This time of year at fingerlakes honey company: A Beesness update
Welcome, "All Things Bees" Enthusiasts!
We thought we might take time away from our regularly scheduled blog posts to update you on what's going on with our beesness. We'd like to make this a regular occurrence if there is interest, so let us know by liking this post or commenting below. Now grab your favorite tea (with a spoonful of our honey, of course), sit in your comfy chair, and prepare to be enchanted by the workings of our apiary..😋
Bees This Time of Year at Fingerlakes Honey Company
Winter brings a challenge to most beekeepers, especially in the northern states. Thankfully, with our improved hives designed and crafted by Tom (and lots of other trials and errors), we have so far successfully managed to get most of our hives through these cold months this year. While winter still lingers at Fingerlakes Honey Company, signs of spring have now begun to appear with a few warmer days. During these breaks from the cold, our bees eagerly venture out in search of flowers with pollen and nectar—a vital resource in nonexistent supply at this time. However, this warmer weather amid the lingering winter poses a challenge for our bees. With increased activity, they consume their honey stores faster, making them vulnerable to starvation. To protect them, we supplement their diets with pollen and sugar water, ensuring their survival until nature provides enough food. Once our flowers awaken, we'll step back and let nature take its course. Once we get to the end of March, we should have a pretty good idea of how many hives actually made it through.
Tom's Beesyness
During this time of year, Tom is busy as a bee building more of his specially designed hive boxes for the new swarms we will hopefully catch this year. You see, we began this journey by buying our first bees. Since then, as we have learned more and gotten increasingly confident, we started making swarm traps to capture the bees that naturally leave their hives each year. We will tell you more about that process as we get closer to swarm trap time, but a lot of planning and work goes into making the perfect home for our lovely ladies. If you would like to have us perhaps place a swarm trap on your wooded property, you can learn more about it here or contact us.
Stacie's Beesyness
Speaking of making a lovely home, Stacie has been running the business from our home. We are currently needing a definite reorganizing of our home office as our beesness grows. It is a long and difficult process for her at this point in our lives due to her health issues (we will talk more about those in a future blog). Thankfully, she has help from her favorite beekeeper and beekeepers in training. She might even post a photo of the finished office...if it comes out photogenically.
Stacie is also currently making beeswax candles to replenish our sold-out supply. One of her favorite helpers, our daughter Bailey, has been home from graduate school and enjoys helping Stacie by fashioning the surprise inside every candle jar. Obviously, we are not professional candle makers yet, so we need to remake things at times. Thankfully, beeswax is very forgiving. We just put it back in the warm wax to remelt it. Easy-peasy! We'll have those black beeswax candle tins, plus a new candle jar, up soon on the website. So be sure to click the "let me know when products are back in stock" on our beeswax candles page. As many of you have been asking, we will have a future blog about how we process the beeswax to make our candles and ornaments, etc.
The Near Future Beesness Plans
For the near future, we'd love to start adding some new infused honey flavors to our product offerings. We'd also love it if you'd give us your ideas in our poll below. Thanks so much.
Infused Honey Flavor Poll
0%cinnamon
0%chocolate
0%lemon
0%garlic
You can vote for more than one answer.
We will also be approaching wedding season soon and will start designing custom honey favors, invitations, etc. for upcoming special events. If you have a special event this year, visit our Custom Special Event Items page or contact us.
And maybe, lastly, we are also working on the most adorable honey gift boxes with samples of our spring and autumn honey. These are perfect for gift giving for that special someone.
The Near Future With Our Ladies
Spring, and with it pollinating flowers, will be here before we know it. We are so excited for the upcoming 2024 honey season. As we get closer to that time, we will be sure to update you on how the bees make that bee-licious golden elixir we call honey. So stay tuned for that.
Adapting to Change
Along the lines of spring, this weekend brings Daylight Savings Time. With the sun hanging around a bit longer each day, bees will eventually kick into high gear, buzzing from bloom to bloom with boundless energy. It's like nature's giving them an extra pat on the back, granting them extended daylight hours to frolic among the flowers, gathering nectar, and spreading pollen. This extended time in the sun not only provides bees with more opportunities to forage but also allows them to optimize their energy expenditure, resulting in more efficient honey production within the hive. But just as bees adjust their buzz-filled schedules to match the changing daylight, us humans find ourselves stumbling a bit in the springing forward of Daylight Saving Time. Fear not! Like bees buzzing around a garden, we'll find our rhythm in due time, embracing the sunny days with open arms and a spring in our step as we adjust to the changing flow of the day.
That's a Wrap
We hope you've enjoyed this glimpse into our lives this time of year at Fingerlakes Honey Company. We'll plan to do it again soon. And don't forget this Sunday when you're nudging your clocks forward (and maybe not happy about it), take a moment to bask in the warm glow of the sun (hopefully) and appreciate the sweet link between Daylight Saving Time and our buzzing buddies, the bees. We definitely will bee looking forward, here at the apiary, because it means harvest time is not too far away, and you know what that means - honey!!
Until next time- Stay Sweet!
Tom and Stacie
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