BeeJoy

My name is Grai St. Clair Rice. BeeJoy will share my love and knowledge of honeybees and beekeeping in NYC and HV. Grai St.

Clair Rice started Bee Joy in 2022, as a solo adventure. Grai co-founded HoneybeeLives in 2005, and is the founding member of the contemporary Ulster County Beekeepers Association (2007), in the Hudson Valley of NY. Grai is a writer, a photographer, and a teacher of natural beekeeping practices. She teaches classes and coaches beginning beekeepers. She has a vast range of visual Keynote presentati

ons for the beekeeping and general public that will inspire and inform. She also provides consultations on landscape plantings for pollinators.

09/02/2026

Sometimes honey harvesting can be daunting! I'm calling in back up!

08/27/2026

I had my first fresh corn of the season last night, and I was just shucking the next two ears. What a little miracle of wind pollination.

08/18/2026

I was delighted to find honeybees foraging on a passionflower vine blooming along a community garden fence on La Guardia Place in Greenwich Village. Hooray for honeybees and community gardens.

Watching bees forage, stops me in my tracks and makes me smile.

I apologize that I keep forgetting to post things to FB that I have put on Instagram.

07/20/2026

The towering Giant Yellow Hyssop is blooming, drawing in a delightful array of pollinators. It can reach a height of seven feet, and is thriving and reseeding in the crummy soil along the driveway. A magnificent native plant that I got from Midsummer Farm in Warwick, NY (midsummerfarm.com)

05/02/2026

Honeybees are not meant to build their comb on plastic inserts. In nature, they build both sides of each comb at the same time, transforming the beeswax into the hexagonal. Plastic confuses them, and even full wax foundation affects the speed at which they draw out their combs.

04/15/2026

It was cold on Sunday morning as I walked around the beeyard and look at what the bees have chucked out on the landing boards. It can provide information on what is happening inside the hives, and what actions may be required of their beekeeper. This poor drone was aborted because he had Deformed Wing Virus, which is spread by Varroa mites. Action definitetly required asap.

04/07/2026

Amazing to see honeybees on daffodils as they search everywhere for food during this cool springtime. Not something seen often.

03/30/2026

I run my winter hives with insulation between the screen and bottom board. It's time to clean off the debris from overwinter. I was very happy with myself, feeling confident that I was doing so prior to small hive beetles making a mess in the detritus. Then, the sixth hive I got to had the squirmy gross larvae. Yuck!

All boards have now been scraped off and the debris bag frozen. Please beekeepers, clean off your boards before the warmth really takes off and you have a mess in your beeyard.

03/27/2026

March 26th in the Hudson Valley after a long hard winter. This is just how we want to see our bees. Happily working. Each bee has a task. The temperature in the hive it hot and there is oodles of skunk cabbage and other pollen coming in the front. All is good in the colony. What a joy to lift the heart.

03/02/2026

Saturday in the Hudson Valley it reached 53 degrees, even with the remaining deep snow cover. Lots of bees were flying, and of course getting chilled in the snow. I prepared to closed up a hive that I assumed was dead. The colony had been extremely small in the fall and I chose to not even winterize them the way I had other hives.

I have learned to always double check that a colony has perished before closing them. At this time of year, if bees don't need to fly they won't, as the only thing there is to collect is water to thin the honey for brood.

To my complete amazement this tiny colony is still going. A few too many went airborne when I opened them. Their survival is truly an accomplishment for every single bee in there. Now they move into a different danger zone.

My heart was joyous seeing them...

Address

New York, NY

Website

http://BeeJoy.org/

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