Honeyflow Farm Newsletter

Fr** Pair of Candles

All subscribers to our newsletter are eligible to receive a pair of free 9.5 inch beeswax candles. We hold a drawing and then print the person's name in every issue.

Watch for your name - You may have already won!

If you are on our picking updates list you may also win a bushel of grapes. Four bushels are given away each season.

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"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."

Norman Thomas
(1884-1968)
(US Socialist Politician)

The Quotations Page

Greetings from the Farm!

New Line of Votives with Essential Oils Coming Soon

We are in the process of revising our line of votives. At present we offer: Cinnamon, Bayberry, Lilac, Honeysuckle, Rose & Christmas Spruce. All of these use Fragrance Oils as the scent. More.....

Some Scented Votives are now ON SALE - 50% OFF

Burn Times of Tea Lites & Votives

We have had questions about burn times of Teal Lites & Votives.

We test all of our candles for length of burn, quality of flame, smokiness and other factors. We do it the simple way by burning them and keeping a lot of notes. More.....

New Plastic Cup Votives

We offer Tea Lites in two sizes.

Our economy size in a 5/8 x 1 1/2 inch metal cup (.6 oz wax) & burn time about 3 - 4+ hrs.

New this year is a heat resistant plastic tea lite that is 3/4 x 1 1/2 inch (.7 oz wax) & burn time about 4 - 5+ hrs.

More.....

Do you produce all your own beeswax?

The honeybee only produces a small amount of wax for every pound of honey they collect - that is why it is more expensive than other waxes. Remember that the wax comes from the actual flowers that are blooming.

Spring in the Vineyard

Spring pruning was slightly different than last year. We used a system of "Hedge Pruning" using a hedger and pruned all the shoots on the top wire fruiting area to about a 2 foot square box. More on spring pruning....

This photo and the email below was submitted by Rick Vanderpool

The white blossoms are actually the anther (produces the pollen) and stamen (white support tube for the anther)… The grape “blossoms” include the petals that are actually a translucent green. Larger image.....

The labels were so unique we had to buy some - but the wine was very dissapointing.

I should have read the labels closer....

What do grape blossoms smell like?

Walking through the vineyard when it is in full bloom is a unique experience. The scent is slightly more subtle than other fruits. More...

We still had lots of winter loss with the honeybees this year and are trying something different. We fed all of them in late winter with sugar syrup and pollen patties to increase the strength of them. Then in May we made splits to increase our colony count numbers. (more info on splits...) It seems to have helped although we still have less colonies than we would like. We are trying to break the cycle of varroa mites and winter damage by more nutrition and also feeding essential oils & thymol (thyme) to make healthier bees.

We also purchased 20 packages of honeybees. These are shoebox size screened boxes of honeybees used to start new colonies. View our pictorial showing how package bees are installed.....

Honeybee Swarms

Thousands of honey bees have just invaded your property or adjacent area and have now settled in a large clump on a tree, a fence or on some other object. The mass of bees, called a swarm, may be as small as a softball or larger than a basket ball. You may feel terrified and think that your family is in great danger and you want them removed as soon as possible. The following questions and answers may help you understand the nature of swarming, how to remove the problem and also help a beekeeper save the honeybees.
Visit the SouthEastern Michigan Beekeeper Page on swarms...

I once had a swarm land in the vineyard - the story...

Michigan Beekeepers' Association Calendars

I was so impressed with the art on this years calendar that I wanted to show the images on our website. Pat & I were sitting at our kitchen table looking at the mail & Pat was looking at the new calendar. She was very impressed and asked if "I knew all this stuff". Of course I smuggly said yes of course - until later when I really looked at it.

These web pages are not the complete calendar with date info but the cover pages with all the artwork. Most of the pictures are re-arranged to better fit on a web page. Take a look at the new calendar.....

Did Honey exist in Biblical times?

In biblical times, one of the known sweetening agents in the world was honey.

Honey was valued highly. "Honey in the rock" was wild honey found in rock crevasses, contrasted to honey in the field produced by domesticated bees. Honey was recognized as a preservative. When Alexander the Great died in Babylon, his body was encased in honey before making the long trip home. More...

Try this months honey recipe, Honey, Mint, and Cucumber Salad, typical of food eaten in Biblical times.

Visit the Readers Comments page to view all the content of these messages. Here are samples of this month's e-mails:  

 •• Help with candle wick size  •• What seedless grapes do you recommend to plant  •• Grape juice  •• Heating with beeswax candles  •• pressing & concentrate questions  •• Storing comb honey  •• Where do you get your candle molds  •• Pruning concord vines  •• More candle wick questions  •• Burn times of votives & tea lites  •• Where can I buy vines  •• Black honey  •• Still enjoying your candles after 1 year  •• Pails of honey?  •• Catalog?  •• Raw honey questions  •• Bees & beeswax  •• Don't use pickle pails  ••

Congratulations! Spring-Summer Candle Winner is rj52240@yahoo

Will this months w*nner, rj52240, please contact us and send your address so that I can ship your pair of candles.

Our list of previous candle w*nners.

Click below for something to end this newsletter with.

See You Next Issue!

Note for below - John is a friend of ours that sang in the Lapeer County Concert Choir until he recently went south to retire (again).