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...
Like, chill out? like take time to sleep in and watch movies and write letters and read the paper and maybe even go somewhere with a beach and some cocktails? I watch all summer as my michigan family and friends enjoy the worlds greatest beaches and lakes, but i trudge along thinking about january like a carrot dangling in front of my face. then january comes along and all my farmer friends go to mexico and ugh i still have so much work to do! I knew we needed to move our production and bottling facility, that we needed to renovate the back of our tiny shop in order to accommodate more storage, and i knew we needed a new...
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...
After taking a quick break to visit family in Chicago, It's back to the business of beekeeping for me. Spring has sprung at least 6 weeks early this year, and before you know it it'll be swarm season! In fact, I saw dandelions blooming in seattle today..its february!!!! We have placed order in for 20 new nucleus hives this year, and have over 2 dozen hives looking strong after a mild winter. We hope to split those strong hives and get up to 75 beehives for summer honey production! For now, the weather has been warm enough for the bees to be awake and eat their honey reserves, but not warm enough or long enough to put liquid feed...
One of the scariest challenges in agreeing to grow my little, seasonal, farm based business into a year-round specialty food shop at pike place, was and will be, supply of honey. There is only so much proprietary honey we can produce off less than 100 hives, and that amount has historically been divied out to weekly farmers market visits and for sale through our friends at Growing washington. With the opening of a new shop, we have a chance to sell other beekeeper's honey as well as ours, which is great because we are almost completely out of our own honey for the season. over the years I've met quite a few gifted beekeepers in Washington state that haven't...
