Almost Ready to Sell Again

This weekend we were able to remove a super for extraction.  We have another super on top, but it did not have comb built out, so the bees had to take the time to draw the wax and it has very little honey added to it yet.

The weekend also sees us almost ready to start selling our honey again.

I ordered new jars a few weeks ago, and we filled them and labelled them.

We have just about finished a little cabinet where we can put the jars for sale near our sidewalk.

I've made a little poster/price list with a QR code to accept payments, and there is a cash slot in the cabinet as well.

The honor system honey cabinet

I've printed up the descriptions of each harvest to hang on the shelves by the jars.

The cabinet still needs a couple shelves, and I should find a way to put a little color code sticker on the jars to distinguish the different harvests.

I have sold ~15 jars to staff at school already, but now we can reach more of the local residents.

I'll put up a new post once we have the stand set up and ready.

Find us in East Sacramento.

Grape Harvest

In non-bee news, we just harvested our syrah grapes.

Syrah bunch going into the colander

When first we moved into our home in East Sacramento, a good friend was helping us move some furniture with her truck.  She looked at out porch and said: that's going to get hot in afternoons; you should put a grape vine on the corner to shade it.

She was very right.  The porch did get hot in the summer and the grape vine has provided enough shade to make a marked difference.

Veraison last year

Next stop: attempted rosé of syrah.

New Bottling - Updated

New jars arrived.  I have dug up the old labelling materials.  Spent a little time this morning bottling some of the honey that we harvested last year.  There is one more batch of honey from the year prior that can be bottled, once we have warmed it slightly; it has crystallized in the intervening year and I want to gently re-liquify it. [Update -- I have bottled a few jars of this now too!]

I've updated the labels to reflect our new location.

The artists and their work.

We have four different harvests from last year ready to go: 

top: Spring 2024
bottom left to right: early and mid-summer, and early fall

Summer 2023

This light amber honey, harvested in 2023 from our East Sacramento garden, is bursting with the taste of summer. It has a beautiful fruity essence, evoking notes of stonefruit (almond, peach and apricot). The finish is a beautiful combination of a soft, floral undertone and a unique marshmallow-like sweetness. (not pictured)

Late spring 

A delicate and light amber honey harvested from the early spring blossoms of East Sacramento. Bees forage on blooming early almond,  fruit trees and local wildflowers, creating a mild, floral flavor with subtle notes of almond blossoms subtle herbs and a nice floral finish.

Early summer

Crafted from the rich, summer bloom of East Sacramento, this honey is a bolder expression of the season. Our bees collect nectar from hearty plants like sages, mock orange, and lavender, giving the honey a distinct golden color and a complex, aromatic sweetness with distinct herbal notes and amazing orange blossom inspired finish. 

Mid summer

A robust, deep amber honey harvested from East Sacramento's mid-summer bloom. Bees forage on late-season wildflowers and tenacious urban flora like star thistle, sunflower and summer herbs like basil, oregano and thyme. The result is a viscous, crystalline, honey with a complex, herbal and earthy sweetness with a somewhat bitter finish.

Fall

A silky, deep amber honey, capturing the last blooms of an East Sacramento fall. Bees forage on late-season flowers like allium, goldenrod and herbs. The result brings a lovely clean sweetness with light hints of clay and spice. 

Now for marketing. I am disenchanted with Etsy, where we used to sell, and we don't have a relationship with any local market yet like we did with Bi-Rite in San Francisco. I am half-tempted to just create a little honor-system stand in the front yard with a little cash box, or a QR code to my square....

I have only bottled less than half so far; I want to see what sizes sell in which harvest before I commit all of the jars.  I'd rather sell out of a particular harvest than have to backorder while I get more jars.

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Trying to get back in the routine

It has been a decade since we have had the capacity to keep bees in the City. However, in 2021 we took advantage of the housing sales slump to relocate to Sacramento. Having our own house with our own yard means we get to have our own hives again and so we have started beekeeping once more.

Over the intervening decade, it has become more challenging to maintain a healthy hive; the increase in types and tenacity of various parasitic pests in the hive means that the colony is now contending with hive beetles and wax moths while still battling mites. The mites are now spreading deformed wing virus which adds a new layer of challenge. But at the same time, mite treatments are more varied with simple things to keep the mite population down such as managing drone brood and periodic dusting with sugar coupled with more aggressive miticide treatments when mite counts start to rise.

Keeping the mites at bay allows the bees to focus on keeping the other pests at bay and gives them a decent chance at survival. This year we replaced our queen with a new variety that shows promise in mite resistance (Olivarez Golden West). So far, it seems to be working, I have seen very few mites on our bottom board and though there have been a few beetle sightings, there doesn't seem to be significant interference from them in the hive activity.

Last summer (with our nephew's help), we were able to extract a little over 12 gallons of honey. We like to extract the supers individually to get the character of the nectar as the season progresses.

The earlier extractions were very light in color and fragrantly sweet. The later season supers were substantially darker in color, but somewhat less viscous, less sweet and much more herbal in character. I've ordered a batch of jars and updated our labels so hopefully we will be ready to sell again in the very near future.

For this year, we have one super nearing 80% capped. We added a second super recently and the colony population seems very robust. I anticipate at least 5 gallons of harvest by the autumn.