🐝💗Our Backyard Beekeeping Journey!💗🐝

[drstratton]

She did say she had 5 gallons of buckwheat honey! Wanna split it? oh wait!
We gotta cut @farmerjan in on this! She likes it too! Hahaha

I’d like the medium also please!

Hopefully we have better luck with shipping this time...lol

 

[fuzzi]

We gotta cut @farmerjan in on this! She likes it too! Hahaha

Do we have to share it with @farmerjan ?

 

[drstratton]

37° and the bees are out.

We need a new hose, I'd say hubs farmered this together, but it's from his trade, so he electricianed it together!

 

[drstratton]

We went out to see if the girls needed more food. Hubs opened hive #2 and a bee zipped out and stung him on the arm. Little beast, all we wanted to do was feed them. I did get a chance to see that they still had plenty of sugar block left, but didn't have time to snap a picture. They all have food, so we will wait a couple of weeks before checking again. Note to self... wear protective gear, they are still a little pissy...

 

[fuzzi]

We went out to see if the girls needed more food. Hubs opened hive #2 and a bee zipped out and stung him on the arm. Little beast, all we wanted to do was feed them. I did get a chance to see that they still had plenty of sugar block left, but didn't have time to snap a picture. They all have food, so we will wait a couple of weeks before checking again. Note to self... wear protective gear, they are still a little pissy...

They die once they sting, correct?

 

[drstratton]

They die once they sting, correct?

If the stinger is left in their victim. If not they will be fine. I think this one survived, but it injected enough venom that hubs arm is itching and swelling a bit.

A worker bees stinger has barbs.

The Queens stinger has none or they can be very fine, so she can sting multiple times, but the Queens are easy to handle and don't usually sting.

Drones don't have a stinger.

 

[drstratton]

I ordered some new single piece lids for our feeder jars. The bees were not able to easily access the syrup when we were using screens. So we removed the screens. I want to put the screens back in place, to keep them from coming out when we remove the jars. These are flatter than the regular jar lids. I hope they work better. They're also SS, so hopefully won't rust.

 

[drstratton]

I will finally be mailing honey tomorrow, sorry it's taken me so long. When you get it, there will be some color variation. The darkest honey is buckwheat, slightly crystalized. There is also buckwheat that looks lighter because it was very crystalized. I had to warm it slightly to get it to pour into the bottles. You will also find some bottles that say mix on them. They have the mixed buckwheat honey in them that we harvested before the straight buckwheat. It has a very mild buckwheat flavor. I included it, because it wasn't crystalized. There are 8 bottles in the medium boxes and 3 in the small. And I still have a lot of honey, so let me know when you want more.

I wonder if this year will be as productive.

 

[farmerjan]

If it is a crop that your bees will continue to pollinate, maybe you could just market Buckwheat Honey and make enough back to help cover some other expenses. I know you don't want to make this a business... but if they are going to produce it, maybe just a short term "business " ... like the maple syrup business.... they work at it all year, but it is not demanding like say "regular farming".... on a TIGHT time schedule... still needs all the behind the scenes things done... and get a return on a product that you personally do not like as much... everyone's tastes are different.... still gives you plenty of the lighter flavored honey to enjoy and share with your family, friends....

 

[drstratton]

If it is a crop that your bees will continue to pollinate, maybe you could just market Buckwheat Honey and make enough back to help cover some other expenses. I know you don't want to make this a business... but if they are going to produce it, maybe just a short term "business " ... like the maple syrup business.... they work at it all year, but it is not demanding like say "regular farming".... on a TIGHT time schedule... still needs all the behind the scenes things done... and get a return on a product that you personally do not like as much... everyone's tastes are different.... still gives you plenty of the lighter flavored honey to enjoy and share with your family, friends....

We'll see what the year brings. I'm disappointed in how quickly the buckwheat crystalized. I want to make creamed honey with the lighter honey. We have some crystalized honey from a bottle we purchased. I just need to grind the crystals smaller to seed some of our own honey.
Hubs isn't wanting to harvest the buckwheat at all next season. The bees need food for winter, so that's what he wants to do with it. I'll make sure I have more to share.