Author: Chief Bee Herder

It has been busy on the bee farm. I have almost put all the colonies to bed for the winter. I want to add some candy boards as a back up resource for the colonies, then I will wrap/protect them for the winter.

We have some upcoming craft fairs just in time to get some great honey/wax gifts for the holiday season. Stop by, follow our Facebook page and receive a complimentary honey straw. I have also updated most of our online store pictures. Once I update our current stock, we will turn the shop back on for local pick up. Finally!!

Stay tuned, I hope to have another update this month regarding a new customer – venture with Vermillion’s local brewery XIX Brewing Company. They are using some of my honey in their next brew creation. I am very excited and can’t wait to taste it.

I have been crazy busy, like everyone else in the world, I snuck a new product into my honey choices last month. It is a hot honey. Made from my raw honey with capsicum extract and some vinegar. I absolutely love it on fried chicken. I also add it to ice cream with pecans or walnuts. I think it’s fantastic! I have been working on this recipe for 2 years. Happy it is finally available. Hope you enjoy it.

Mrs. Bee Herder fell in love with a cinnamon creamed honey when we lived in KY. After dotting my I’s and crossing my T’s, I just finished my very first batch of cinnamon creamed honey. It will be available in a couple weeks. I keep it at 57° during this period so it stays creamy smooth. Good (sweet) things come to those who wait. I need to finalize my label now.

For those colony members who have subscribed to receive my blog updates, you will get first dibs on my cinnamon creamed honey. I was only able to make 15 jars this first round. If interested, please reply to the blog update email. First come, first serve.

Sorry it has been a while since my last update. I have been trying to update my Facebook page more often. A big challenge this year is getting my new queens to return from mating flights or to return mated. This is happening in both of my bee yards. I have 3 colonies that are just full of drones (male bees) because the queen is unable to fertilize eggs and create my female workers. I am trying one more time to correct this, if unsuccessful, I will combine colonies to help make it through the winter.

Some better news. I did have a strong honey flow despite the flooding in McCook Lake Izaak Walton League. I am hoping to do some extracting in the next week. Now I just have to create new labels for South Dakota. I couldn’t be happier with the amount of pollen I am seeing from the wildflower plot. I might have to do some pollen trapping next year.

Final update – mites. My counts have been low, but I was not able to check McCook Lake IWL for over a month. This will be the focus of my next my visit. It is difficult as there is still standing water, and I am using a four-wheeler limiting the amount of equipment I can take. With the queen issues I have been having, it is breaking the cycle of the mites making it difficult to compare previous years. I also use drone trapping to assist with removing mites without chemicals. I will keep it short and end here.