About Us
Our Story
HOOD BROOK APIARY - The Beginning 2021
Debuting in the Spring of 2021 with 8 new hives and 2 that I moved up with me from Massachusetts, we began the transition from “hobbyist” to a small but professional apiary. We started with a total of 10 hives and a goal of adding 3 to 5 more a year until we reached 25, and then reassess to see how it’s going. We figured on losing 1 to 3 hives a year, and the honey sales from the previous fall would cover replacing losses and adding more hives. Our long-term goal is 50 to 100 hives.
Recover from Disastrous Loses - 2022 - 2025
Things didn’t quite work out as expected in our first year. The winter of 2021-2022 was a bad one in Maine and most of New England. Unusual weather patterns of warm mornings followed by swiftly dropping temps well below freezing late in the winter. This killed many hives in the Northeast. As a brand-new Apiary, we didn’t have honey sales money to re-invest and recover right away. We had invested everything into starting the Apiary the spring before!
Recovery is slow but, barring any future major losses, it will be steady. In 2022 the recovery started with but one hive. In 2023, thanks to a few people who support honeybees, we were able to get up to back up to 4 hives.
Formation of Saving the Honeybees/Honeybee Sponsors. - 2023
After a few people pitched in to help start rebuilding, one suggested forming a sponsorship program. This is when the Honeybee Sponsorship Programs began. In 2024 we were up at 5 hives, halfway back to where we started before the losses.
Also, in 2023 we started using a spot at The Funny Farm. Old friends of mine were getting into beekeeping and we thought it would be an idea if we both had some hives there as well. So, I ended up with 3 hives at The Funny Farm and one here.
All Future Plans of Expanding are on Hold for the 2025 Season.
We intended to start a swarm capture service, extraction service, and bee school for aspiring beekeepers in the 2025 season. Sadly, due to the plight of the honeybees leaving devastating losses after each winter, we’ve decided to work on rebuilding back to get to the number of hives we started with. 2021-2022 losses were devastating. 22-23 weren’t as bad. 23-24 was at about 40% but in 2025 our losses ended up being just over 60%. We decided to pause those plans until we were back up to 10 hives. The main focus is on rebuilding until we catch up.
To keep things close and easily accessible, we’ve moved most everything back to our main location from the Funny Farm. We will set hives up down there again I trust.
We are accepting volunteers to learn beekeeping hands-on. I only need 1 or 2 volunteers, and it will only be a couple or 3 hours once every 2 or 3 weeks. To volunteer, e-mail us at: Bob@SavingtheHoneybees.net
Hood Brook Learning Center - 2026 - 2027
The “Learning Center” is a project that will start filing the paperwork to become a Non-Profit organization. Here we will be focused on educating the public about the importance of honeybees and other pollinators. The learning center will also instruct those interested in how to create gardens that attract pollinators. Additionally, how to build a habitat for pollinators near your home.
We will make this program available to go to school classrooms and businesses and have programs open to the public. Profits above and beyond operating costs will be donated to honeybee research and more.
It will take some time to organize the non-profit and get approval from the government, so we anticipate announcing the opening of The Learning Center in January of 2027.
Once approved as a 401 (c) 3 Non-Profit, all donations to the Learning Center will be Tax Deductible. All other operations of Hood Brook Apiary will remain a personal “for-profit” business. We will continue accepting donations for those operations as well, but they will not be tax deductible at this time.
FULL-SCALE OPERATIONS - By 2030
Provided no major setbacks occur, we hope to have a full-scale apiary in operation by the summer of 2030 or sooner. On or about this time we will be bringing on volunteers to learn the business and operations of a commercial apiary which may be turned over to them upon my retirement, depending on my health, sometime between 2035 and 2040 making me between 75 and 80 years old! Time to pass it on to future generations!
Saving the Honeybees/Honeybee Sponsors was a huge help from day 1! We were able to get a few packages of bees that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford after the disastrous 2021-2022 winter losses. Gregg, Rob, Ashley & Mark along with a business known as “Graze 2 Table” where huge in getting our feet back on the ground.
We will make this program available to go to school classrooms and businesses and have programs open to the public. Profits above and beyond operating costs will be donated to honeybee research and more.
It will take some time to organize the non-profit and get approval from the government, so we anticipate announcing the opening of The Learning Center in January of 2027.
Once approved as a 401 (c) 3 Non-Profit, all donations to the Learning Center will be Tax Deductible. All other operations of Hood Brook Apiary will remain a personal “for-profit” business. We will continue accepting donations for those operations as well, but they will not be tax deductible at this time.
Our Mission
Mission Statement
Our mission at Saving the Honeybees is to foster a sustainable future for honeybees through our Honeybee Sponsor Programs, empowering individuals and organizations to contribute to the conservation of these vital pollinators.
By providing educational resources, hands-on experiences, and community engagement opportunities, we aim to raise awareness about the importance of honeybees in our ecosystem and promote practices supporting their health and vitality. Together, we strive to create a thriving environment where bees can flourish, benefiting both our local communities and the planet.”
Sponsorship Programs help support a struggling apiary (honeybee farm) while increasing honeybee populations in the areas we operate thus helping to provide a sustainable environment and habitat for honeybees and other pollinators.
Our Team
Our Expert Team Members
Member of
Saving the Honeybees, part of Hood Brook Apiary & Hood Brook Honeybees, has all our bees and hives registered with The Maine Dept. of Agriculture yearly. Additionally, every hive is inspected yearly (At our request) by the Maine Department of Agriculture’s State Bee Inspector.
Additionally, we are proud members of the following organizations:
Here in Maine:
- Somerset Beekeepers Association
- Kennebec County Beekeepers Association
- Maine State Beekeepers Association
- The Maine Farm Bureau
Our Bees and Equipment are Generally Ordered Through
Bees:
Packages: Spicer Bees of Maine
Nucs: Holt’s Apiary of Maine
Equipment:
- Spicer Bees and Humble Abodes, Both of Maine and
- Pierco Beekeeping of California
- Betterbee of New York
- MannLake of Minnesota
- (And Occasionally Elsewhere)
Our Sponsors
Gregg
An old friend from The Aggie School days started it all by sponsoring the very first 2 Packages of Bees. This started Saving the Honeybee!
Mark & Ashley
From right here in Pittsfield, Maine, Mark and Ashley have been enormous supporters of Saving the Honeybees!
Rob K
All the way from Tucon, Rob is a former New Englander and a Major Supporters of Saving the Honeybees!
Graze 2 Table
From the other side of Maine, Graze 2 Table is strong supporter since day one! They were instrumental in getting our extractor!
The Wonderful People List
Hood Brook Apiary and Learning Center’s founder and operator, Bob Donovan, would like to thank a few people. People who were there for him when he went through rough times in the last few years and who supported his dreams and goals. Starting a business of this type with very little and doing it as a person with disabilities is even harder, it couldn’t have happened without these people!
- Taylor Lamberta – Everything! I’m still alive!
- The Noll Family – More than I Have Space For!
- Gregg Riley – Our First Bee Sponsor! His 2 Packages started the Honeybee Sponsorship Programs!
- Rob Kane – Our First Contributor
- Brad McCormick – Web Genius
- Mark & Ashley Simpson – Bee Sponsor & All Around Awesome Neighbors!
- Many Specific Facebook Friends – Moral Support
- A few Facebook Friends – Financial Support
- Connie Sparra Ginther – For my cat Jingle. He keeps me going!
- Jingle! – My cat! If you saw and knew him, you’d understand!
- Chris Hacia – Various computer help. Someone I can count on. Good Friend.
- Sidra Kahn – For her talents and creativity used to build this site!
- Dan – Keeps my truck going and an overall awesome neighbor.
Message from Founder/Operator Bob Donovan:
I’m sure I missed a few people and for that I’m sorry. However, this list may get longer as I remember.
Our Business Sponsors
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