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Spring at the Honey Farm
2010

Our honey crop last winter was not as we had hoped for and honey in our area is getting a little hard to find.

The bulk honey price on our Website and at our Sales Stand in the fall will be increasing to $2.75/lb. The article below is from the view of the commercial honey producing industry.

USA - 2009 WAS THE WORST HONEY CROP ON RECORD
Info from Bee Culture Magazine

Each October Bee Culture magazine surveys our 100 or so regular honey
producer/reporters from all parts of the U.S. By October 10 or so much of the U.S. crop has been harvested, and beekeepers have a pretty good feel for what they will be making, even if some is still in the field. The rest of the article...

 

Winter losses in Michigan were again quite severe - probably due to Colony Colapse Disorder and/or varroa mites.

After losing about 60% of our colonies over winter, we purchased 30 units of package bees to try to keep our volume of honey up. We are still optimistic for a good season. The packages were installed in late March. Click here for a pictorial about installing package bees.

In May we made splits. Splits are when we take one large colony and split it in half and give the queenless half a new queen. This is how we increase our colony numbers to make up for winter loss.

Shown below are 12 queens we purchased. They come in small wooden boxes. We put them in new colonies and the bees slowly eat through the sugar candy (the white stuff) getting used to the new queen and then she is free. If we released her immediately they would kill her.

In June we will check all of these colonies and start putting honey supers on the strong ones.

Honey and Herbs

(Note - this is from Laurie Teason who produces many of our soaps)

Hi Bill,
 
I had a such great time reading about beekeeping on your website. Found a page where you asked for recipes, I have one I would like to share with you.
 
A few years ago I took a 22 week herbal class and one thing I learned and found so interesting was the fact that honey acts as a great solvent for extracting herbal properties from botanicals/herbs. For example, we know chamomile is good for calming the nerves, so we drink chamomile tea.. Well another way to get those properties would be to take a glass mason jar and place about a cup of chamomile (dried) flower tops and then cover with honey (I would gently heat the honey so it is easy to pour). Put enough honey in the jar to cover and let it set for a several weeks. To filter, gently heat the content and pour through a fine strainer and rebottle. The nice thing about chamomile is the apple scent it has. This excellent for sweetening teas, use in cooking and great handmade gifts.
 
Since honey is water soluble makes it a great solvent to extract the beneficial properties from the herb.
 
Laurie

Myths of Michigan Agriculture

Myth: Beekeeping is not Agriculture. (Recently a beekeeper in Traverse City, Michigan area was cited for having a farm truck license on his truck used for transporting bees for pollination. He was told that beekeeping is not agriculture.)
Fact: Beekeeping is the oldest form of agriculture known to mankind.

Myth: Most farms in Michigan are "corporate" farms.
Fact: 95 percent of Michigan's farms are single family operated and/or family partnerships. Of the few farms structured as corporations, 99 percent of those are family-owned and involve multiple generations and family members.