About Me – Moosehead Apiary

Przemek’s beekeeping story

Przemek Skoskiewicz is a hobbyist beekeeper in Hyde Park, NY. His father and grandfather had bees in Poland and he continues the family tradition. At some point he had 8 hives, but for a weekender this many hives became a chore, not a hobby. Previous year (2024) he collected just shy of 300 lbs of wildflower honey from 3 hives.

The first few years of Przemek’s beekeeping were experiments in various ways of ensuring that none of his colonies would survive winter. It wasn’t until his wife put an ultimatum – learn more, or we stop buying new bees every spring. Przemek is among the group of first graduates (class of 2016) of the University of Montana Master Beekeeper course as well as the graduate of the first class of Cornell University Master Beekeeper course. Since then, while he has lost a few colonies here and there, he hasn’t had to purchase any new bees.

Beekeeping in the US hasn’t much changed over the centuries. Przemek is very interested in new developments that help with colony management, in adapting solutions well-established in other countries, especially in Europe where climate is similar to the one in New York. His hives have temperature, humidity and weight sensors and do not need to be opened up frequently to “keep an eye” on the bees. He has experimented with Lyson hives and has a Flow Hive too.

For pest management, Przemek prefers organic solutions from synthetic. The honey is never heated, is only mechanically filtered and bottled 2 days after extraction.