One of the things that really sets Sunny Honey Company apart from other honey brands is our commitment to producing and sourcing from close personal beekeeper peers and carefully vetted honey operations. We will not ever, and I mean never, go to a large distributor or commercial packing house to source honey if we run out. We will just stop doing business. Period. No exceptions! One of the best things about our little business of bees and honey being busier than expected is that we get to grow and become a larger employer and supplier and producer than ever before. One of the bad things about our little business of bees and honey is that we are always facing...
It feels like August was just yesterday, with throngs of tourists packing the main arcade at Pike Place and bees getting ready for a long break in available forage. And then it was all of a sudden October and I had only done two rounds, maybe three on a few locations, of 2 to 1 thick sugar syrup feed to fatten up food reserves for all our hives. And now it's mid December, and I've let myself continue to prioritize other tasks, projects, and worries over my baby bees. I think, though, that I tend to be really hard on myself, always driving to do everything to its fullest and to the far reaches of my best try...and I...
What a couple of gorgeous days we've had up here in soggy 'ol western Washington! The rains let up and we marched ourselves and hundreds of lbs of frame honey out through muddy fields and farm pastures to get our ladies fed! We hold back tons of honey during extraction to feed back, if needed, to strong springtime clusters. I'm hesitant to say the word Springtime just yet, as we likely will have a million gallons of steadily-pouring rain yet to deal with, but after the recent cold snaps, I knew whatever bees were still alive would likely need a little treat to boost morale in the hive. It was also a nice day to cart out any unused equipment that...
these are the three sizes and varieties of italian honeybees that make up a hive. There is, and can only be, one queen. There are thousands and thousands of her daughter worker bees, and all year long the queen will lay eggs for more workers. Then there are the drones. The drones are the male honeybee who get to live in the hive for about 7 months out of the year, here in western washington. They are good for one thing, and that is to mate with a virgin queen as she first emerges. The drones can't help defend the hive because they have no stinger, they can't help feed the hive because they don't forage. They just laze around,...
