In the Hive: Winter Feeding

This year I decided to feed in the winter, due in part to the fact that my hives have continued to seem “busy” with the weather in the 40s-50s for the last few months, except one cold snap a while back. I am worried that they don’t have enough food stores. Based on my research […]

Read More

How to Make a Lavender Herbal Tincture

Tinctures and extracts are one of the many ways to capture and use your herbal bounty, whether fresh from your garden, bumper crop at the grocery store or dried. I love lavender and grow a ton of it on our parkway for the bees, smell and looks. It is so darn easy: low water, drought […]

Read More

Reach & Read: The Secret Life of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees By Sue Monk Kidd – a book review This is a truly heartwarming story of a young awkward girl, finding her stride, and designing a future by learning about her past and her values. A honey house, black Madonna, beekeeping lessons and some lost and gained love fill the lives […]

Read More

The Bee People: Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Fancies and Facts about Bees People used to think the queen-bee was a king and ruled over all the bees in the hive. They thought a hive of bees was a little kingdom, with an army and officers and all sorts of workers […] We know the truth about bees now, and yet […]

Read More

The Bee People: Chapters 17 & 18

Chapter 17: The Family Exodus One cannot go on adding several thousand members a week to one’s family without sooner or later being obliged to enlarge the house – or move out. The Apis people move out. As soon as a young queen comes out of her cell, the old queen packs up, so to […]

Read More

The Bee People: Chapters 15 & 16

Chapter 15: Honey and Honey Dew Miss Apis is probably as proud of her hive she gets stored full of honey and bee-bread, as your mother is of her pantry when she gets the jelly and preserves done in the fall […] It is a very cunning art to take nectar from the flowers and […]

Read More