Sold Out!

The demand was high but the supply was limited.  I posted a simple ad for "Raw Local Honey" on Craigslist and the honey is all gone now.  I gave a bunch away as gifts, so I didn't have much to sell.  But most of it was gone that first weekend.

I was stunned by how many buyers said they purchased the honey to help them control their seasonal allergies.  One purchaser paid full price for 12lbs (1 gallon).  

If the weather cooperates and the bees make it through winter we ought to quadruple our supply next fall.  Also, I intend to post to our local bee group that my extractor is available for custom extraction if they have a need.  Extractors aren't common and they are expensive.  I would like to help others out, but I don't want to go through the effort to set up and tear down for extraction more than once a year.

A little more on the honey harvest.

OK! My friend and I pulled the honey September 14th using the bump and brush method.  We put the supers in large plastic trash bags and stored them in my house.  Saturday the 21st we harvested the honey.  From two colonies we collected 40 and 50 lbs each and from a third we stole about 20 lbs.

I started beekeeping in the Spring of 2011.  There was no honey to be had in 2011 and I bottled 40 lbs of smart weed honey from the fall of 2012 (I had no idea what I was doing until I was done).  Smart weed honey is only good for medicine (cinnamon and honey), if you are into that sort of thing.  It goes down about as well as your grandmother's medicine too!  I am going to re-constitute my left over smart weed honey and give it back to the bees for their fall feeding.

I bottled 60lbs of the 2013 harvest on Sunday the 22nd.  This is my first real honey after three seasons of effort!  Of course we had serious drought during throughout my first two seasons.  Depending on the climate I hope to collect even more next year.  In addition to the three acres of wildflower that I planted last winter (which so far has been a dud - I'll give it one more season) I planted 3 acres of yellow blossom clover two weeks ago.  I hope to have a lot more of that golden good stuff next year!