It's mid-May and we already have honey to harvest! Clearly, the bees, now sleeping well at night, have been very busy ladies in our gardens. We saw our bees in the fruit trees, and heard the familiar hum in the oak and maple forested areas on our property. We did a hive inspection yesterday and the pollen coming in is yellow, red, orange and dark brown! You won't get this when bees are forced into monocrop situations, where for instance, the bees are moved to an orchard with just apples for three weeks, and thus all they do is collect nectar and pollen from the apple trees. Monitoring pollen is one way to visually confirm what we know is happening: we're getting wildflower honey! Bees naturally make honey sourced from many different sources, and the pollen collected also comes from a variety of sources. This ensures the baby bees get a variety of pollen and thus nutrients in their diet, and that the honey is also rich in necessary nutrients. When bees have a choice of nectar and pollen sources, as they do in nature, they'll ignore what is less desirable and go after the better stuff! Bees are smart.
Many people ask us for specific types of honey - orange blossom, knotweed, etc. - but we'll never do that. Our honey, because it is wildflower, is different year to year and we like that variability. It's better for everyone, bees and humans alike! We are not so arrogant to believe we know better than nature; in fact, we are not just philosophers, but Philosopher LANE precisely because we've found the path back to nature and thus to good health. After 2020 and all the crazy stuff that went with it, many people are desperately searching for that path to better living. Want some Bee Wisdom? Stay busy, work together, keep your home clean and eat a variety of different foods! Wildflower honey is the best!
Our hives have requeened and we have 2 gorgeous light brown queens and one very dark beauty. Everyone looks happy and the hives are brimming with bees - we estimate a good 60k bees per hive already. We're busy planting vegetables, and the oregano is already starting to send up flower stalks. Weeding is a constant job (which is how you know we don't use chemical herbicides here!). Spring is so beautiful in Pennsylvania. We reliably have flowers blooming from late March all the way to November, from groundcovers to tree tops, and in every color, shape and size. New flowers go in every year. Perhaps one day we'll be the Ten Thousand Flower Farm?
Disclaimers: Blog posts are opinions, not advice. One thing all beekeepers will agree on, is that if you ask 10 beekeepers what to do, you'll get 13 different answers. Beekeeping is alchemy, nature, and a bit of magic.
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