American Bee Journal features Honeyrun Farm

-Posted by Jayne

We were honored to be featured in the July edition of American Bee Journal, a nationally syndicated magazing about beekeepers and beekeeping.  View the full article here, written by Bill and Mary Weaver.  

I'm an actual Nerd... This is not a Halloween Costume.

-Posted by Jayne

Do you ever watch Portlandia?  Have you seen the Nerd PSA?  

Today I was feeling very nerdy.  I have one hobby that is a bit more dorky than the rest.  I enjoy entering flowers into the Pickaway County Fair flower show.   As a business owner with 4 kids under the age of 8, I don't really have a lot of free time.  So it is a guilty pleasure to spend several hours cutting and arranging flowers, but it does bring me a lot of joy.   We started our day at Blossoms At the Bend, a pick-your-own flower farm just south of Williamsport, Ohio.  

After filling a bucket of flowers, we came home and I arranged a playdate to keep these four busy.  As 7 children ran screaming up and down the halls of our house and through the yard (I do not exaggerate here), I calmly analyzed the exact spot to place each flower to create the perfect arrangements.  Here are a few:

The theme for this arrangement was "Millersport: Sweet Corn Festival" and required me to use all yellow flowers.

This arrangement called for "A fresh design of roadside/hillside materials."  I had a lot of fun scanning the roadsides over the past week to search for beautiful weeds.

The theme for this arrangement is "Cy Young Days" - a design of fresh flowers using a baseball motif.

And the final (odd) one required: "A fresh design in the abstract manner... incorporating duct tape" (In honor of the "Avon" Duct Tape Festival).  This was quite a challenge and honestly, I'm sure this is not abstract enough.  But it's the most clever thing I could come up with.  I used duct tape to connect the willow branches with the dried "love-in-a-mist", and floated little balls of duct tape on the water.  Now if that isn't nerdy, I don't know what is.  

Maizy entered these arrangements on Sunday in the youth division.  She received best of show with the tall Flint Ridge bottle arrangement.  It required a Native American theme.  We hung a small feather from the neck of the bottle and used curly willow and clary sage, also pick from Blossoms at the Bend.

Mason also entered his lego house in the competition, as well as his "recycled art" project he made Isaac for father's day:

In defense of "real nerds" everywhere, I will resist calling ourselves a nerd family. 

Montana II

-Posted by Isaac

How are we looking?

Pretty good, I must say. The old timers were right, this is an exceptional spring.

We'll know just how good in a month or so. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted. I tend not to miss bragging opportunities.

But for now, back to this Montana business. As I stated in the last post, we took ourselves a little business trip. (Leaving four rambunctious kids with Grandma.) Once again, back out to the soul filling, great and still Wild West.

Jayne and Becky had a ten year reunion with their old coworkers at Elephant Head Lodge just east of Yellowstone. Me, I was just along for the ride.

And "E-Head" happens to be where we stayed. And wined. And dined.

For at least a couple nights.

It was quaint.

Hello? 1970? Is that you?

We found ourselves amongst hikers, bikers, flyers, skiers, hunters, rangers and fly fishing guides. People who make a business of the great outdoors.

And any respectable, streamlined business starts the day with coffee and a serious corporate roundtable. 

A well oiled machine, we were.

We decided to split up the work. Who would be hiking, who would be floating, who would be fishing, who would be stumbling into grizzlies...

My group would be hunting antler sheds (off trail, steep country), so we were voted most likely for a bear attack. We took packs and dogs.

We also had three cans of bear mace and a revolver.

A storm hit us high on a ridge, miles from the truck. About five hours later, wet and tired, we crossed the last stream and found the road, carrying exactly zero antler sheds. Too bad, but still worth it. Because...

We spotted a BEAR!

We spotted a DEER!

And later, a BEER!

In HERE:

Is that CLEAR?

(C'mon, Isaac, will you quit with the Dr. Seuss BULLSHIRT?)

Nope. Still plenty of bullshirt to come.

Finding ourselves just outside Yellowstone, we couldn't resist a day in the park. Against our better judgement, we made our way to Old (10 min late) Faithful.

Woo Hoo!

Why against our better judgement? Because of this bullshirt:

Woo Hoo!

Everyone wants to see the park. Everyone! (The entire Japanese nation!) So you spend way too much time trapped in the car, sitting in traffic, standing in line, peeking around shoulders, paying $10 for a deli sandwich... it's a circus.

Yellowstone is not the place to be if you want peace of mind. Fortunately just north of the park is that rarefied combo of sun, sky, mountains and grandeur we call "Montana." Magnificent Big Sky, where your soul can feast on beautiful solitude and your eyes consume mile after breathtaking mile for hours on end.

One day an old monk was asked by a pilgrim, "Where is the Buddha?"

The old monk replied, "Where isn't the Buddha?"

Montana- Where things seem to fit.

Ooh, a little zen bullshirt.

We walked into a coffee shop / art gallery. And there on the wall was the perfect piece for our living room.

For a scant $14,200 we could be reminded of beautiful Montana everyday!

The Yellowstone fiasco really put us in the mood for a calming soak. About an hour north of the park we found hot springs and a bed outside the idyllic little town of Pray, MT.

Next morning in the lobby, I noticed this:

It was time to go hunting bees. I hiked about a mile in the wrong direction, but later spotted what appeared to be a few hives outside some kind of corral.

Turns out, the bees were actually inside the corral. Very well guarded hives, protected from bears and varmints and people like me. (Honey sold at those prices needs protection!)

It appeared that they had a rough winter. About half came from packages.

What a wonderful quick vacation. Many new sights, many new hikes. The bee hike was the last of the trip. It got me missing our girls back home.

Fortunately we left the business in very competent hands.

Where you been? You're fired!

Montana Bees

-Posted by Isaac

Amen to that, Mr. Steinbeck. Well said.

We have just returned from another "business trip." Big Sky Country. The Last Best Place. And I for one am feeling very fulfilled.

For you dear reader, I have brought back gifts from the road.

Lots of images. Many many great pics. So many in fact, I'm going to fill two blog posts.

Like it or not. And quite possibly Jayne has a story for you also.

So this is the first. Because we've been on the subject of springtime bees and springtime forage, I'm going to stick with that for this post.

It didn't take long to find a Montana bee yard. They're everywhere. 

It also didn't take long to find a trail. Montana has some gorgeous country, and taking it in on foot is the method we choose most. Nice and slow.

Well, for me anyway. Most of my hiking involved trying to keep up with these two.

Jayne and Sister Becky set the pace while I troddled behind, snapping photos of rocks and flowers and trees. Soaking the view...

And that was just fine by me. Out here, we were no longer top dogs in the food chain. Should we come upon Mamma Bear, I figured those marching ladies would make a succulent distraction while I high-tailed it out of there.

And speaking of eating, lets get back to the subject at hand. Springtime forage.

There are a lot of bees in Montana for a reason. The state has an awesome supply of bee food. On a single hike, I collected the following images. One hike! No, I don't know the names of most of these. (But the bees don't either.) Sorry if you were looking for an education. 

Here you go. Montana springtime splendor:

Of course not all of these are nectar producers. But, like Ohio blooms, the honeybee has found a way to make good on most. Even the unwanted:

Knapweed is actually the king of Montana honey producing plants. It's noxious and invasive, hated by ranchers and farmers (much like our own bush honeysuckle), but does it ever make for a fantastic honey crop! Beautiful, light, translucent honey. And so tasty! 

The late great Wayne Morris, my old commercial bee boss in Montana would often shake his head at the state eradication efforts. We'd be driving along in a bee truck and come across state workers spraying the roadside ditches. He'd wink at me, "Better get the planes fired up. We've got to seed some more knapweed."

Yum Yum

-Posted by Isaac

Can you find her? She's big, black and beautiful. One of the California carniolans ordered in April.

Mama has been busy lately. And the results are starting to show.

(They don't all look like this just yet. But I like to keep a few specific photos for the bragging.)

Yes, things are going good. The other night at the bee meeting, some of the old timers were saying that they've never seen such a fantastic spring flow. But I suspect that after 101 years of keeping bees, you tend to forget a year or two. (Like last year.)

2015 was pretty dang good also. But they're right, for a bee on the lookout for food, it's easy pickings right now. The world is an all-you-can-stuff-in-your-honey-stomach-buffet. I mentioned our great dandelion flow back in April. As we were making splits, the hives seemed to gain weight by the minute. Well, they're still putting on the pounds. Here are a few images of what's popping.

The autumn olive came out firing with both barrels. For once, the weather cooperated.

And of course, still blooming is our good old reliable honeysuckle.

Our girls are gaining in stature. We need more supers!

The grass, as you yard mowers can attest, is keeping right up with everything else. Growing at a roar.

There are many others-- not big nectar producers, but loads of pollen to suit the palate. Last Sunday we had a picnic by my brother's stream. Right above us was a black willow abuzz. Just humming! It made for good entertainment.

And just yesterday I noticed the hum coming from our big burr oak out in the goat pen.

Even our state tree shares some love with the bees this time of year.

Where are we going to put all this honey!? (Don't count your chickens, right?)

Well, just in case we do have a lot, I embarked on a project this week. We now have a big holding tank. On Tuesday I gave a bee talk in Amish country. It's a long way up there, and as usual I found a way to spend money.

This 500 gallon stainless steal tank will replace the 500 gal. plastic one from last year. One season of shoveling granulated aster honey was quite enough!

This tank was a lot heavier. And a bit more awkward. 

How to you get a 1000 pound tank tucked up high in the corner?

Easy. Use THE FORCE.

And it helps to have a good operator.

THE FORCE is strong with this one.