Our fascination with bees many years ago was really Centered around having one or two hives maybe. Last year, our first year of beekeeping, we started off with two colonies, then three, then why not one more! By the end of summer we had seven colonies and we thought we were on the right track. However the bees taught us that were were trying to grow too fast and stressed them out. By not making sure the bees were strong enough, we came out of winter with three and a half colonies. The half colony was holding on by a thread so we had to do some hive manipulation and we were able to save it! As we hit May 2021 and are in the main nectar flow we now have fourteen colonies! We made the decision to purchase more colonies, we caught a swarm, and did a split in our own bee yard. Things are really looking up.
Beth an I decided to give this beekeeping hobby a chance to grow. We are blessed to live in an area that is rich in resources for the bees and they produced some amazing honey last year. We sold out very quickly last year and the feedback was fantastic. With that response, we were hooked and knew we had something special. This spring started odd great! Warm days, mild evenings and just the right amount of rain made for early budding of the local floral and fauna. Then came a late cold snap the lasted a couple of days with temps dropping into the low 30’s. Yep, lots of damage to the young buds and leave. All of the leaves on the figs are gone and we can still see damage to the tops of the trees including our sourwoods. Hopefully this is just a short delay of some of the blooms as we are seeing some things coming back some tender new growth. Keeping fingers crossed that the sourwoods bloom!
Currently we are anticipating our first harvest the first week in June so look for some announcements coming soon. The other major update we have is in our garden. We have decided to expand our line of hot honeys! Currently we have some amazing pepper plants in the garden and if all goes well, the harvest will include jalapeño, habanero, Ghost, Komodo Dragon, and Reaper peppers!!! If you have not tried our hot honey‘s you are missing out. It may sound strange but the combinations are simply amazing. Even if you are not a person who likes spicy foods, you should give these honeys a try. How would you use the hot honey‘s? Great question. We have tried them on everything from hot wings to pizza and the flavors are fantastic. We are super excited for things to come this year. Thank you for your support and we will keep you up-to-date as things progress.
Rob and Beth Tuttle
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