Next harvest (maybe) will be in July for Spring Honey and then again in the fall we'll be harvesting Autumn Honey -- though I fully expect to sell out before then, one way or another.
Remember we can do porch pickup or other arrangements as well, just message us if you can't make it to market day.
This stack of honey jars is-- literally -- ALL we have to sell (plus wax blocks) until late July:
Bees/Hives Update
All three hives that we overwintered made it through to DANDELION(!) SEASON with no drama. You may/may not recall that our apiary's name was picked because we were (1) new beekeepers and (2) dandelions are often the first food source for the new bees (newbies!) in the spring.
In previous years we have split all the hives to prevent swarming, in effect creating our own "swarms" to keep the queens safe and lessen how frequently we check hives. There are a few downsides to this approach, however. One of the major reasons is that it doubles the number of hives and EVENTUALLY that becomes more work and a lot of effort to "crunch down" for the next winter. It also doesn't completely negate swarming and combined with our vacation plans.... we had to be more aggressive.
Employing a disliked (by me) strategy, we forced all three hives to re-queen (which takes a couple weeks) and we stashed our best queen in a small colony on the side and then went on vacation.
We're back now and, after the first check, it does appear that all three hives have successfully made a new queen-- though it's not yet clear if they've all successfully mated and started laying eggs. Another check will happen soon, which should determine that conclusively (we hope).
Unfortunately, we are having ANOTHER wet Spring... GAH!!
The constant influx of rain is seriously hampering efforts by our bees to gather nectar. Every time we get rain, it washes the nectar out of the flowers and takes about three days-- that's right, THREE DAYS-- of dry weather-- that's right, THREE DAYS OF DRY WEATHER-- for the nectar to get back out to the blooms where the bees can gather it. I think we have had only a couple stretches of dry weather that was long enough to fit that ideal criteria.
All that to say that we are looking at a small yield for Spring Honey this year, AGAIN. Typically we would harvest twice as much Spring Honey as Autumn Honey but it looks like this year will be a partial "washout" as we had last year. We have already adjusted the number of honey boxes on the hives to try and concentrate the bees' efforts as best as we can, making the hard decision to remove empty boxes that would already be heavy with nectar in other years.
A smaller harvest will probably affect pricing (as the quantity of Spring Honey also dictates its lower price),but we will hold off on that decision until we see what happens. If anything, we'd just make one price for all seasons this year (the Autumn Honey price) and call it a day-- we buy jars enough in advance that it isn't a factor for pricing changes this year at our expected harvest.
I'm guessing the business major in my household would say that's too much price transparency, but even as a sideline gig we do have to make the numbers work!
Vacation Souvenirs
Speaking of vacation, I'll be posting more on our social media accounts over the next week or so--- but here's the preview:
We came back from our trip to Portugal with some legit RAW LOCAL PORTUGUESE HONEY!
They have a very different mixture of plants/climate there, as you'd guess, and that includes honey made from rosemary nectar (among others). We have only opened the "pot" one so far and it's quite distinct from what we experience here! Very delicious and probably among the best packable souvenirs you can get-- but make sure you put them in your checked bags!
We also grabbed a bottle of honey brandy. We haven't sampled this (yet) but it was really a desperation purchase as we mistakenly thought we could get a different product in the airport's duty-free, only to discover it was not there! It's called Abelheira (a honey liqueur made exclusively with honey from the Azores!) and I am still lamenting this mistake. Despite contacting numerous importers (PA, OH, NY) it appears to be unavailable.
If anyone reading this makes a trip to Portugal... gimme a shout!
Thanks for reading to the bottom (almost there!) and we'll send another update when we have a clearer picture on how the spring harvest (in late summer) has gone.
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Consider joining our email list-- we will not spam you, we promise! What we will do is send out information regarding events we are scheduled to sell at, along with reminders when each season's harvest is ready for sale. For anyone looking for the limited availability stuff (like quart jars or comb honey) or who want to be first in line, this is the list to be on-- email us to get on that list if you aren't already.
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