Apiary - Gallagher Close Farm
Bees pollinate flowers and crops, but without human care honeybees would disappear. However, it is humans who have created a world of chemicals and loss of habitat that is detrimental to the bee. Without bees we would lose much of the food we enjoy and take for granted. Bees are a necessary component to harvest. We would lose many of the flowers that are bee-dependent for reproduction.

Bees use the pollen and nectar they obtain from their pollination flights for energy for flights and to feed the hive, making honey for food and wax for growing the new bees. The food and flowers that bees pollinate will provide food for wildlife and birds, and provide humans with the gifts of honey, wax, propolis, pollen, royal jelly and bee venom, which is used medicinally. This one small creature gives us so much, and yet humans threaten its existence.

The mass distribution of chemicals in modern monocropping farming has created a challenge, one of many, for large scale beekeeping. In Vermont, a resurgence of polyculture farming has increased interest in traditional beekeeping that is helping to stabilize essential bee colonies, now being decimated by pesticides and disease, climate change, habitat loss and even the mounting expense to keep bees.  

Gallagher Close Farm is committed to building an apiary that not only produces high quality honey but acts as a platform for innovative ideas in apiary management built on traditional bee keeping such as the Langstroth hive, and vertical beekeeping in Slovenian bee houses. We raise our bees organically, have moved from chemicals to non-chemical ways of fighting disease and insects in the hive. We leave more of the honey in the hive for overwintering bees rather than sugar-feeding bees. We also use a gentler natural bee-repellent spray for our apiary visitors: a homemade spray of witch hazel with some added tea-tree oil drops. Try it at your next picnic!

We offer bee-friendly annuals and perennials in our nursery and grow plants in our fields and gardens with consideration of how they will benefit our bees so that our bees will be around to benefit our gardens in return. Our pollinator gardens also attract butterflies, beneficial insects and birds, and provide a habitat for these essential creatures. Our local Vermont honey is a gift from our bees to you. We also offer honey butter and infused honey for your table.