The best way to learn how to keep bees is hands-on experience with experienced beekeepers.


5CBA has a club apiary not far from our meeting place. We maintain the apiary to give new and less 
experienced  beekeepers a chance to learn how to manage honeybees with knowledgeable mentors.

There are two additional projects at the apiary:
 – Comparison between Top Bar Hive and Long Lang style hives.
 – Using sensors to monitor the weight and internal temperature of the hives.

Come join us on our weekend workdays! All members are invited.


In 2020 we had two projects:
 – Nuc Increase Project (NIP) to demonstrate it is possible to keep bees in a five frame hive year-round. The smaller hives are easy to manage, lightweight and also marketable.
 – New Hive Project comparing two methods of starting a hive- a package vs a nuc.


Our first apiary project was an 18-month long experiment called the Hive Increase Project (HIP). It gave members a chance to see how to create additional colonies from their bees, instead of buying packages. 

Our second project in the apiary was raising queens. We used the funds from our NCSBA Golden Achievement Program award to buy equipment for grafting and raising queen bees. Two different approaches to queen rearing have been tested so far. We have the equipment to do this project again when enough people are interested.

We have workdays in the club apiary throughout the year. You must be a club member and sign a waiver. Watch for a SignUpGenius email invitation.