and said so. The custom crossed the Atlantic, and the New England poet John Greenleaf Whittier wrote about it in 1858.

It wasn't always sad news. At a wedding, the bees were told and given a piece of the cake, and the hives were sometimes dressed with flowers. In Brittany they were draped in scarlet cloth for the day. In Westphalia, the newlyweds had to introduce themselves to the bees, or the marriage would start with bad luck (JSTOR Daily). At a death, the hives were draped in black.

People took it seriously. Skip the news, the thinking went, and the bees might leave, or stop making honey.

I can't tell you that the bees notice. I can tell you the people do. On a venue or vineyard with a yard, the custom takes all of a few minutes and makes a great memory and a photo opportunity. A couple walks out and tells the hives. A family tells them about a new baby, a new owner or an anniversary, sometimes over a slice of cake. Guests stand back at a comfortable distance and watch.

Visit days and harvest day

Guests can look in on a visit day, in veils, or from a screened canopy. Harvest day can be an event of its own: I bring the extractor, you bring the band, and we'll celebrate the harvest with your guests while the honey flows into bottles with your place's name on them. Picture that bottle in a gift basket, next to your guest's Keurig, or on the shelf with the rest of your swag.

I lay the yard out with all of this in mind. The hives sit far enough from where people gather that nobody is walking through a flight path, and there's an easy way out to them for a small group.

For wineries, breweries and kitchens

My service gets you estate honey with the vintage on the bottle, from your own ground and labeled with your name and the season it was made. No two seasons taste alike, and neither do two places. Set a jar from your yard beside one from another yard and you can see the difference in color before you taste it.

For private places

For a private place, the yard is a family project as much as a tax one: harvest day on your own ground, the kids at the extractor, jars with your place's name on them at Christmas. Where five to twenty acres are in agricultural use, the yard can also carry the valuation. The ag valuation guide explains how.

How it runs

I build the hives and own the bees. I visit through the year, replace any colony that's lost at my cost, and provide records by January 1 wherever records matter.

I quote each yard after a site visit, once I've seen the ground and heard how you'd use it.

Other ways I can help

• Running a restaurant, school or corporate campus? I set up managed apiary programs, with formal bids and annual reporting. See Institutions & Business
• A private place with five to twenty acres? The yard can also carry an ag valuation. See Managed Bee Yards