Bee Log 62: July 26, 2011

Honey bee working a leek that has gone to flower


A family, visiting from California, is watching my husband work a hive in our back yard. We love to educate people about bees when we get a chance.


A frame of uncapped honey.


I got stung on the leg two days ago. My body over-reacts to bee venom. So far treatment has consisted of ice, Benadryl, hydro-cortisone cream, and ibuprofen. I looked up some folk remedies and tried a few but I think I was too late for them to have any effect. Ice seems to give the most relief.

This has been a most frustrating summer for beekeepers and presumably for the bees. We have had cool overcast day after cool overcast day. I look at the weather across the nation and see the temperatures in many parts of the country hovering around a humid 95 to 100 degrees and am thankful I don't have to brave that but on the other hand, it does make beekeeping difficult when the bees can't get out to the flowers that I know are blooming. Our bees are finally able to bring in nectar in excess of their needs. We are seeing a lot of uncapped honey that we hope will be ready sometime this week of next week. The bees put a thin coat of wax over the cells of honey when they are dehydrated enough so the honey doesn't ferment.


We hope to be at the Phinney Farmers' Market on the first Friday in August.

Bee Log #8: January 6, 2010

This picture was taken in Hood River, Oregon in late September, 2009. A honey bee is in the center of the flower.

Happy New Year! The days are starting to get longer and the weather in Seattle is slightly warmer. It was warm enough today that the bees got a little flying time. The pussy willows are starting to bud out and the witch hazel is starting to bloom. I love spring. I love Seattle's spring which seems to last from now until July 4th.

We hope to be back at the Phinney Farmers' Market the first of July.

www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org/vendors/phinney-farmers-market

Check out the list of vendors for Wallingford Urban Honey.

Bee Log #2: November 8, 2009

My husband and I sold honey for a few weeks at the Phinney Ridge Farmers' Market during August and September of 2009. Our display is shown below. It was a great way to meet people and talk bees and honey. Our few urban hives barely kept up with the demand and we completely sold out of the honey that we extracted this summer. (Except for the smelly ivy honey that we collected at the very end of the season! We won't sell that!)

Notice the different colors of honey. The really light honey was from the beginning of the summer and the darker stuff was from later in the season. We hope to be back at the Phinney Ridge Farmers' Market next summer. Last summer, our first honey extraction was July 4 so we expect to have a marketable product sometime around early July of 2010.