Last updated 23 January, 2023 by Papa Bear.

This page is my opportunity to tell you my story so it is a little lengthy. I hope you enjoy reading about my bee history and my vision of beekeeping. I am Papa Bear aka. Craig Noorlander and it all started in the spring of 2003 in Edgewood New Mexico. There was nothing to help pollinate my fruit trees or the garden that I had planted. I started with 2 hives and it was so dry that I had to feed the bees all summer long to keep them from starving. As I worked the bees and learned more about them; I completely fell in love with them. Ten years later, in Oct 2013 my wife and I bought 75 acres (now called the property) in McIntosh, New Mexico which is the home of my bee ranch. My vision is to create a sustainable bee population in New Mexico. A solar well was put in and a pond dug for the bees (I am still trying to get it full of water!). I plan on planting bee friendly plants including trees with blossoms as a wind break so that I do not have to chase the nectar flow. I envision having 25 to 30 hives on each corner and in the center of the north and south boundaries. In time, I will have trees bordering all of the property with a large variety flowers and bushes growing. Check out these sites for New Mexico planting: Pollinator Plants Recommended for New Mexico and Cover Crops in a Whole Farm System provided to me by Kate Whelen. I also have found this site selecting trees useful. I believe this will be a great location to breed queens. I plan to have around 200 hives. I will also set it up so that people interested in beekeeping can come and be mentored or taught at the property with both Top Bar and Langstroth hives. I plan on going around the state to teach as well. This has become my passion along with continually learning about bees. After 15 years, I am starting to think that I might know a little bit about them, but am still learning. I want to share that knowledge and hopefully together we become better stewards. The land is now filling a purpose and there is a partnership between the land and the bees. I was told by the land that it and the bees do better as a partnership. I also know that whatever I do that benefits the bees will benefit native pollinators and wildlife. I look forward to seeing how things will change on this property as time rolls along. I know it will not be easy and I have had set backs and challenges but I do not know anything worth while that doesn't have these.

My bee keeping time line:

I started keeping bees in the spring of 2003 with 2 hives

In 2004, I expanded to 10 hives and had them on a raspberry farm for pollination.

In 2005, I started moving them around New Mexico to follow the honey flow. I actually was able to extract some honey. In fact, I got enough honey that I joined the Edgewood Farmer's Market. I quickly sold out and had to buy from a commercial beekeeper in Las Cruces, New Mexico to keep up with the demand.

In 2006, I lost about half of my hives with winter kill and in the spring bought another 5 nucs.

In 2007, I bought another 9 full hives from someone that wanted to reduce their apiary. I had a banner year that year and had 25 strong hives going into the spring of 2008.

In 2008, around March someone came into my yard and dumped pesticide into one of my boxes. This set me back tremendously since I lost all of my bees. I did not dare use my boxes for fear of contaminating any new bees.

In 2009, I bought all new equipment. I also bought 20 - 4 pound packages and brought them down to New Mexico. These bees were very gently, had some mite resistance, and good honey producers.

In 2010, I became a distributor and bought 75 - 4 pound packages keeping some for myself and sold the rest before I went up to get them. I got back up to about 25 hives at this point.

In 2011, I expanded by buying 275 packages and still sold out before I picked them up. I started to become know in the state and became part of the New Mexico Bee Keepers Association (NMBKA) as a Board Member .

In 2012, I got 400 packages and again sold out before I picked them up at the end of March. I served on the Board for the second year.

In 2013, I bought another 400 packages and sold out before I picked them up. I became vice president of the New Mexico Bee Keepers Association.

In 2014, I ordered 624 packages and still sold out. I actually got up to about 45 hives but sold queens and did some combining, as well as, had a few losses because of lack of honey and no time to feed them. I remained vice president. I also was one of the instructors for the Certified Bee Keepers program that the NMBKA started this year.

In 2015, I brought around 600 packages and sold out. I asked to be released as the vice president of the NMBKA because of my goals for the property and mentoring people. I didn't believe that I can give it the time needed. It was a privilege serving and I look forward to serving again sometime in the future. I will continue to be a teacher for the Certified Bee Keepers program for the first and second year students.

In 2016, I bought around 760 packages again and sold out. I continued to be an instructor for the Certified Bee Keepers program and maintain the hives at Open Space off of Coors.

In 2017, I brought in 800 packages of bees and actually had some to turn into nucs and sell later in early summer. Work in the New Mexico Guard was extremely demanding but I continued to be an instructor for the Certified Bee Keepers program. I also bought some hives in the fall of 2016 from a bee keeper that moved out of state and so had 4 locations (including the Open Space off of Coors) of hives to maintain in the Albuquerque area as well as the property and my house. I went through 3 55 gallon containers of sugar feeding them because of the drought.

In 2018, I picked up 760 4 pound packages of bees. I am got a hybrid bee called Saskatraz. I was also elected President of the New Mexico Beekeepers Association.

In 2019, I retired in October after 35 +years. I went to a queen rearing class in Washington state and brought in 760 4 pound packages of bees from Claifornia and sold out

In 2020 Covid 19 hit, however I was still able to go pick up bees from California as it was considered critical. On my way my Ford F550 broke down 3 times and I was stranded in Gallup New Mexico waiting for my truck to get fixed. The company that I got bees from offered to ship them to me by semi with a specialized bee hauling trailer and I heartily agreed. Their generator that circulates the air broke down and the bees overheated. I lost 320 packages out of the 760 that I ordered. because of that my wife and I borrowed $50,000.00 to pay people back that did not get their bees yet had already paid for them. The New Mexico Beekeepers Association and a lot of great people come to my rescue and through a Go Fund Me site raised almost $30,000.00 to help out. We dusted ourselves off and started getting ready for working the bees and found out that my son who lives with us had cancer. I have to admit this was a tough year

In 2021, I was teaching still and mentoring with people who wanted to keep bees, and July through October, our son went through a really aggressive chemo treatment and was scheduled also for surgery in December. The chemo started working and the surgery was postponed. I spent the time also building up my hives so that I could I could possible start selling nucs

In 2022, finally in November our son was finally declared to be in remission and is doing well getting his strength back. I continued building up my hives and got up to 75 colonies. I sold a few nucs, but concentrated on family and the bees mostly.

I look forward to 2023 as we get going and am planning on selling around 150 nucs and getting my bee business back on it's feet.

One of the main things that I enjoy doing is teaching about bees and have taught seminars since 2010. I will do another seminar in March. I also mentor anyone that is willing to work with my schedule. Besides beekeeping and mentoring new beekeepers, I managed the Edgewood Farmers' Market from 2006 to 2012. I also was heavily involved with the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts as well as working full time with the New Mexico Air National Guard.

Please check out my Bee Page for more details about the bees that I sell.

queen on frameeggs on frame4 pound packageswarm boxedframe of bees

Pictures from left to right:

1. Frame of bees with some honey, pollen, and various stages of brood (from egg to sealed brood). Can you spot the queen?

2. Frame of bees building comb on the foundation and full of eggs where the comb is built up enough to be lain.

3. Close up of package of bees.

4. Boxing of a swarm.

5. Frame from a bee box.

olive grovecatching queenpackage bee yard adding queens

Pictures from left to right:

6. Olive grove where the mating nucs are in California.

7. Catching a queen from a mating nuc.

8. The bee packaging yard. (that's me with all the bees on me) Notice the gentleman grabbing the green box of bees to put into the container in the background.

9. That's me adding queens to the packages before we add the bees.

putting bee in funnelfunneling in packagepropertyhives on property

Pictures from left to right:

10. Putting the bees into the funnel and weighing them.

11. Funneling the bees into the package.

12. The property out in McIntosh.

13. Close up shot of some of the hives on the property.