But You Know Me Better Than That

-Posted by Isaac

So after ten years of marital bliss, ten years all peaks and no valleys, you've gone and left me. Have we really come to this? Run off to the islands and without so much as a glance over your shoulder.  You leave me with four hungry children and a crop in the field. Well you picked a fine time. Thanks a lot, Lucille.

Yes, while you and your floozies party it up, we poor stranded orphans desperately search for solace in old country songs. Kenny Rodgers, Randy Travis, George Strait...
And that's desperate.
A love that was once deeper than the holler, stronger than the river, and now we sit alone diggin' up bones. We try to pick up the pieces from the hard rock bottom of your heart. Trying to forge on. The minutes grind by slowly, seems like forever and ever, amen.
Where's Mommy?

But you know what? Easy come, easy go. I'm leaving here a better man.  Sure, it was a tough 40 hours, but I'm on the rebound. And I've got a few things to tell you. So write this down. Take a little note...

Baby, since you left me, there's somebody new.

She thinks I'm perfect, I swear.

That's right. She's young, she's restless. She's beautiful, smart and talented.

And you thought you had that market cornered didn't you? Well think again, Ol Gal!

It's been pure bliss. 

We skip across the clouds, we climb impossible peaks.

We bound through the wilderness of uncharted emotional highs, exalting our newfound freedoms.

No more ball and chain for me, Ol Gal. Those old boring nights of story time before bed? Long gone. Quiet reading, slipping into peaceful sleep? Good riddance! In fact there's not much sleeping going on at all, if you catch my drift.

Yes, this pretty young thing keeps me hopping.

And we're on the move.
Turning heads, grandstanding our looks, our charms, our social refinements, flitting through the cocktail party of life. Look out, Hollywood!

Take that Ideal Image! Some women love "carpet."

And it's hard to keep up. She runs with a fast crowd. 

She's got her playboys, her yachts, her multimillion dollar estates.

Fast cars and fast cash. Fast friends,

fine wines and five star dining.

"Artisan" nuggets. "Artisan" fries.

A far cry from those greasy chophouses you like to frequent. The bad old days are over Ol Gal.

I'm telling you, friends in high places. You can take your cute little Garth Brooks song and head on back to the woods, Darlin'. Or should I say, Dumplin'?

You can have your bunch of ignorant beer swilling rednecks. Your lazy, fat hillbillies.

I'll take my new girl. I'll take the ballet. I'll take the symphony. We're into Culture!

(Clean up to our ears.)

But that ivory tower isn't so high, 

she can't come down and help me at the office once in a while.

She can talk business with the best of them.

And when the workday's over, when it's time to unwind, she tells me she loves me in no uncertain terms.

Sure, she can be a bit emotional, wearing her feelings among other things, on her um, sleeve.

But I like that! 

No secrets here. She's so open and honest, broadcasting her thoughts to the world.  

Oh, she tells her friends I'm perfect,

and that I love her cat...

See You Next Spring!

-Posted by Isaac

What have we been doing lately?
Growing up on a grain farm, August was a time for twiddling thumbs and fishing. Not so with bees. We've been busy, and I wish I could say it was with honey extracting. But we're not quite there. Our busyness involves the varroa mite.

If you're at all involved with beekeeping you know what a scourge this little pest is. Or maybe you don't? Or maybe you're in denial...  "My hive inspection said, 'No Mites'!"

This is a quick informative post for some of you beekeepers who may want to know how we deal with varroa. (Especially for those of you who bought nucs from us in April.)

Please don't deny the hard facts of keeping bees... You have mites! Maybe a few, maybe a lot, but mites are there and they are not going away. August is the time to do something about it.

Here's what we do:

This time of year, we knock the mites down with formic acid.

There are a variety of tools at your disposal when combating the mites. Soft treatments, hard treatments, brood cycle disruption, you name it. The important thing is that you do something.

It is possible to fight varroa with no treatment at all. We've done it for years.. removing the queen, cutting cells... basically breaking the brood cycle. As you can imagine, this becomes quite tedious as your hive count increases.

Formic acid, the Mite Away strips, are a nice fast alternative to hunting for that queen. This is an organic treatment. A soft treatment... you can have honey supers on. Plus it works for mites hidden under the capped brood.

Get things ready before opening the hive.

Formic acid is naturally present in the hive already. You're just raising the level to a point where the mites can't take it, but bees can. 

But there are always parameters aren't there? With this stuff you've got to watch the temperature. Too hot (over 85F), and it's too volatile. You're going to kill some bees, maybe even the queen. Too cold (under 60F) and it just doesn't work well. You're wasting your money. And time.

Money and time... Yes, treating for mites require both. 

With the Mite Away strips, at four dollars a treatment, the expenses can quickly escalate. The pails run about a hundred bucks a pop.

About half the year's mite treatment.

But it's cheaper than buying new bees next spring!

Also time: the treatment needs to be placed in the middle of the brood. So in August, this involves a lot of removing of honey supers. It can wear you out.

On a good day I can treat about 100 hives.

But that rarely happens. Basically we make our way around and try to finish by mid-August. I've learned the hard way, if you wait, if you're still trying to treat with acid in September, it's almost too late. This was a hard and expensive lesson.

So get out there!

I say "we." Mostly I mean "me," but Seth too has been doing some mite killing of late. He's our licensed commercial applicator, having gone through the rigorous testing and training. 

For those of you who may be intimidated about the prospect of a mite treatment (actually doing something), Seth is going to demonstrate his knowledge and skill:

1. Open Beehive

2. Place Treatment

It's complicated, I know. But you'll catch on eventually. Even a dummy like me can learn these things.

When you're done, especially if it's around 80F, the hives look like this.

Take your medicine!

No, bees don't like it all that much. But it's good for them. If you check the following week, you'll notice an increase in activity. They just seem healthier... happier?

Or maybe I'm just seeing things.

Having said all this, I realize, for some, my preaching still falls on deaf ears. It's not natural to put something in a hive. Something as invasive as a mite treatment. It's not exactly biodynamic. Working holistically with nature... Building a stronger bee through natural selection.

And I can sympathize with this view. Hey, I'm as much a fan of Darwin as anyone. Hands off! Let nature take it's course! 

The thing is, for us, it's just not good for business. Dead bees, I mean.

And speaking of business, I'd be remiss if I didn't make at least one small sales pitch. (Especially for you holistic folks.) In the unlikely event that disaster should befall... In the improbable scenario of tragic results... If the hands-off approach (gasp!) doesn't fare well...     We can help you out!

We will have strong healthy nucs for sale next spring! That's right! New beginnings! For a scant $986 each, come to Honeyrun and buy yourself some new bees!

I'll even make you a deal. For you, gentle reader, mention this add and we'll skip the red tape. We'll bypass the middleman. Let's just make it an even $900. What a deal! Whaddya say? You're saving BIG BUCKS! Think about it!

(Plus 7% sales tax.)

(Cash only please.) 

Yes! Fer Cryin' Out Loud, we have Comb Honey!

-Posted by Isaac

Happy happy.

Inspired almost. Ha ha.

I think the first question came in mid-April. "Do you have comb honey yet?"
We were of course sold out.
We're always sold out. I don't think we've ever made it past midwinter with cut comb sections. It's a hot item.

So I patiently explain that it may be a wait. "I don't know... maybe by the middle of July?"

Then July comes and here come the questions. In rapid fire.
Sometimes I'm patient, sometimes not so much. (As some of you can attest.)
"Nope, no comb..."

See, it's not like I can just snap my fingers and make an arbitrary comb honey deadline.

There are a few tricks to producing comb honey, but it's not like it's a heavily guarded trade secret. You beekeepers who want to know more about it should look up Richard Taylor... you'll have all you care to digest and more.
I'm not going to get into the details.

Two critical components to comb honey production are:
1. Strong bees
2. Strong nectar flow

Even if you've built your bees up to the verge of swarming, you need a steady and extended nectar flow to make anything happen.
If you have the kind of rainy, spotty summer like we've had, you end up with a lot of half filled frames.

Half filled frames only get you a bunch of chunk honey.

Which is pretty...

but those of you at the farm markets have seen quite enough of this.

To make the beautiful full squares of cut comb, you just have to wait... for more dry weather, for more nectar flow.

We finally got what we needed. So sorry about the wait. But you'll need to take your complaints up with a higher authority.

Jayne.

We're now in the process of processing. He he.

I try to stress "Pretty" to Maggie and the gang. "Pretty" is what we're going for here. Pretty sells.

West Side Story plays in the background. Maria sings "I feel pretty."
Then the Sharks and the Jets come on. Maggie and Henry start fighting.

Comb honey gets chaotic.

Pretty on the Ross Rounds also. Although most of these boxes still remain on the hives.

Hopefully we can get them filled out in the next week or two.

The comb all gets packed and put into the freezer.

Later to be taken out, labeled, and put in front of your long expectant eyes at the market.

See you there!

Cakewalk Into Town

-Posted by Isaac

Here's a theme song for this blog post. I'll let the master entertain you as you read.

So about a week ago I was going to give you a mouthful of bitterness. A grumbling, whining, complaining rant, cussing the rainy summer and life in general. Up until a week ago we had produced almost zero summer honey.

When you lift a super in July, it's disturbing to look through and see daylight.

(Sorry about the sheen on these photos. I dropped my phone and cracked it to pieces... lucky it still takes photos at all.)

Rain and more rain. I think I heard it's the wettest year in this area since 1874. As Taj says, it put my face in a permanent frown.

The bees couldn't forage. For about forty days! Right at the peak of our summer honey production--Not Good!

And the thing is, the hives were ready to make honey. Big, strong high populations all cooped up in there, waiting to get out and DO something. 

For a while I settled into a routine. Wake up, walk out, look at the sky... and start cussing.

I've been making my way around feeding protein. It just about drove me crazy to see busting populations like this and no honey to show for it.

So anyway, as you know, things turned around last week. It got dry, it got hot.

Thankfully, Jayne beat me to the punch on writing a blog, and you didn't have to hear my true bitterness concerning the weather.
A very well done post I might add, about our wonderful employees (oops, at Whole Foods they're called "Team Members") A post that would have taken a slightly different tone had I done it.
By the way, I'm not friends with any of those slackers.
GET TO WORK!

After a week of hot and dry, normal summer weather, things look a bit different. The bees are back to work.

See the white new comb being built on the edges? A beautiful sight. And a relief. Maybe we're through with rain for a while. Won't have to steal chickens from the rich folks' yard. It's time for a picnic in the country, Mama.

I get by with a little help from my friends.

-posted by Jayne

Many times, people assume that Honeyrun Farm is made up of two people:  me and Isaac.  But this couldn't be further from the truth.  We could not make this business happen without the help of our workers, who also happen to be our friends.  Isaac and I have never posted a "help wanted" ad.  We prefer to hand-pick people we enjoy being around.  Well, that may be a bit of an exaggeration- some of our workers have called us, and others have been recommended by friends, but for the most part, we have found people who share common interests and enjoy the type of work Honeyrun Farm can offer.  Most of our employees are only here a few hours a week.  We like this arrangement so that our workers' schedules can be flexible, we have a lot of folks trained in a variety of jobs, and they can all pitch in for big events like the Lithopolis Honeyfest.

This blog post is dedicated to all those that help keep Honeyrun runnin'...

Libby Brigner:
She was our first employee and came to us as a babysitter over 5 years ago.  I didn't really want to hire a babysitter, but Isaac did it behind my back (she was a student in his science class). After one day of having Libby here to watch the kids while I got things done, I wanted to know "When can you come again?"  Libby now helps us at the Worthington Farmer's Market every other Saturday, and is a student at OSU.

Libby and her boyfriend Henry also play music at the farmer's markets.

Julia Thompson
Julia was also one of Isaac's star pupils back when he taught Science at Westfall High School.  When we first hired her, she labeled a lot of bottles, cleaned pollen, bottled honey, and did some babysitting.  Julia is now in college, studying to be a pharmacist.  Luckily, she comes back in the summer to help us in the honey house from time to time.  Here she is cutting a fresh batch of soap, preparing it for curing.

Julia Thompson

Lafe Blair

We met Lafe through Isaac's aunt Sarah, and he began by helping us when we were remodeling our kitchen.  It happened to be close to our busy time of year, preparing for the Lithopolis Honeyfest, so we pulled him into the honey house to help us label bottles.  Now, Lafe is our main man when it comes to hard work.  Lafe does it all and never complains one bit.  Honeyrun couldn't do what it does without Lafe.

Lafe Blair

Maggie Hovermale

Maggie first came to us to learn about our business to prepare her for the State FFA competition.  Her enthusiastic personality really shined through, and we hired her to help us at market and assist in the honey house.  She makes many of the Honeyrun Farm lip balms and salves, and loves to share her knowledge of our products with customers at the North Market on Saturdays.  Pictured below, she is modeling the Honeyrun Farm t-shirt- which will be for sale in our online store soon.  Maggie will be a senior at Westfall High School this Fall.

Maggie Hovermale

Petyn Scanlan

Without Petyn, you would not be able to purchase our products at the farmer's market.  Why is that?  She assumes the task of watching our 4 kids for the full 8 hours while we are away at markets on Saturdays, which is arguably the biggest job on the farm.  She also babysits while I make soap each week, and during the winter she helps out with all the honey house tasks- specializing in making salves and lip balms.  Petyn is also entering her senior year of high school at Westfall.

Petyn Scanlan holds up a full frame of honey, with our son Bridger

Seth Brumfield

Seth just started working for us this summer, and helps Isaac in the bees.  He is very interested in learning more about beekeeping, and lucky for us, doesn't mind getting stung on occasion while assisting with the beekeeping tasks.  He also helps out my sister in law Becky at Dangling Carrot Farm.   (pictured working in the fields below).  Seth is also entering his senior year of high school.

Henry Barnes

Henry Barnes is our delivery man.  He comes each week to pick up our vehicle full of honey and drive it to all our retail locations throughout Columbus.  He also helps out in the honey house from time to time.  Pictured below, he is stringing up our hand-dipped candle maker.

Linda Bixby

If you've ever been to our booth at the Worthington Farmer's Market, you may have run into Linda.  She is our "market nanny," and held Eden every week at Worthington for the past year.  Now that Eden is mobile, she stays at home with our babysitter (much to Linda's dismay).  We certainly were grateful for Linda's love of babies and earnest dedication to taking care of Eden during busy market Saturdays.

Linda, our market nanny

Delinda Tonelotti

Although Delinda no longer works at Honeyrun Farm, I had to include her because she has been such a help to our business over the past 3 1/2 years.  She helped make soap after the birth of our third child Bridger, and became our chief soap-maker for several years before she moved to the hills of Laurelville.  She also helped us at the Worthington Market every Saturday.  She is seen below, hiding out at the back of our booth at the Lithopolis Honeyfest.  We miss you Delinda! 

Delinda Tonelotti smiles in the background

Jeanne Brigner
Jeanne is Libby's mother, and we've pulled her in the honey house to become our chief pollen cleaner.  As a retired teacher, she said she needed a hobby to pass the time.  Pollen cleaning it is!  Thanks Jeanne!

Jeanne Brigner

Jessica Waldegar
Jess is a former Honeyrun Farm customer that we turned into a customer service specialist.  She helps out from time to time at the Worthington Farmer's Market.  I look forward to our chats during market, and Jess has learned how to expertly answer the question- "What's the difference between Spring, Summer, and Fall honey?"  Jessica and I met at market, but we were also both members of Etsy Team Columbus, and have a shared experience with craft shows and a love of all things Etsy.

Left- Me, Right- Jessica Waldegar

Katie Massie

Katie has been a God-send this year.  She's only been helping out for about 2 months this past summer, but without her, I would not be able to spend much of my summer time hanging out with my kids.  Katie is now our Shipping manager - shipping out all our Honeyrun products to our Etsy customers.  I am also in the process of training her to make soap, and she helps out with all the other honey house chores.  We're so glad to have her!

Katie Massey wraps a beautiful batch of Tangerine Soap.

It takes a village, right?