Blog Slacker, Yes. Lazy, No.

-Posted by Isaac

Yes, it has been a while. Months almost. And I'm truly sorry. I used this confusing new blog layout as an excuse. For maybe a week or two. But you can only milk computer illiteracy for so long. (It took Jayne five whole minutes to explain how to use Squarespace!) At some point I took a vacation out west, and returning home, forgot all about the habit of weekly blogging. Pleasant in some ways... One less thing, you know? But in other ways, I did actually miss it. Although I harbor grand delusions of you hanging on every word, anticipating every weekly report from the bee farm, I think the truth is that I get much more from this than you.

A sad truth or a happy truth? Hmmm.

It's healthy to journal and I think it's healthy to blog. I'll leave it at that.

So not much has changed since I quit blogging. (Aside from a slight increase in honey sales.) (And the sharp decline in hate mail.) We're still plugging along. Bees and projects and kids. And that's what you're getting today. A little catch-up from the last two months.

Holes in the pants, Seth? How long have you been doing this?

In the bee department, I'm happy to report that we have so far had the best winter survival ever. The bees are looking great and if we can weather the next month, we should come out with less than 10% loss.

Although most hives went into winter pretty heavy, by now the bees are making their way up through the stored honey and need some food directly above them to push through these March cold snaps.

So getting around, yard to yard, hive to hive, has been the number one priority. In a month, we'll be splitting the strong ones. Making increase.

But feeding bees is a pretty quick process. we can be in and out of a yard in 15 minutes. What to do with the rest of the day? Projects, of course.

This winter I got around to storage issues.

Barrel storage:

How to stack 700 lb honey barrels? Build a ramp... ahh ha!

For Bridger, this was less barrel ramp and more roller coaster.

And then I tackled the problem of container storage. For the longest time we've been walking cases of honey bottles from the barn. Not any more.

A large hanging platform did the trick.

Bridger volunteered to test carrying capacity.

Shelving and wall space really make things convenient.

And the more barn space we have available, the better.

We've been able to add another 400 supers and 600 hive bodies to the arsenal.  We're ready for those April splits.

The busyness continues. Building, painting, feeding and so on. But don't let me fool you into thinking it's all work. Last month Jayne let me mingle for a bit with an old love-- The West. A week in the Rockies. My next post I'm going to share a few cool photos. But no selfies!

Outside my window the wind howls and the leafless maples try to hold on to their swelling buds. March is coming in like a lion.

Hold on to your hats, Spring is only three weeks away!

Honey Apple Challah Recipe

Today I bring you a recipe for a delicious style of bread featuring honey and apples:   Honey Apple Challah  (Holla!)

For the challah dough:

1/2 cup lukewarm water

6 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/4 cup honey

2 large eggs

4 cups flour

1 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon instant yeast

For the apple filling:

2 large apples, cored and diced into chunks

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 cup granulated sugar

1/8 cup honey

For the glaze:

1 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water

honey for drizzling (we recommend buckwheat!)

1) To make the dough: Combine all of the dough ingredients and mix and knead them, by hand, mixer, or bread machine, until you have a soft, smooth dough.  You may need to gradually add a little more flour if the dough continues to stick to the bottom of the bowl.

2) With a floured hand, remove the dough from the mixing bowl and gently knead into a ball. Place in a large, greased bowl, and turn once to coat. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk. This will take approximately 2-2 1/2 hours.

3.) Lightly grease a 9-inch cake pan that has sides at least 2" tall.

4.) Combine all the filling ingredients in a bowl and mix to evenly coat the apples with the cinnamon, sugar, and honey.

5.) Gently deflate the dough and shape it into a 8" x 10" rectangle.  Spread half of the apple chunks down the center of the rectangle.  

6.)  Fold the long side of the dough over the apples and seal the edges.  Spread the other half of the apple chunks over the folded over dough.   Cover the other side of the dough over the apples and pinch to seal the edges.  

Don't forget to pinch to seal the edges!

7.  With a large, sharp knife, cut the dough into 16 uniform-size pieces.  The pieces will be messy, not uniform, and apples will spill out, which is okay.  Lay the dough chunks into the pan, doing your best to fit them in a single layer.

8.)  Cover and let rise in a warm place until the dough appears puffy and has risen a generous 2" high, about 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 325 degrees and set an oven rack in the lower third of the oven.

See how messy it is?!  That's alright... it will taste great after it bakes, and you will love those apple chunks spilling out.

9.)  Whisk together the egg and water. When the dough has risen, brush the top with the glaze.

10.)  Bake at 325 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until the top is browned and the internal temperature of the bread reads 190 degrees. Remove from the oven and let the bread rest in the pan 5 minutes before loosening the sides. 

11.)  Drizzle with honey just before serving.  We love it with robust Buckwheat honey!

adapted from King Arthur Flour and A Beautiful Mess Blog

Honey Oatmeal Bread Recipe

Today I share a quick and easy Honey Oatmeal Bread recipe.  I made this loaf in my bread maker, which means the sides are crusty all the way around- great for toasting or dipping in a hearty soup.

Quick and Easy Homemade Bread Recipe

• 1.5 cups of water

•  1.5 T of oil

•  6 T honey

• 1.5 tsp salt

• 3/4 cup oatmeal

• 3.5 cups flour

• 1.5 tsp yeast

If you have a bread maker, simply add the ingredients in the order listed and turn it on the regular bake cycle.  For my bread maker, this took 3 hours and 40 minutes.  And you're done!  

A New Look! Welcome to our new website... new blog!

-posted by Jayne

Here it is!  Our new website, new blog, a complete make-over for Honeyrun Farm in 2016.  This project has been many years in the works and I am extremely proud we are "live" with this new look.  You are now able to purchase our honey right here from our website.  We will continue to keep our Etsy store live, however, we hope to make this online store just as accessible as our Etsy store. 

Today Isaac is at the Worthington Farmer's Market while I stay home with the kids.  There was a level 3 snow emergency in our neighboring county, so our babysitter called off.  This has given me a few spare minutes to get in here and jot down a few thoughts.  The kids are outside playing in the snow (zip-lining in the snow, to be exact) so I have a rare moment to sit at the computer in peace.  

Here are a few goals for Honeyrun Farm (well, my side of Honeyrun Farm) in 2016:  (Isaac will obviously have a completely different set of goals in the beekeeping side of the business.)

1.  Increase our line of skin-care products (think: bath bombs, bath salts, lotions perhaps, maybe even get into more wholesale soap opportunities)

2. Increase wholesale beeswax candle opportunities.

3.  Attend more beekeeping/soap making/ small business conferences.  I hope to attend the Midwest Craft Con in February and possibly the Handcrafted Soap Guild conference.  Who knew there was a national soap making conference?!

Well- I am being called away to rescue a 4 year old who can't get down from our playhouse with snowy steps.  Thanks for checking in to our new websites and watch here for updates!  

Winter Feeding

-Posted by Isaac

I don't think Jayne is catching my subtle hints about it being her turn.
Which, in truth, is fitting. When she does a post, she gets about a thousand more hits than I do. So I guess I really should be doing five posts to every one of hers. (That'll show you!)

So here I go again. This is going to be a quicky about what we've been up to since New Years.

But first things first. In the world of beekeeping this week, we had a local bring home BEST OF SHOW at the American Beekeeping Federation National Honey Show!

This is a really big deal.

Carmen Conrad. Once Again. As in, this is not the first time she's done this. (And I suspect husband Barry had a little involvement also.)
If you know the Conrads in Canal Winchester, be sure to say congratulations!


So here's what's going on at the bee farm of late. We've been making our way around checking. Yard to yard, hive to hive, checking bees, checking winter food stores, checking on hive ventilation.

Most are in good shape.

They look like the above hive. No bees in sight. The top frames are thick with honey and the cluster quietly waits out the winter below. They'll slowly eat their way up through all those calories.

But every now and then, we come across a hive like this:

The top gets popped off, and there they are!
In mid-April, a big booming cluster like this would be a welcome sight. Not so in January. This time of year it just means more mouths to feed.
This is also known as bad beekeeping.
This hive probably didn't have a queen excluder on during fall honey production, and we obviously took off a little too much honey. So they'll need some help.

We find the occasional hive needing help, we smoke the bees down, and we layer on the feed.

We also mark those hives. (That's important!)

I like to check on my babies. My hungry girls in need.
Yes, they do seem to like these winter patties.

You can see that putting the feed on thick requires a spacer. Which is fine. The bees don't build comb in the winter anyway, and a spacer can certainly be modified to help with ventilation. (Which is also important.)

We do this all winter.
In all weather.

Today, in a steady drizzle, I finished up the last yard for this round of feeding. This was the "Whitebarn" yard up in New Albany. Whitebarn Organics is a produce farm located on the fertile pastures belonging to one Les Wexner. (I know... I sometimes have to call security.)
Anyway, they needed a beekeeper, and as part of this deal I was allowed to buy the five hives that were already there. I now have 20 in this yard.
So I was making my way through, feeding and turning over the inner covers, and came across a familiar name.

Ha! My brush with beekeeping fame.

I later asked one of the Whitebarn workers, "So did you ever meet the beekeeper who was here before me?"
He paused thinking, "Umm, didn't really know him... some old grey-haired man from Wooster."