New Candle Catalog is Completed

 

We recently revised our candle catalog and added 5 new pages to it. It has over 120 images and 35 pages showing everything that is sold on our site. This 1 mg pdf file can be saved on your computer. You can print the catalog and order through the US Mail if you wish, although it is still much easier to do it on line.

Our Candle Catalog

 

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Beeswax Candle FAQ

Where does your beeswax come from?

Our beeswax is from our own Michigan honeybees and other local beekeepers. The wax is from the nectar of clovers, thistles and other wildflowers native to our area. The wax is not filtered, only lightly strained.

Related Pages:
Beeswax - Its History & Uses - By Roger and Mary Sutherland - South Eastern Michigan Beekeepers Association
Why Beeswax?
What is Bloom?
Candle Burning Tips
From Flower to Flame - How a honeybee makes beeswax

New Specialty Soap Item!

Honeycomb Complexion Bar

A new item has been added to our line of honey soaps. In addition to our Unscented, Almond-Oatmeal, Muscato & Lavender, we now offer a soap with comb honey in it.

Our Honeycomb Complexion soap is exclusively made for Honeyflow Farm, you will not find this unique bar of soap anywhere else.

Honey is very skin loving and is a natural humectant which will help draw moisture. With this in mind, each bar of soap has a piece of honeycomb that has been carefully embedded into the center and as you use the bar the honeycomb will slowly be exposed.

Contains: saponified oil of: rice bean, palm, coconut, hazelnut, avocado, evening primrose, olive, honeycomb dripping with honey.

 

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Specialty Soaps:
Honeycomb Complexion Soap:
$7.00 each bar or 3 or more bars for $5.50 each.
Click here to order Specialty Soaps .......

 

Standard Soaps:
Unscented, Almond-Oatmeal, Muscato & Lavender:
$6.00 each bar or 3 or more bars for $5.00 each. Mix fragrances for quantity discount.
Click here to order Standard Soaps

Each 5.5 oz bar measures 3-1/2 X 2-1/4 X 1-3/8 inch

Related Pages:
Our New Stained-Leaded Glass Shop
Other New Items for 2005

Checking Colonies & Putting honey supers on, My dark queens, Swarm Season

We just finished up checking all of our colonies to see how the split and package bees installed were doing. Most of our split colonies were doing good - especially the colonies with darker bees. The darker bees mean that they had queens that we raised ourselves from a darker race of bees, Russian/Carniolan, which are more mite resistant. Extra honey supers (boxes) were put on these colonies for the bees to put honey into.

Our package bees that we purchased and installed in May did not do as good as expected. We lost about 1/3 of the 40 colonies due to bad queens. When I returned to check them the bees were either weak or gone.

 

Swarm season - There is a lot of swarming going on in May & June. The honeybee colony will swarm when it becomes too crowded or the queen is too old. If the swarming instinct takes over the bees will start to make a lot of queen cells, and then one afternoon most of the bees take off with the old queen. The weaker colony which is left will be re-queened with the queen cells.

Usually these swarming bees land in a tree somewhere and some of the bees, called "scout bees" start looking for a new place for the bees to live. Since we have a lot of empty supers stored by our barn we commonly find bees that have landed in our boxes.

The above pictures show some of these honey supers that the bees have taken up residence in. Since I have to move them I put the colony on a screened bottom board ready for transit. Usually they are only in 2 boxes but this one was well established in 4 boxes. I decided to make 2 colonies out of it - one has a queen and the other will have to make their own.

A few days later I moved these bees out to a remote bee yard.

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A learning experience.

I was standing over by my barn talking to my daughter's boyfriend, Mark, one afternoon and we looked behind us and saw a huge swarm in the air. Bees were flying in about a 20 foot radius right around us.

Marks eyes were "wide open" and gave me a funny look (of terror) when I told him to come closer. I said "this is really neat - come over and look at these guys - aren't they cute - they will not sting." Well Mark got closer (I don't think he liked honeybees as much as I did) and I told him to watch the swarm - you do not get to stand in the middle of one that often. The bees seemed interested in one of the boxes in the pile of equipment and I told Mark that they were going to all go into the "red" box. Mark probably thought I was crazy, but he did get closer, the bees went into the red box and all disappeared in about 5 minutes.

Swarms are welcome additions - especially if they come from someone else's hives. They are very industrious bees and will usually produce a crop. They rarely sting, since they have no home to defend and before they swarmed they all filled up on honey. I always say they are just like people after eating a large meal - happy & contented.

Summer Honey Recipes

 

	Sweet Summer Fruit Smoothie - Makes 2 servings - 1 - 8 oz. container vanilla low-fat yogurt 1-1/2 cups peeled, sliced ripe peaches, nectarines or other fruits 2 Tablespoons honey 1/4 cup wheat germ
Place all ingredients in blender container; cover. Blend or process on high speed about 1 minute or until smooth. Pour smoothie into 2 glasses and, if desired, sprinkle with additional wheat germ. Note: For a thicker, frosty smoothie, freeze fruit overnight. Use frozen fruit as directed above.
Nutritional Information Per Serving Calories: 260 Calories from fat: 25 Fat: 3g Saturated Fat: 1g Cholesterol: 5mg Sodium: 75mg Carbohydrates: 54g Fiber: 4g Protein: 11g

Do you have a great honey recipe - please and we will put it in our newsletter.

Candle W*nner & Laugh of the Month

Congratulations!

Spring candle winner: northstarbakery@mail

Will this months w*nner,
northstarbakery@mail
please contact us and send your address so that I can ship your candles.

Our list of previous candle w*nners.

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Click below for something silly to end this newsletter with.

Laugh of the month: Snowball fight - Great Summer Activity

See You Next Month!

Honeyflow Farm Main Page

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

Comments or questions concerning Honeyflow Farm
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