The community garden at The Evergreens in Moorestown grows cut flowers, pollinators and vegetables, but also has four beehives, all tended to by resident gardener Eloise Naylor.
The Eastern Apicultural Society (EAS) of North America is an international education nonprofit founded in 1955 for the promotion of bee culture, beekeeper education, certification of Master Beekeepers and excellence in bee research.
The EAS – according to its website – is the largest non-commercial beekeeping organization in the country and one of the largest in the world. Every summer, it conducts its annual conference consisting of lectures, workshops, vendor displays, short courses for beginning and advanced beekeepers, Master Beekeeper examinations and an annual business meeting in one of its 26 member states or provinces in the eastern U.S. and Canada.
This year, the conference will be held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Cherry Hill Philadelphia from July 27 to Aug. 1.
Eloise Naylor, a resident of The Evergreens in Moorestown, is a member of the EAS. She’s been a beekeeper for years and also started the mid-state branch of the New Jersey Beekeepers Association (NJBA), a group dedicated to the promotion and support of all aspects of beekeeping in New Jersey. With more than 1,000 members, the NJBA educates the public on the benefits and importance of beekeeping, teaching its members how to become better and more successful beekeepers and dispelling myths and misinformation regarding the honeybee.
Naylor treats 75 beehives in the township, but also four hives three times a year at The Evergreens’ community garden.
“Growing up, my grandmother was a beekeeper,” she recalled, “so I grew up eating a lot of honey. But I never interacted with the bees with her. But then, I had someone move next to me … and he kept bees. And I asked him if he would be my mentor and … that was the start of a wonderful relationship.”
Naylor collects honey once a year from the beehives at The Evergreens, but collectors must wait, she said, until the bees have capped the honey with wax. They don’t do so until the moisture level goes below 17%, otherwise the honey would ferment in a honeycomb cell. After the honey is capped with wax, Naylor removes it, cuts off the wax capping, drains it and puts the honey in a centrifuge extractor.
After it comes out, the honey goes through a strainer, then Naylor puts it into a bottle. The Evergreens’ residents have all come to love the honey, even purchasing the jars as gifts for friends and family.
“The honey (from The Evergreens), you know it’s pure,” noted Heinz Hegmann, committee member of the senior community’s garden. “Whenever I’m gardening, she (Naylor) comes in to check the hives. She has a little smoke pot to calm the bees, she checks them out and says hi, she holds one of the combs up – full of honey – and shows me. And it’s very interesting.”
The Evergreens’ garden grows pollinator plants, vegetables, fruits and cut flowers, and also has a greenhouse. Hegmann and fellow garden committee member George Boehmler – along with the other resident gardeners – each bring something different to that space.
“It’s a very nice atmosphere,” Naylor said. “There’s benches out there and you can sit and enjoy it.”
“Our bees live longer because they wake up in the morning and their buffet is waiting for them,” Boehmler explained. “They don’t have to fly long distances to get nectar, so it’s a perfect place for beehives.”
