Hey Honey!

At the beginning of the summer it was the big question.  Would the Italians outperform the Carnolians, or vice versa?  Kyle looks pretty confident in his 4 lb.nuk of fuzzy girl-bees, Mark a little concerned.  No need.  Our honey bees both did well and gave gallons of the liquid gold stuff.  Now Mark and Kyle have been busy bottling and labeling and are ready to sell the sweet success of Mother Nature.

 
Yum.  Watching honey flow is like watching ocean waves come to the shore, or a camp fire burning low – captivating, mesmerizing and irresistible.  Poke the fire, splash the wave, or dip a finger in the sweet, sticky stuff.  The twins were carefully instructed not to, but I still feel the urge and have to instruct myself too.
  
Here they are making custom labels for their honey jars (at no extra charge to their customer).

Wildflower Raw Honey – $4.00 a pound (that’s about what you can get it for at your local grocery store.)
Sold in sealed quart or pint mason jars
Quart size – $13.00   Bring an clean wide mouth quart  mason jar to replace and the honey is $12.00  (3 lbs)
Pint size – $7.00 Bring a clean pint mason jar to replace and the price is $6.00 (1 1/2 lbs)
Coming soon: 
Honey Crèmes  (The sweetest, creamiest most delicate hard candies EVER)
Honey Silk  (also known as Creamed Honey or Whipped Honey)

Wishing . . .

is for . . . BEES!

It’s sooo cold.  I don’t mind – We have a cozy fireplace, downy comforters to snuggle under etc.  But outside is a different story.  Outside our critters must endure with what Mother Nature gave them.

Here’s Beth (that’s what I name all of the underlings, or worker gals.  Jay thinks I’m . . . I dunno what he thinks, he keeps it politely to himself).  So here’s Beth last spring working on some of Grandpa’s apple blossoms.  They’ll travel up to 7 miles to get their job done.

 

Here are some of the crew in happier days.  Last summer I snapped this rare sighting of AnnaBeth.  She’s the one almost in the middle with the longer abdomen.  Isn’t she purdy?  This year we are getting another hive and I am going to mark this AnnaBeth with a dot of bright pink nail polish on her back so we can see her more often!

We just checked our hunny-girls.  They are in their tight cluster at the top of their hive.  AnnaBeth (that’s Mom’s name, and the queen bee’s name, ‘cause Mom IS Queen Bee) should be right in the center of all that shivering, golden fuzziness keeping 90 degrees warm.  It’s quite a sight.  But they have a long ways to go before the first pollen of spring.  So, we made them some sugar patty cakes and placed them right among the throng.  Ideally, they are to travel slowly around the hive as a cluster during the winter consuming the honey they have stored.  But when it gets so cold for so long they often won’t break the cluster and will starve to death with honey ‘just around the corner’.  I feel for our gals.  Some years they give us gallons of their amber treasure from their amazing food factory.  We’ll try to help them now with something from our kitchen.