• New Candle Catalog

Many people have asked us to send them a catalog and in the past we did not have one. We have now created a 30 page catalog with over 90 images. It has every item sold on our site. This pdf file can be downloaded to your computer. You can now print the catalog and order through the US Mail if you wish, although it is still much easier to do it on line. download candlecatalog.pdf      (383kb - right click to save to your desktop - be patient - It may take a few minutes to download.) You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open the files. If you do not have a copy on your computer, click here to install one

• Making splits & checking colonies

Making splits in the spring is one of our most important times of the year in the bee yard. We take frames of brood (un-hatched baby bees) from the stronger colonies and use them to make new colonies. (see below)  This past year we lost more than 60% of our honeybees due to varroa mites and the long winter. Most beekeepers in the area had very heavy winter losses. Even after making splits and installing new package bees, our colony count is down 30%. There may not be as large of a honey crop this fall in our area. You will not see many swarms this year. Most colonies in the wild have died out and beekeepers have split their colonies heavily, which will reduce the overcrowding and helps to prevent swarming. Honeybee colonies swarm when they too strong in the spring time - it is nature's way to make new colonies. This year I had a helper with me in the bee yards. Eric Fisher (a local youth who also helped prune vines) joined me for a few days checking the colonies.
These pictures show him checking the package bees that we installed last month. (see more pictures of package bee installation)
These are frames of brood (young un-hatched honeybees) and eggs. I take about 2-4 of them (covered with honeybees), add a queen cell (click here for queen cell pictures) and move them to a new box on a new bottom board with a new inner & top cover and we have a new colony. Next month we will check to see if the queen cell hatched out ok and is laying eggs properly.

• Pollination Month

May & June are big pollination months for fruit growers. It is very important that they get proper pollination for their crops.

Download a copy of "The Story of Pollination" - An 8 page report with lots of pictures - from the National Honey Board.

 

**************************************

 

Pollen Collection Helps Plot the Past

Archaeologists seeking clues about the life of settlers in early America are the latest experts to make use of an Agricultural Research Service special collection of more than 8,000 types of pollen. ARS scientist Gretchen D. Jones's collection of glass slides and light and scanning electron micrographs (SEMs)--a type of highly detailed photograph--of various pollen species will be featured on a Public Broadcasting Service science special. The study of pollen is called palynology.

Previously, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, Calif., have utilized Jones' collection of pollen, the dusty mass of tiny, yellow microspores produced by seed plants. The collection is maintained at the ARS Areawide Pest Management Research Unit (APMRU) in College Station, Texas.

The collection, started in 1988, now contains more than 8,200 types, or taxa, of pollen from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Belize and Mexico. The main emphasis of the collection is pollen taxa from Texas. Jones' collection stands out because it includes all three types of sample records--glass slides, as well as two types of micrographs. Other collections generally contain only one or two of these forms.

It's the SEMs that make Jones' collection so sought after. These photographs provide an x-ray type of image that can show minute details of something as small as a pollen grain. Pollen grain SEMs can be analyzed by archaeologists who want to learn which plants would have produced the pollen found on ancient fossils.

Today, the PBS Scientific American Frontiers program premiers its "Unearthing Secret America" episode. It focuses on archeological finds in Jamestown, and Williamsburg, Va.; and at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Charlottesville, Va. They shed light on life in early America--particularly on the origins and growth of slavery.

Portions of Jones' pollen collection will be shown in this episode to illustrate how archaeologists analyzed pollen to determine what settlers ate, what medicinal plants they used, and whether they were hunters or gatherers.

More information on the collection can be found on the Internet at: http://pollen.usda.gov

• June Honey recipe - Orange Cream Spread

One 8-oz package cream cheese
1/4 cup honey 2 tablespoons orange juice 1/2 teaspoon grated orange peel

Combine all ingredients and blend well. This can be kept chilled overnight. If not making it for a bee meeting, try it for breakfast on rolls, muffins or a croissant.

 

Honeyflow Farm
4939 Mill Rd.    PO Box 275
Dryden, Michigan 48428
(810) 796-2344 (Phone & Fax)

Comments or questions concerning Honeyflow Farm should be addressed to wcs@honeyflowfarmREMOVETHISBIT.com