Derrygold Honey

I think we produced more honey in the old days! This photo was take in our flower bed in about 2006. Five honey supers high on the hive. The down side of the bees in the flower bed was the flowers and weeds out of control! The bees have moved and the flower bed back in control. Well somewhat in control!

Ready for the market. Rabbits and Owls, mice and cats. Lots ofT-lights and tapers. See you in May at the Burlington farmers market.

I had cut down some black walnuts last summer that were shading the bee hives so went up there yesterday to cut them up. We have hardly any snow, but a hundred or so feet higher there is a good ground cover. Job done, firewood for next winter.

The analysis of our fall honey is below. If you have bought this is the honey with the Big Bee on the lid. Dark and delicious.

When we completed our first extraction in 2020 we were surprised to see that the honey was dark in colour. During the past 15 years of honey extraction the summer honey has always been light in colour. We wanted to know why so sent a sample off to Quebec to have it analyzed. The results of that analysis is below. The colour change was caused by the Sumac which we guess came into flower earlier last summer because of the heat. Another feature of Sumac is that it crystallizes very slowly in fact it is now December and it the honey is still quite liquid. Crucifers are made up of the cabbage, canola and mustard family, cannot be differentiated by their pollen grains. This is the honey that has the pasture scene or Pink flower lid.

Finished the fall extraction today. Lots of really dark honey.

Feeding time in the Bee yard. The honey is all off and the bees are packing sugar syrup in for the winter. They have taken down 2/3s of 4 40 gallon barrels in 3 days. Somehow i missed the video. It is short as the bees decided a man in shorts had no place in the bee yard!

Great food, great people at the market. We will be there Saturday.

Bees working the Sedum in our garden.

We will be at the Burlington Lions market the next 4 Saturday’s. We completed our last extraction for the year and have lots of delicious dark honey.

The last nectar producing flower of the season. The bees are all over the Goldenrod. The flat topped one that they really like is finished and they are on the more vertical one now. (will have to find the proper names some day!) We will be extracting fall honey in about two weeks.

If ever in Jamaica be sure to visit Zimbabwe Retreat.