Welcome to the Warm Colors Apiary website. WCA produces and sells honey, pure beeswax candles, and products using honey and beeswax. We provide pollination services to local orchards and farms. Beekeepers can purchase queens and honeybees, equipment and bee supplies, and attend workshops in Warm Colors bee yards. In other words, most activities involving honeybees happen at our apiary.
Warm Colors Apiary was founded in 2000 to produce regional honey in western Massachusetts. Located on eighty acres of woodland, open fields, and wetlands, the land provides a variety and abundance of nectar & pollen plants that bloom from early spring to late fall. Having a location with flowering plants blooming successively throughout the warm months makes our apiary ideal for honey production and the raising of honeybees.
Our mission is to develop, test and use beekeeping methods that improve the health of the honeybee. Through selective breeding, we endeavor to manage a sustainable apiary system that minimizes the use of harmful chemicals and employ the natural defenses and heritable behaviors shown to improve the honeybees mite tolerance and resistance to disease.
Our goals include raising honeybees capable of surviving the rigors of a New England winter and having the individual & social immunities to withstand the stresses associated with honeybee decline. Our work focuses on using the best available breeding stock, providing natural sources of forage and nutrition, and the early detection and prevention of disease and pests. Proactive management that reduces stress and the resulting problems, before they become too serious to correct, is our long-range goal.
PLEASE NOTE THESE DATES: We will be closed on the following days.
Closed Saturday, June 16th – We will be presenting at the Massachusetts State Beekeepers Annual “Field Day”. It is held at the UMASS Agriculture Education Center, Pleasant St. Amherst, Mass.
Closed June 18th through June 28th. We will reopen on Friday 6/29 & Saturday 6/30, 10 AM – 5 PM.
Closed July 29th through August 26th. We are attending & presenting at the Eastern Apiculture Conference in Virginia. We reopen on Wednesday, August 8th, 10 AM – 5 PM.
Seasonal Information for 2018
We are now selling RHBA Russian Queens. We prefer pickup of Queens at our Warm Colors Apiary in Deerfield, MA. We will ship, but do not guarantee delivery, unless overnight. Please call ahead to confirm availability of Queens.
News: Warm Colors Apiary has received the 2018 “Local Hero Award” (farmer of the year) from CISA (Community Involved in Sustainable Agriculture) and a Congressional Award recognizing and supporting Warm Colors Apiary for our outstanding and invaluable service to the community from Congressman James McGovern.
Bonita & I appreciate these honors from people and organizations we respect and support. CISA and Congressman McGovern promote nutrition, farms, and access to fresh foods for all western Massachusetts residents. We share their philosophy that all people deserve access to highly nutritious foods. We thank you for recognizing our efforts and your commitment to improving food access for all citizens. Preservation of open spaces and farms is a Warm Colors Apiary priority.
Warm Colors Apiary, South Deerfield, Massachusetts.
For the Beekeepers
Warm Colors stocks beekeeping equipment for pickup at our South Deerfield store. We are distributors for Brushy Mountain Bee Farm, Mann Lake Inc. and Starhart Hollow woodenware and bee supplies. This allows us to mix the best products from each manufacturer, giving beekeepers more choice and lower prices.
WCA continues to offer many workshops and classes that provide training and education to beekeepers at all levels of experience. We have hosted many nationally known instructors combining lectures with hands-on, how to lessons. See the Workshop page for this season’s programs.
Knowledge + Management = healthy bees.