This picture, above, has one newly emerged bee, she is the lightest colour, plus at least three that have begun to chew their way out of the comb. Aren't bees amazing?!
We still have lots of honey; 500g and 1 kg containers, both in glass jars and in plastic, plus 2 and 3 kg plastic pails. $12/kg regardless of size for #2 moisture content (18.6-20%).
Gift sets are available upon request;
please contact us to customize your order.
We can’t thank you enough for your great support and encouragement.
Gift sets are available upon request;
please contact us to customize your order.
We can’t thank you enough for your great support and encouragement.
While quantities last, you can purchase honey directly from us, pick up or free delivery within the Haldimand-Norfolk area.
Due to Covid-19 concerns, we are not delivering honey beyond this area at this time.
Hopefully, after the 2022 harvest, we will once again have honey available
at the Simcoe, Port Dover,
and London Farmer's Markets; Western Fair and Masonville Place.
Market prices vary according to vendor's overhead costs.
Contact us: 1111 Windham Rd 13, RR7 Simcoe, ON N3Y 4K6
Call or text: 226-231-0914
text is preferred as I spend a lot of time on the road.
Ask us about pollinating services, swarm removal, comb honey, and more!
Specialty jars are now only available by request during the harvest season.
Hopefully, after the 2022 harvest, we will once again have honey available
at the Simcoe, Port Dover,
and London Farmer's Markets; Western Fair and Masonville Place.
Market prices vary according to vendor's overhead costs.
Contact us: 1111 Windham Rd 13, RR7 Simcoe, ON N3Y 4K6
Call or text: 226-231-0914
text is preferred as I spend a lot of time on the road.
Ask us about pollinating services, swarm removal, comb honey, and more!
Specialty jars are now only available by request during the harvest season.
My happy place is seeing my hubby in his happy place - with the bees!
2021: I'm fairly certain that we only started the season with four hives. We bought some nucs, rescued some swarms, and split the rest from what we had. We finished the season with way more honey than we expected and 19 hives that seem fairly heavy and healthy! Pollen collection this year was also abundant! Of course, we can't fully count a year's success until we get back to dandelion season. That's how critical these little golden blooms are, so for all who don't kill theirs, thank you!!!
2020: All 12 or so honey supers are off for the year and sugar syrup feeding has begun for the Winter. It was a very dry year, so we might have only gotten about 200 pounds and very little pollen. Our Summer harvest gives us #1 grade honey and our Fall harvest is a little higher moisture, #3 grade. After about four years of grading our honey, we have still not had any problems reported or observed with higher moisture content. We believe this is in part due to the abundance of clover nectar available to the bees. I put together this collage of pictures of the sky. Enjoy!
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Sept. 4/15: First, we planned to have no honey harvest all all this year. Next, we took off 27 lbs, and it sold in two weeks. Then we took 45 lbs off, and we've sold quite a bit already. We're down to 26 bottles remaining and an empty serving pail (used for filtering and bottling). We hope to get another fifty pounds or so off, depending on how the girls are doing. #StillAmazed!
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Aug. 26/15: we should have about 100 lbs more honey to extract this year! (about three times as much as we already took off)
Sept 27/14: is suddenly getting lots of b-mail messages! LOL Keeping up on the latest buzz!
How To Pay For Bees
This is the question of all questions for anyone who wants to get into beekeeping, right?! Maybe some have some money to invest – that’s a good starting point. It’s taken us at least three years to take our little business to a point of making some income. And there’s a variety of ways of doing things. We invested in a small honey extractor so that we don’t have to make a huge investment and we don’t have to pay someone to extract for us – as this service is available, locally, as well. So, what else is there? For hubby, he has a good, steady job with a modest income that he loves to invest in his retirement plan apiary. As for me, I drive a school bus and seasonal farm bus, which offer perfect scheduling for beekeeping, though the income is quite humble. I haven't been able to supplement my income very much with life coaching, life celebration ceremonies, or as a minister through the pandemic, so I've started babysitting part time for a lovely family nearby. Hopefully these other endeavours will be restored in the near future as we continually seem to get closer to a declared endemic phase. Finances are very personal and very unique for each person and/or family. It’s definitely good to do some homework, first, to see what beekeeping might cost to get started. Most beekeepers, we find, are willing to share who their suppliers are, what things cost, and a few tips and tricks. Most will avoid used equipment for fear of spreading disease. Knowing how to prevent disease and colony collapse will certainly increase your opportunity for success. For every beekeeper out there, there’s typically more than just one unique way to keep bees. YouTube videos are also very helpful, but not all of them! If you’re still looking for ideas, you can contact me, Donna, at 1-226-231-0914, call or text. Dr. Miller's Method of Hive Increases: Searching online, this can be hard to find! This pdf file contains the exact system that we did use this year to increase our numbers. We had another severe drought this year (2020), so it's difficult to compare to other years. Our colonies did become stronger through the year but looked weaker, going into Winter. From 13 hives, we got 9 more colonies, which we know doesn’t even compare well with regular splits. We hoped for more and stronger colonies. This is what we really won’t know until Spring. As for honey production, we were hoping for 1,000 lbs, but ended up with about 400 lbs. As we approach the 2022 season, I'm hoping that we can try this method again and I'm also hoping to try to convert some of our hives to an AZ style, starting with a nuc or two. Joe was hoping to buy some AZ hives, last year, but at around $300 US per hive, and only four surviving colonies, we felt the money was much more wisely spent on buying more bees to fill the hardware that we already owned. The hives were also unassembled, and I don't remember having any spare time to build them! As soon as we start seeing plus temperatures in the late winter, bee season is under way and we are a very busy family. With thousands of hungry little mouths to feed, who wouldn't be?! :) |
The Squeaky Bee Gets the Oil?!
We use Essential oils in a variety of ways, namely feeding the bees and fumigating with wintergreen for mites. We order from friend-recommended, Canadian-based, New Directions Aromatics. We have also used HoneyBHealthy which is a “Feeding Stimulant with Essential Oils”. While trying to find an online list of the oils used in this product, I found some recipes to make your own! Being that this is an expensive product and that we do have a nice selection of oils, we will certainly be checking this recipe in the Spring. We use a vaporizer that we bought online, though we also have a propane smoker and best yet, Joe would like a portable vaporizer that doesn’t require him carrying around a deep cycle car battery for treatments. The propane smoker is simply not as effective for controlling mites. Propane smokers can also be a problem for getting into Canada as they’re intended to use for mosquito insecticides. Joe had to order his from the U.S. This has become our favourite video for home made bee supplements. By the way, third party links provided are for information and ease of finding products, if desired. They're not affiliate links, so there shouldn't be any commissions paid to us through them. The links provided have as little advertising on them as we can find for your benefit and ours! Wait! What?! You don't want sugar-fed, oil-fed bee honey?! No worries! We don't harvest the honey that they make while being fed. The girls get new comb to work on, in the Spring, once we know they have enough food for themselves. We quit feeding them, basically once the dandelions start blooming and all honey that we harvest IS natural nectar-based! We begin feeding again, after we harvest the last honey of the season. The ladies then use the syrup we give them to make more honey for the winter. More Links:
*Weight/Volume *Sold Fast *White Honey *Eagle *Paint *Water *Mums *2016 Done! *Hidden Treasure *Got Mail * Cappings * If you want to read more about bees, here's a couple of our favourite books:
Beekeeping for Dummies is my favourite beek book and has coloured pictures for those of us who need a little extra visualization. I love the great sense of humour that it is written with, as well. The ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture – Joe found a copy of a 1923 edition of this book at a local dump that has since closed. He calls it his beekeeping Bible and it is his favourite. We are not as familiar with the modern version but have heard good things from other beeks about it. |
One of the first questions asked of any beekeeper is “have you been stung?” It’s a given, of course we’ve been stung. The honest truth, though, is bees have much better manners than mosquitoes! Those things are relentless! I do have a picture or two of some impactful stings. I will post them when I find them.
One time, I was getting my gear from the trunk of the car and must have pinched a yellow jacket against my belly! Woah, those things can really hurt! The venom burned for a few minutes, and then I felt fine. The next day, the sting site became a red hot rash about the size of the palm of my hand and stayed that way for a couple of days. I kept cooling it with aloe vera gel.
Everyone does have to bee careful about stings around the respiratory or circulatory systems, whether allergic or not. Anyone can have a reaction when stung in these places - it's just how our bodies react to unwanted venom of any kind. Our most notable stings were right on top of the head or near the eyes or ears. I was the one stung on the head. The next day, my forehead swelled up and made me look Klingon (Star Trek alien race), and left me feeling very woozy. I did not feel the need to seek medical attention, but I also chose not to drive anywhere that day. Thankfully, it was a Sunday, so I didn't need to. I also had my knowledgeable family keeping an eye on me to make sure that my symptoms did not become worse. Yes, antihistamines are helpful. Our adult sons each have one hand that swells up when it gets stung, while the other does not. I believe it's the opposite hand for each of them, which is just bizarre! Stings around the head or face keep us watching each other for any complications. It's all just part of beekeeping!!! None of us have quit, yet!
One time, I was getting my gear from the trunk of the car and must have pinched a yellow jacket against my belly! Woah, those things can really hurt! The venom burned for a few minutes, and then I felt fine. The next day, the sting site became a red hot rash about the size of the palm of my hand and stayed that way for a couple of days. I kept cooling it with aloe vera gel.
Everyone does have to bee careful about stings around the respiratory or circulatory systems, whether allergic or not. Anyone can have a reaction when stung in these places - it's just how our bodies react to unwanted venom of any kind. Our most notable stings were right on top of the head or near the eyes or ears. I was the one stung on the head. The next day, my forehead swelled up and made me look Klingon (Star Trek alien race), and left me feeling very woozy. I did not feel the need to seek medical attention, but I also chose not to drive anywhere that day. Thankfully, it was a Sunday, so I didn't need to. I also had my knowledgeable family keeping an eye on me to make sure that my symptoms did not become worse. Yes, antihistamines are helpful. Our adult sons each have one hand that swells up when it gets stung, while the other does not. I believe it's the opposite hand for each of them, which is just bizarre! Stings around the head or face keep us watching each other for any complications. It's all just part of beekeeping!!! None of us have quit, yet!