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Friday, July 21, 2006

New Product Headed to Market


It's here!!! Just got finished packaging the cut comb and chunk honey and they will be in the market first thing tomorrow morning. . .

It's really hard being the beekeeper, the extractor, bottler, packager, labeler, candle maker, and the marketer. (Are those words?) What I'm trying to say it I feel like it takes a ton of work to bring our product to market the way I want to. I'm proud of what we are able to bring out of the bee yard and hope that others will appreciate it as well.


Cut Comb: Ever since I've been down at the farm market people always stop and ask me if I have any comb honey. They either remember it from when they were little or they've heard their parents or grandparent’s talk about it. Well here it is. Straight out of the hive, cut into 1 lb. sections and beautifully as well as carefully packaged just for you.


Chunk Honey - For those of you who want a jar of honey but would like to have a little comb well this is just for you. It looks beautiful on the table and tastes just as good as it looks. . . Yummmmm.

This week we've been busy re-queening a few hives. I got 10 queens via the mail on Wed. and we've been out in the yard every night trying to find the queens we want to replace. Now I'm sure you probably wonder why? Well, after looking at the different hives and how they are growing it's painfully obvious that we have some problems. We also wanted to re-queen the hives that I was able to bring through last winter. I'm thinking we will actually re-queen about 8 of the 30 hives and start two small hives just in case. Jim's been working day and night helping me figure out what the heck I've got going on out there. I'm really glad that he's working out in the bee yard with me. Two minds are better than one.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Apple Cinnamon Creamed Honey




Can you picture honey dribbled throughout a kitchen covering every possible inch of counter space? How about a sink full and then some of dishes. . . Well if you can you probably also heard me muttering a few choice words right about noon today.

I had the recipe, I had all the ingredients but the first problem became painstakingly apparent when 11 pounds of honey did not fit in my mixing bowl. I turned it down low and took my time at first but when I realized I had to add the fruit and spices I started to panic.

So that's when I came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea. I would add all the spices and oils to the whole batch and then pour half of it out and add half of the fruit to what was left and then when I finished that batch I'd put it in a bowl until I got the other half done. So are following this little adventure?


Here I am, with a mixer overflowing, which spilled just a tad when I took it off the mixer to put half of it in a clean shiny glass bowl, trying to be ever so tidy. Ok, I never ever said I was real domesticated. But I really did think that this would be something I could handle. I kept on going and when I added the fruit it just didn't want to seem to mix in. I had to mix it way longer than they said I should and after it finally got all mixed up I realized I had to pour this bowl full into another bowl. Bowl number three. After I scraped it into the other glass bowl, I picked up the first bowl and put it back in my mixer. It took awhile but I finally got the fruit mixed in and when I went to combine them I realized that neither of the bowls I took out would accommodate that much creamed honey. . . so out comes another bowl.

By now the spatula has been dropped on the very clean counter enough times that I had as much honey on the handle as was on the end of the spatula. So now my hands are covered in honey and every time I go to get something I'm leaving little honey prints everywhere.

It took forever and I mean forever to get through this little project and after I got it put into jars I sure didn't feel the love. . . . And after spending the next two hours cleaning up the kitchen I know there wasn't any love. . .

I did smile when I looked at the cut comb and can't wait to take it to market. As for the creamed honey, well it has to refrigerate for 7 to 10 days and hopefully if it will make its debut at market the week after next. I have pictures of honey hard as a rock in pretty jars. . . .

I have to remember this is an adventure I'm on and it's not where I'm going to end up that’s important but instead it’s all about the journey.

Boy today I sure with someone else was driving, I feel like I got really lost and drove around for hours and hours getting nowhere. Sigh!

Coming soon to a farm market near you. . . Apple Cinnamon Whipped or Creamed honey. . .just look for the woman with a honey laden spatula stuck to the back of her head.

Cut Comb





Yipee!!!!! Cut comb for the very first time.

The girls actually did it. We took the first super off of one of the hives and got the most beautiful cut comb. You know everyone kept telling me that it was too difficult a chore for the bees to actually do. I knew it wasn't going to be easy but Jim and I decided to go ahead and try it. We also have a second box that should be ready to take off the hive next weekend. I'm so happy that it actually worked.

We started the day off with a run out to the yard to see how things were going. We are currently going through a major heat wave here so we didn't last too long in our bee suits, but we were able to take the comb super off as well as a couple of other honey supers. I was really excited to see how the comb honey would look.

Since I've only watched my Uncle Ted cut comb once before I got all the books and manuals out to make sure I knew what I was doing. Jim tried to come up with a jig to make it easier and we ended up using a template instead. The parts that were excess we will add to our spring honey so that we will be able to offer chunk honey. I know that it will be a big hit in the market.

After all the comb honey was cut and put in boxes, we put them in the freezer and will take them out a few days before it's time to go to market.

We were also able to take about 45 lbs. of honey which I will be using tomorrow on a new product. . . Apple Cinnamon Whipped Honey.

Let me tell you, it is the most amazing thing I've ever tasted. I was going to wait until the fall to bring this out but the tester I had at home has pretty much been tested out by everyone who has walked in the door. That means pretty soon I won't have any to spread on my toast. So it's time to get crackalackin and mix up a batch. I have to refrigerate it 7 to 10 days before I can bring it to market, but trust me the wait is well worth it.

I had a great day at the market on Saturday. . .but then again every day there has been really great no matter how much money I make. This weekend I got the chance to share some bee information with a few kids who really wanted to know all about bees. They kept me pretty on my toes trying to make sure that I answered them all. The lady in the booth next to me pulled me aside after that and told me that she really enjoyed hearing me explain all about the bees when people stopped in.

I had to put a slight halt on the candle making. After just one week of working in the kitchen I pretty much wrecked every inch of flooring by covering the tiles with spilled wax. Ok, maybe it wasn't really ruined but I did spend almost 2 1/2 hours on my knees with a knife and hot soapy water scraping it off the tiles and then washing each tile individually. Jim wasn't really too happy with the mess. Looks like candle making is going to have to be a outdoor only event. Oh and I also spilled wax all over the front of my phone. I was worried sick that it wouldn't work anymore, but it keeps on ringing.

Here is a photo of Jim using the hot knife taking off the top layer of wax from the frame so it can go into the extractor for extracting. . .

Well better head to bed, there's a ton of stuff that needs to be done and if I don't get some rest I'll never keep up.





Monday, July 10, 2006

Home Sweet Home

Now here is a real group of trouble makers!!!!

It was fun, it was great and yes we learned tons and tons of stuff at the Heartland Apicultural Society Meeting.
(H.A.S.) Jim and I met my Uncle Ted and Aunt Mar there and really enjoyed the entire adventure. It was great to see some of the people I got to meet last year and make new friends at the same time.

The best part was that Jim and I didn't go to the same sessions so we actually got twice as much information as I did when I went by myself last year. Jim really got a chance to see first hand some of the stuff I've been trying to explain to him. All right I admit that I'm a bit on the attention deficit side and I have a hard time focusing on just one thing at a time, but how in the world could you when there are so many different topics to choose from.

Classes were arranged in different levels of beekeeping and the offerings were so varied that it was really hard to choose. Jim went to a whole lot of classes out in the Bee Yard so he could see things himself the right way. (At least that's what he told me. . . I wonder if he meant that my way was wrong?) Anyway he picked up some things that I didn't have any idea about and when we got home he put his newfound wisdom to work right away.

Every time I turned around I got the chance to talk to someone new and learn something new. I have to tell you I've never been in a situation like this where people went out of their way to make sure that all the new beekeepers had answers to all the questions they had. It's not like the kind of place where you go somewhere and nobody shares any of their "secrets" with you. Heck no, I learned the ins and out of the bee hive and I also learned how to make creamed honey, oops I mean whipped honey, candles & lotions as well as learn how to make the most out of the products from the bee yard.
There are people there that have no hives and just are interested about beekeeping and people there who have thousands of hives and a lot somewhere in between, but the best thing is that it was a really great learning experience for both Jim and I.

Well I told you Jim went to work in the bee yard when we got home. . . .Saturday morning while I was at the market he went out in the yard and took a good look around. He found that we had wax moths in some equipment that was just sitting out in the yard, and he thought we had lost a queen in one of our hives. When I got home we both suited up and sure enough we had wax worms. . . Ulk. . . usually it's not a problem with bees if it's a strong colony but the one colony that Jim couldn't find a queen in was really small and while I did find a queen it had a pretty severe case of wax worm. Since we were going to tear the hive apart and move things around I took the opportunity to look for varoa mites on the drone larvae. Yep it was there too. No wonder the hive was so weak. So Jim had already come up with a game plan and we put it into effect. We brought out a nuke and while we were checking out the other hives we took a full frame of honey and pollen as well as a frame of brood from one of the stronger hives and tucked it inside the nuke. When we got to the hive that was in trouble I located the queen and Jim carefully picked her up and put her in the box. We then brushed as many of her own bees from the hive in the box and closed things up. Oh and we put two frames of drawn comb in as well. But because we couldn't get all the bees out of the hive we left the hive out there close to the new nuke thinking that they'd all head into the new digs and get settled in. After talking to Uncle Ted we probably shouldn't have done that. Seems that it could cause some serious robbing.
Anyway, today I went out to check on things to see how things were going and I took some photos.
Enjoy!



Sunday, July 02, 2006

Is there sun in Michigan ?

Ok, I realize it's Michigan I'm living in, but the amount of rain that we have had to put up with this year is amazing. I was just on the phone with mom and she said they could really use the rain in Oklahoma. I'd love to send it to her.

Almost the Fourth of July, and we have no big plans. Still working on finishing the basement and bottling honey and getting things organized in the honey house. Yes I know I really don't have a honey house yet, I'm working on it. But I believe in the idea of positive thinking, and if I believe I have a honey house, one day I will. Right now when I refer to the honey house, what I'm actually talking about is the downstairs bedroom and the back of the truck. I also have a few additional rooms that come into play from time to time, like when I bottle or make candles but I can't really count those because they aren't permanent. So for now when I refer to honey house you will know what I mean.

I had these really big ideas when I started about how I would build a little honey house and the world would be perfect. . . then the reality of what that entailed as well as the cost of taking care of bees hit me. Going to the market every Saturday has help offset some of the cost. But I'm a long long long long way from making any kind of profit. So for any of you out there who are reading my blog and you think that bees are a get rich project. . . . call me:)

A better way to think about it would be that going to market is your way of coming up with bee support money. It comes in and goes out just as fast. I got home from market with my biggest sale day ever and after going to the bee conference this week and placing my Betterbee order I'm in the hole a couple of hundred dollars. . . . get the point?

Why do I do it? I really enjoy it. I love being in the yard watching the bees heading in and out. The smell of a honey house when your harvesting honey is the most amazing thing. Smelling a beeswax candle reminds me of it all over again. Beekeeping is something you will never figure out, and at some point you realize that no matter how much you learn, there is always a ton more to learn. Thinking about how much there is to learn can be way overwhelming so for now I try to just tackle each day as it comes. Occasionally I manage to plan ahead a little. But not usually. But the challenge as well as the enjoyment is what makes me look forward to taking those daily walks to the bee yard. . .