What do you get when you mix one totally exhausted and overwhelmed beekeeper/owner operator, a honey house garage door left wide open for 14 hours on a sunny Sunday, and many many neighbors in a small conservative town? Well, you get the 2014 Everson Beepocalype! On Labor Day weekend this year, I packed up my truck with two markets worth of tents, tables, honey, and high hopes for a great day, as well as my suitcase to go home to Michigan for a week to attend my cousin Abagail's wedding and relax with family on a red eye flight out of seattle after the long day of driving, managing, and selling. I got my first indication that I'd messed...
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,...
I moved into a great big warehouse/apartment/production space last December that happens to have historically been a honey business. It has been an art gallery and studio space for a sculptor for the last 20 years, but there remains a small "on your honor" honey stand out front. My landlord has brokered honey from a gal down in Arlington for years, and the customers are both loyal and frequent. Because I rent and not own, I don't have regular access to the honor system honey sales. I f I wanted to, and I did back during tulip season, stand outside all day and sell honey or anything else for that matter, it would be fine. But I mostly...