Articles from
The Tattler
"Tales from the Farm"

January, 2003  Vol. 3, No. 1

January at the Honey Farm

The final thing that we do to the honeybee hives in very late fall is to wrap them with some insulation to help them survive the winter. When we took the honey off last fall we left a 16 x 20 inch piece of 1/2 inch insulation on top of the bees, below the outer cover. Now I finally get around to finishing the job of applying a special black plastic insulating wrap around each colony in about 1/2 of our bee yards. This job really should have been done last month but we ran out of time. This gives the bees just a little more protection in case we have a really cold winter.

The picture in the center shows the beehive with the top and inner cover off. You can see the very top of the winter cluster. (The white stuff is a wintergreen/grease/sugar mixture used to reduce varroa mites) Picture the winter cluster as a round ball with just the top of it showing. The picture at the right is a close up of the same bees.

Many people ask me if the honeybees "hibernate" in the winter. THEY DO NOT!  The bees will create a "cluster" inside the hive and keep warm with their body hear by consuming honey. The air on the outside of the cluster may be very cold but in the center it may be 80 degrees.

Wrapping our colonies is usually the last thing that I do to the bees this season. At this point the honeybees are healthy and warm, our crop is harvested, stored in barrels in the barn, and our family is busy with the Christmas Season and preparing for an exciting new year!

To see larger pictures of these honeybees or to view our pictorial showing the whole beekeeping season visit our "Year in the Bee Yards" page.

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Very Volatile Prices in 2003

There has been some very dramatic changes in honey pricing during the last year. A large part of the honey consumed in the USA is imported from other countries (China, Mexico, Canada etc.)

Last year the U.S. Customs Service (Customs) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that they have discovered bulk imports of Chinese honey that were contaminated with low levels of chloramphenicol (CAP), a potentially harmful antibiotic and unapproved food additive. The contaminated honey was detected during an investigation into a widespread scheme to evade payment of U.S. anti-dumping duties on bulk imports of Chinese honey.

This tainted imported honey has been refused by most honey packing companies and along with some drought conditions in the western part of the country which has caused some very poor crops, the cost of honey has sky rocketed. The price paid for truckloads (barrels or tankers) of honey has gone from about .60 to .70 per pound a few years ago to as much as $1.50 to $1.75 per pound over the summer. Although these prices will fluctuate greatly next year the retail price of honey will go up a lot.

It is now more important than ever to purchase honey locally. A small producer (like us) can even tell you which counties our honey came from.

Further reading:  Dirty Chinese Honey doesn't get past U.S. Customs