Hunni

Craving more Hunni goodness? Avalon Books & Treasures in Market Square, downtown Victoria is now carrying our products! Visit them to browse their selection of vintage clothing, jewelry, books and treasures, and pick up a jar of wildflower honey, and some hand made lip balm (Peppermint, Coconut, Lavender and Pink Grapefruit) while you are there! #shoplocal #locallymade #victoriabc #yyj #honey

THANK YOU to everyone who has been supporting local this holiday season! Our Hunni and Lip Balms have been flying off the (virtual) shelves, and no doubt will make some fun stocking stuffers and gifts!

Today we received a sweet holiday card from one of our customers! Thank you!

Have a SAFE and happy Halloween night!

It's never too early to start thinking about the holidays! Honey and lip balm make a sweet ( see what I did there?) and thoughtful gift! Lip balms: $3.50 each Wildflower Honey: 375g $7.00 500g $12.00... 680g $16.00 1 kg $23.00 See more

Afternoon rush hour at the apiary! Just look at all those bees!

HONEY NOW AVAILABLE! Raw, unpasteurized honey, fresh from our hard working colonies in the mountains, is now ready! 500g $12 680g $16 1kg $23... Send us a message to place your order today!

When we go to the mountains to manage our bees, we don't want our car to get scratched up by all the bushes we need to drive though...so this is how we roll. Cover the car in a tarp, and cut a hole so we can see out the window. We really should get a truck. #beekeepinglife #dontscratchmycar #hunni

INTRODUCING THE VARROA MITE! Perhaps you may have heard of these tiny creatures. They live and rapidly multiply inside the colony, feeding on adult bees as well as developing larvae and pupae causIng malformations, they transmit viruses and weaken the immunity of the bees. Basically they are a bee (and bee keepers) worst enemy. This video was taken from inside one of our Hunni Hives. Watch as the tiny little mite runs around searching for a host. It finally finds one on an unsuspecting bee as she passes over it. Don't blink at the :44 second mark or you will miss the mite hop onto the bee, it is lightning fast! NOTE: We gave this colony a treatment for Varroa Mites right after this video was taken, so likely that little mite in the video is now dead!

And in the category of 'Nature Is Awesome'. Today I was lucky enough to witness a VERY rare sight: a Queen honey bee leave for a mating flight AND return five minutes later! Why is this such a rare sight? Queen honey bees only go on one to five mating flights in the week after they emerge from their cell. That's it. Then they stay inside for the remainder of their life (unless they swarm, but that's a whole other topic). They don't tell you when they are going to do this ...of course, and each flight lasts from just five to 30 minutes. So if you happen to be looking at the colony at randomly the right moment in time...you'll witness this miracle of nature. Don't blink, or you'll miss her return.

Ummmm, NOPE! We came across a nest of yellow jackets while walking in the forest behind our house. With our apiary just down the hill, this is WAY too close. Wasps will relentlessly attack honey bee colonies, steal the honey, and take the larvae and any dead bees they can find, back to their nests...then all their friends will start coming, and pretty soon, the colony will be dead. So... it's them or our bees. We choose our bees. Sorry guys.... (I wore sweats, a hoodie, my bee suit, rubber boots and gloves to get this close. Thank goodness I was covered, their attacks were terrifying at times! I don't advise getting this close to a wasp nest without being completely protected.)

A little something to make you smile. Here, an adult bee assists a baby as she struggles to emerge. We our bees.

It looks like we have some hive management to do! Multiple eggs in a cell means this colony likely doesn't have a Queen, so a worker bee has taken over egg laying duty. The problem? Worker bees can't fertilize their eggs so they will all turn into male bees. Not a good thing - male bees don't forage or help out in the hive at all Solution? A new Queen *should* solve this problem, so we put a frame with a Queen Cell on it from another colony, into this hive. The Queen should emerge in the next few days. Here's hoping!!

Do you know what noise a Queen Honey Bee makes when she first emerges from her cell? Check out the video and have a listen! As she moves around the colony, she 'toots' to announce her presence to the workers, and tell them to keep any Queens that my still be inside cells, captive.

Just another day at the apiary. The bees are really showing Werner some love today. They can't get enough of him. #hunni #beekeeping #honeybee #beekeeper

A bee's life is full of drama. #WorldBeeDay Watch 'A Bee's Diary' now streaming: http://bit.ly/38NYA3d

We're at it again! Another call today, requesting help with a swarm of honeybees. This is how to get them out of a tree when you can actually reach them. *Don't try this at home.

We captured another swarm a few days ago. Here they are after we removed them from the (very high!) tree. Fanning their scent into the air, to let the rest of the bees that are still flying around, know where they are. "We're down here everyone!"

Another day, another swarm to retrieve! We had two calls yesterday to help with swarms, and they both flew away before we arrived. Today, this one was kind enough to wait for us!

Bait Hive Update: we peeked inside the bait hive less than 24 hours after the swarm moved into it. They were already starting to build wax comb in there! We added two frames of bare foundation frames so they can start building honeycomb. We will leave the colony in the tree for a week, and then move them to a more permanent location.

Swarm Capture! Three days ago, a colony in our yard swarmed and settled in a fir tree, way out of reach. They stayed there for THREE DAYS through wind and rain! Today, they finally decided it was time to move on, and went straight into the bait hive we had placed in a tree 30' away from them. (Bait hive with beeswax, old comb and lemongrass oil as a lure). We recaptured our own bees! ... Check out this video of them moving in to their new home. See more

Chances are, most people have never seen a Queen Honey Bee laying eggs, so we took this cool video. Right before she lays the second egg, watch how she puts her face inside the cell to see if it is empty or not. We love our bees. They are just SO amazing!

Can you spot the Queen bee? (Novice Edition)

Remember, your 'weeds' feed the bees. Give your lawnmower a break. The bees will thank you!

Sunday Swarm!! We received a call on Sunday afternoon, from a new beekeeper, asking us to help him, as his bees had swarmed. It was the PERFECT swarm. Nice big cluster in a tree with small branches that were easy to clip and we didn't need a ladder. It took no time to collect and the bees settled into the new box quickly. I wish they were all this easy!

Annual Colony Inspection! This weekend, the Provincial Apiary Inspector came to look at our colonies and test them for various disease and mites. They all passed with flying colours!

Royal Jelly! It's a REAL thing. Nurse bees secrete this substance and feed it to all larvae. When rearing a Queen, they feed that specific larvae LOTS of it, which triggers it to morph into a Queen instead of a regular worker bee. Royal Jelly is also a popular ingredient these days in dietary supplements, face and eye cream, and even haircare products. Don't believe the hype. Side note: it tastes horrible!! #fascinating #lifewithbees #beekeeper #honeybees

Remember the colony that swarmed last week? (Scroll down to April 15 to see the video). The bees that were left behind have successfully created a number of beautiful Queen Cells and it looks like this one will emerge soon! If multiple Queens emerge at the same time, they will seek each other out, and battle to the death. If one emerges before the rest, she will seek out all the other Queen Cells and sting through them to kill them inside.... There can only be one. See more

Happy Earth Day! Play the Google bee pollination game!

When they don't have enough room inside the box, they will build honeycomb on the inside of the lid. Here again, is some amazing honeybee artwork.

Today's inspection revealed some amazing honeybee art! They clearly needed more room, and built honeycomb on the inside of the lid! Sadly I did have to remove it, and then gave them lots more frames so they can continue to build comb inside the box. These little creatures never cease to amaze me. #amazingbees #honeybees #beekeeper #beeart #savethebees #ilovemybees

Slow motion swarm! During the collection of this swarm, we didnt actually see the Queen when moving all the bees, BUT they certainly know where she is! This behaviour is known as 'fanning'. The bees use their wings to fan the scent of the Queen into the air - like an invisible landing strip - telling the other bees where she is, so they know where to land. Bees are fascinating!... #beekeeping #honeybees #swarm #savethebees See more

24 hours after collecting the first swarm, they've finally settled in our back yard. Some cleanup was required to remove the debris that the bees held onto during transfer, and fill in the 3-frame gap that we left because of the debris and amount of bees.

It's time to split the colonies! If they get too big, they will naturally swarm and we may never see them again! Here I'm taking the Queen and a bunch of bees out, to make a new colony, and those left behind will rear a new Queen and start over.

It's swarm season! The first call of the year. When honeybees swarm, they may look like they are in a frenzied state, but they are actually very chill. They have bellies full of food, and no brood or food to protect so the chances of getting stung are extremely low, as long as you are gentle with them.

The Hunni Hives are covered with snow. Stay warm in there ladies!

The widespread damage caused by the Australian bushfires has been devastating to watch and our hearts go out to all the people and wildlife affected by this tra...gedy. The beekeeping industry has been hit hard with the fires following a long period of drought. Many beekeepers have lost their livelihoods. The Australian Honey Bee Industry council, along with Rural Aid have set up Hive Aid, a drought and bushfire relief campaign aimed at struggling beekeepers. If youd like to donate or find out more check out: https://www.ruralaid.org.au/donate/?supporter_id=14254 See more

My sweet hen Snow likes to hang out while I'm working with my bees. Today I'm spoiling them with a pollen patty and a honey/sugar fondant as a winter treat. #winterbeekeeping #honeybees #spoiledbees #loyalchicken

Time to spoil the bees! A tasty pollen patty and a home-made fondant made with honey and sugar. It's just a little supplement in addition to the honey they have stored inside the hives, to make sure they have enough to eat over the winter.

THANK YOU to everyone who supported us and bought local at the Handmade Village Craft Market and the Calico Christmas Market this season! We raised $130 from the sales of our honey, for the Victoria Humane Society!!

Come and see us this weekend at the Calico Christmas Market at Spectrum School! We'll have our delicious, raw Wildflower Hunni , and all natural lip balms (8 flavours)! $1 from the sale of every jar will be donated to the Victoria Humane Society Bees helping animals in need.