Wednesday 20 November 2013

Fall 2013

Well the end of the season has passed, the bees are all wrapped for winter.  The fall weather worked out well and we had all the fall tasks completed without any crazy complications.  Now we wait and see how everybody made it through the winter.

Seems like every year we sell more honey.  We packed more this year, but already it seems like too little.  We'll see how the supply holds up.

A terrible year for production.  Normally we do three pulls (taking the honey from the bee yards) but this year we only managed two.  Bees just started too late with the slow spring I believe.  We were not alone and it seems as though honey might be in shorter supply this year.  Sure some did well, but others did not and the wet weather didn't help the prairie beekeepers.  I made sure that I have a good stash for the family though!

Every year the honey is different.  Last year the honey stayed soft and almost creamy. Very nice for spreading.  This year, the honey set up harder.  I can not say why this happens, another local beekeeper's honey did the same so it must have something to do with the season.  It really doesn't spread well at all.  Not a problem for me as I just carve big chunks up for my peanut butter sandwiches!  When I bake with it (not as much this year so far) I just carefully nuke it (microwave) in short bursts.  I don't believe the heating will affect it since I'm putting it into a 375 °F oven anyways.

When we want liquid honey we just heat up some water and put a jar of honey into the water and let it melt with the range top turned off.  We try not to overheat it and wreck the flavour.  My favourite use of liquid honey is--wait for it-- on peanut butter sandwiches.  Little more complicated than with chunks of honey.  You need to drizzle the honey on the bread and then refrigerate it.  The honey then crystallizes in the bread and it gets crunchy.  Very nice.

Comparing the 2012 with the 2013 crop, I think the flavour is really nice this year even if it is harder.  I had some supermarket honey last week and have to say that our honey is so much better tasting.

2013/4 Honey Prices

7 kg pail           $40
3 kg pail           $24
1 kg container  $10