August 8

Our “One Day” Honey Stand…So Why Keep Bees?

This is our third year of setting up our honey stand and selling our fresh, local honey from our bees.  This year we sold 100 bottles of honey in 4 hours.  Jax and Harper always look forward to this day and wish we were open more days, but thanks to support of so many friends and family…we cannot make it past one day.  Of course the other reason is because we have such a limited supply of honey.  We only had two hives make it through the winter this year, but we have 12 strong hives right now…so the work begins now on getting our bees ready for the winter.

We were able to pull five frames of honey this year and gathered about 16 gallons of honey from these 5 frames.  We bottle our honey in one pound containers os that we have more to go around.

Our customers seem to like this dripless squeeze bottle which allows them to capture even the last drop of honey.  This year I had about 200 bees in the honey house join me as I spun out the honey.  It appears my front doors will need to be replaced as they have rotted out and the bees can get in. The good news is they pretty much left me alone and focused on enjoying exposed honey.  I knew I had to continue and decided to leave them alone and hoped they would provide me the same courtesy…and they did.

Let me just say that there is a great deal of manuel labor, care, and expense that goes into keeping bees.  While I did recover some of my expenses this year, I am a long way from being called a profitable business.  I remind myself that my main reason for getting into bee keeping was to teach my grandkids a skill and provide them with a hobby which would be beneficial to our good earth.  From this prospective my beekeeping continues to be a grand success.  They love the bees, love taking care of them, love eating their honey, and of course love marketing and selling their honey.  These lessons are priceless and inspire me to forge ahead as a beekeeper and a teacher of beekeeping as well.  There are other reasons I keep bees too and why we need more beekeepers.  I found this article below from a website I often visit called Bee Built.  For those interested you can set up a hive at our bee Apiary and learn the art of beekeeping “hands on” with me.  The price is right…all lessons are free…you just have to invest in your equipment and book.

WHY KEEP BEES?

IF YOU LIKE THRIVING GARDENS, BIOLOGY, NATURE, AND HELPING THE COMMUNITY AND ENVIRONMENT,
KEEPING BEES CAN BE A DEEPLY SATISFYING HOBBY.

As you’ve no doubt heard and read, pollinators are experiencing unprecedented decline. The reasons why are many, but interest in backyard, rooftop, and hobby beekeeping is growing because of it. One way to provide garden and community pollination is by keeping honeybees. In addition to interacting with these amazing creatures and fostering these pivotal pollinators, hive by-products are a major bonus to keeping bees. Honey, when conservatively harvested, will leave enough stores for the bees to survive on through the winter, while giving your family a good amount for eating and cooking. Additionally wax can be harvested for candles, balms, and other body products.

HONEYBEE ILLUSTRATION

Keeping bees is an amazing experience; enlightening, humbling, educational, and rewarding. Beekeeping supports community pollination, food supplies, and fosters bee populations outside of the commercial beekeeping industry. Below are BEE BUILT‘s top four reasons for keeping bees.

POLLINATION

BEES PERFORM APPROXIMATELY 80% OF ALL POLLINATION WORLDWIDE.

An infographic of pollination statistics

HONEYBEE DECLINE

4 MOST LIKELY CAUSES OF HONEYBEE AND POLLINATOR DECLINE

Pesticide poisoning from an onslaught of toxic insecticides used on field crops and home gardens.

MASS USE OF DANGEROUS
PESTICIDES

Climate change disrupts the timing between bees and bloom; e.g.: When bees come out of hibernation, important flowers they need to start the season are not available as a food supply.

CONSTANT CHANGE IN
CLIMATE

Tenacious parasites like Varroa mites and small hive beetles can take heavy tolls on colonies, as can diseases such as Nosema and American Foulbrood.

RAPIDLY SPREADING PESTS &
DISEASES

Behemoth, single-crop plantings create food deserts for bees and other pollinators unable to thrive on a single food supply. Diversity of vegetation is key to a healthy bee habitat.

INCREASE OF
MONOCULTURE

HONEY

Infographic on honey

RAW HONEY

VS.

PASTEURIZED

Infographic on honey pasteurization.

FUN

Infographic on why beekeeping can be fun!

Reasons why beekeeping benefits your community.

COMMUNITY

Reasons why beekeeping benefits your health.

HEALTH &
WELLNESS

Some alcoholic beverages you can make with honey!

MEAD


Posted August 8, 2019 by Scott Griffin. (Mr. G) in category Uncategorized

About the Author

Elementary Teacher (37 years retired), Photographer, Storyteller, Bee Keeper. Started keeping bees with my grandson when he was 3 years old. It is something we enjoy learning and doing together. Proud member of the Gaston County Beekeepers Association, North Carolina Beekeepers Association. Graduate of the Penn State Beekeeping School. We are all about the bees first. The honey is simply their way of saying thank you!🐝🐝🐝

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