Lessons From The Lifelong Beekeeper at Tremblay Apiaries

In Search of a Greener New York is an ongoing Garden Collage series of explorations about sustainability efforts in New York City and beyond– including the people, places, and ideas that are making Manhattan a healthier, happier place to live. In this column, we spotlight individuals who are making New York a “greener” place in an attempt to discover how, exactly, they are doing it. This week, GC spotlights Alan Tremblay of Tremblay Apiaries, whose passion for bees has had sweet results.

Walt, a beekeeper friend of Alan Tremblay, founder of Tremblay Apiaries, has been keeping bees for 42 years. “The honey flow is very short but very awesome,” he says of Tremblay’s belief that wildflower honey is the best in Canada and Upstate New York.

“In our area, because we run so many hives, most blossoms will only last two to three weeks. After each honey flow is over, we remove the box and add a new one, so that’s how we know what batch is locust honey vs. linden honey, etc. After each set of flowers is done, we pull the batch and extract the honey, so that we know what’s what. Most smaller beekeepers will mix their honey, but that’s why we have so many different varieties.”

“We try to keep 500 to 600 colonies, and each colony is approximately 40 to 50 thousand bees. We sell at the Union Square Farmers Market two days a week, and the rest of the time we’re just tending to the bees. We also sell to a lot of local restaurants, and many local breweries have started using our honey. Brooklyn Brewery uses our honey, actually– so we get excellent feedback.”