this time of year at fingerlakes honey company: March 2024 Beesness update
Welcome, "All Things Fingerlakes Honey Company" Enthusiasts!
Here's your monthly update to let you in on what's been going on with our beesness in March of 2024. We will make this a regular occurrence so mark your calendars accordingly. Now grab your favorite tea, (with a spoonful of our honey, of course. See below for a new item that might just make your tea even more beelicious...if that is even possible), 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
Spring seems to be slowly arriving here in Fingerlakes Honey Company. We've still had some occasional snow flurries and cold snaps, but overall, it seems that winter is moving out. There is always a potential for an April or May snow storm though, so we are still keeping a close eye on the skies. Our bees are eagerly venturing out in search of flowers with pollen and nectar. We did notice some red pollen coming in this week on their "pollen pants", as we like to call them. Not sure what plants around here have red pollen, but we are super-sleuthing to find out. It will be interesting to see if that pollen affects the color of their honey stores. We don't have honey supers on the hives yet (for the extra honey we sell), so unless these red pollen plants continue to bloom until spring honey harvest, it won't affect our bottled honey color. big bummer. We are also still supplementing the bees' diets with extra pollen and sugar water, ensuring their survival until nature provides enough food. This helps to ensure that the queen will start laying eggs and increase the number of bees in the hives.
Tom's Beesyness
During this last month, Tom was busy as a bee feeding our ladies, as well as preparing for swarm season. We will tell you more about that process as we get closer to swarm trap time. Tom also conducted his first hive removal from a barn down the road from us. He will usually go and help anyone who needs a swarm removed from trees, etc, but has always been leary of cutting up someone's home or barn. He also wanted to try out the bee vacuum he received for Christmas 2 years ago. Thankfully his first building extraction went well. He was able to remove the hive from the barn wall and relocate it to a safer-for-all hive box on our property. He can now add "Barn Hive Removal" to his handyman repertoire. While a small hive, so far it seems to be doing well in its new home and the barn owner is thankful to have a safer-for-all area as well.
Stacie's Beesyness
Stacie has been working hard on continuously updating and tweaking our website. Unfortunately, as a perfectionist with attention to too much detail, this is a never-ending job. Thankfully she loves doing it. She has also been bee-sy getting ready for the upcoming special event season. If you haven't seen our custom honey favors, seed packet favors, and more, you are missing out! We will work with you to make your special event even sweeter- showers, weddings, anniversaries, whatever. Contact us to get started.
The Near Future Beesness Plans
In the near future, we will finally bee rolling out a few batches of infused honey products. We have some awesome taste-testers who are evaluating our products. (If you would like to bee considered as a taste-tester in the future, just drop us a line. You must be local to participate.) We will offer lemon and cinnamon to start as those seem to be a top choice amongst our customers. All our infused honey is made from all-natural, organic ingredients- our 100% raw honey that's been flavored with dried ingredients like herbs, spices, fruits, etc. It's made by letting these ingredients soak in the honey, giving it a unique taste. You can use it to add a special twist to drinks, desserts, or even savory dishes. These also make beelicious additions to your morning tea, spread on toasted bread, or used in your favorite recipe. If you'd like to bee notified when they are available or to suggest your favorite flavor, please join our mailing list or email us.
We are also working on the most adorable honey gift boxes with samples of our spring and autumn honey. These make the perfect gift for that special woman in your life on Mother's Day, so stay tuned.
The 2024 Solar Eclipse Update
Many of you have asked how the bees acted during our recently solar eclipse. Unfortunately, many mishaps occurred that day. Firstly, the cloud cover was so thick that we couldn't view the eclipse at all. Thankfully our son, who lives about an hour away, was able to get some pics of it for us to enjoy. However, we still sat outside, listened to the array of birds singing, and marvelled at the day that turned into night. We also had planned to video the bees' activity during totality, but our GoPro decided not to work. So that was a bust too. We're sure, as a friend told us, "we’ll just imagine the bees all tucked into their hive with blankets up to their chins."
Here is our son's pic from yesterday-
That's a Wrap
We hope you've enjoyed this glimpse into our lives in March at Fingerlakes Honey Company. We'll plan to do it again next month. Things should really start to get busier then. We will leave you with the one video that did work on Eclipse Day- one of our lovely, hardworking ladies. Spring has sprung!! We will definitely bee looking forward to it, here at the apiary because it means honey time is coming soon.
Until next time- Stay Sweet!
Tom and Stacie
Our Beekeepers, Tom and Stacie, are co-owners of Fingerlakes Honey Company located in the bee-utiful Fingerlakes region of New York State. When they are not tending to all things bees, they enjoy spending time with their grown children, their dog, and lots of chickens on their homestead. They love learning more about the bees they foster and helping others to learn more about them as well.
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