Full Bloom Apiaries' is a self-sufficient, full time honey bee farm producing local Connecticut honey, unfiltered and non-pasteurized, for sale to the communities of Eastern Connecticut.  The honey is produced from hives located in outyards on area farms.  Using good management practices the business maintains strong healthy colonies of Northern raised bees, with high honey production in the summer and low mortality over the winter.  The colonies are divided into two groups: honey producers and nucleus hives.  Thereby, yearly growth, winter loss replacements, surplus Spring bees, and new queens will be supplied from the stock of  nucleus(support) colonies.

Alan and Ashley Holmberg are fulfilling a family tradition that has been ongoing for over 30 years. Alan’s father, a hobbyist beekeeper, introduced Alan to beekeeping over 20 years ago, and in 2000 he gave Alan a gift of two hives when he bought his house in Preston, CT.

Alan started Full Bloom Apiaries in 2004 with 100 colonies of honeybees. Alan builds his own hive equipment from native eastern white pine.  

 For the 2010 season we will be running 350 honey production hives as well as over 200 nucs for producing our "Connecticut Carniolan" bees and queens.

Alan has a B.S. in Mathematics with a minor in Marine Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and keeps up to date on current apiculture skills by attending classes at the Cornell Master Beekeeping Program. He is also a member of the following professional affiliations:

Connecticut Farm Bureau

Connecticut Beekeepers Association

Eastern Apicultural Society

American Beekeeper Federation

About our bees...

Our "Connecticut Carniolan" queens are grafted from proven, over-wintered instrumentally inseminated New World Carniolan breeder stock and open mated in our mating yards with drones selected from our best overwintered honey production hives. These drone mother colonies are proven honey producers, chalkbrood and disease resistant, and survive harsh New England winters.

The ultimate goal of our breeding program is to produce stock that performs well in Northern climates. By breeding from our best colonies year after year, our bees will show annual improvement that increases their ability to handle the constantly changing face of beekeeping today.

An essential part of our business is raising queens and nucleus colonies during the summer months.  We feel that the Carniolan strain of the European honey bee is best suited for our needs because of its winter hardiness, hygienic behavior, gentle disposition, overall fecundity, and large honey crops. 

These overwintered queens in nucleus colonies are the backbone of our apiaries, providing the needed stability for sustainable beekeeping.

Bees and Queens 2010 price list and availability

 Treatment Disclosure :

Our breeding hives and nucleus colonies are untreated. Consequently, our combs are chemical-free and have not been contaminated by synthetic miticides. We do not use antibiotics for the preventative treatment of American Foulbrood or Nosema. We rely on mother nature to cull our weak hives during the winter, and our bee's hygienic behavior to control chalkbrood and keep varroa populations in check. We use formic acid in our honey production hives, only if mite levels warrant use.