OUR APIARY HISTORY
All our honey is considered 'wildflower' because it is made from wherever the honeybees forage and not from one specific type of nectar (like 'clover' or 'almond'). There is a great deal of biodiversity in the 5 mile radius the honeybees travel so the flavor is a pleasant surprise every time we extract the extra honey.
My bee hives produced excess honey for the first time in 2015. The bees did not produce any excess honey for the 2016 season.
The 2017 honey was light and flavorful and very well received. I've put a couple of images of the bees working the witchhazel flowers in a separate page, click here to go there.
I WAS SO HAPPY happy to be able offer honey again from the Fall of 2018! That year's honey was harvested a bit later (in September) and so the color is a deep amber and the flavor was *A*M*A*Z*I*N*G*! (If I do say so myself, LOL.) I added a couple more labels to remind you NOT to give Raw Honey to children under 1 year of age AND that all Raw Honey crystallizes and doing so doesn't change it's nutritional value, flavor, etc. Instructions on how to liquify your crystallized honey is the other new label.
I had hoped to have at least 3 times more honey to sell in 2018 (we had 3 times more mature hives going into the Spring), but between the CRP next to the farm being torn out (so many mature flowering trees destroyed), climate change and drought; we harvested only about 1/3 more honey than 2017.
As for 2019, we lost 6 hives that Spring and that left us with 3. The 2018 drought combined with the long Winter and the REALLY wet Spring had really knocked the honeybees for a loop. Even our remaining hives struggled and, therefore, since it is more important to us that they survive than provide us with honey to sell to you; there was NOT a 2019 harvest of honey.
We were ever so grateful to have honey available again in 2020. The supers were FULL by July and that year's honey was light and amazingly clear (these are good things). The flavor was perhaps a bit more delicate than the 2018, but that is expected because the nectars harvested did not include any fall plants and explains why it crystallized sooner than expected.
The 2021 season was been abundant for us. We hear from other beekeepers that where they are there has been little to no honey flow. We were ever so grateful that we were able to offer honey from 2021 year. In fact, we were able to offer three different varieties: Spring (with very little clover contribution), Fall (with clover and fall plants contribution), AND '21 Select (which has an exquisite flavor from a single hive that worked all year on it).
After the abundance of 2021, we were nervous going into 2022 (as you've read above, we've seen 'feast' years followed by 'famine' years in the past). Luckily, the hubby was able to work the apiary through the odd Winter, Spring, and Summer (with drought conditions) so that we came out of the year with good strong hives. But the honey flow for us was slow and the honeybees took all year to provide us with excess honey. This is fine, they need to make enough for themselves first and we are grateful for whatever they can spare. The quantity we have to sell is about on par with what we had in 2018 and the quality (barring the '21 Select) is about the best we've ever had.
Both 2023 and 2024 were tough years for our bees. While the hubby was able to save what colonies we have, he thought it best to leave them what they produced to get them through each winter. After all, we still had 2021 honey and 2022 honey to sell, so there was no reason to extract and then spend money to create a substitute food to get them through.
2025 is starting off better. Hopefully, we will be extracting honey after the clover blooms. Fingers crossed! |
