Bee Pollen- the hard part

-Posted by Isaac

Yes, we're still talking about pollen. And like it or not, we'll be on the pollen train for another week. I still need to tell you about all the benefits to this awesome superfood. Just you wait.

But for now, we're going to go over the in-between steps. 

The bees take care of step 1:

And at the end, usually I take care of the getting-it-to-the-store step:

Hmmm... choices, choices...

This is not the last step, mind you. That's up to you: the putting-it-in-your-smoothie step.

This post is about the hard part of bee pollen- all the in-betweens. For this, we have some wonderful employees.

Last week we talked about the trapping part. We're just about done with my favorite part of the pollen season. When the goldenrod is in full swing, the bees hammer down. The pollen all turns a brilliant orange and the traps need to be emptied every other day or they'll overfill.

As I said last week, after the trapping and collecting, the pollen goes into the freezer and just sits there.

It could sit for days or months. When it comes time for the drying and the cleaning, back into the daylight it comes. I try to find pollen from the first few weeks and mix it with the later goldenrod. This diversifies the colors, the floral sources and, I think, the health benefits.

The pollen sits on the drying racks for about a day. These are simply screens with a fan blowing from below. Room temperature, and a dehumidifier are all that's needed.

We dry the pollen because it just wouldn't be shelf stable at room temperature. It would quickly mold. But it doesn't need over-dried. If you've ever tasted pollen and it crunches like grape nuts, that's too dry!

Once dry (enough), we run the pollen in front of a fan several times. This gets rid of the dust, a few bees' wings, and some of the smaller ants. There are commercial cleaners that do this, but why buy a commercial cleaner when you've got Mr. Blair?

The dust is saved and later fed back to the bees in the form of protein patties. We'll usually fill four or five buckets a year.

The next part of the equation happens once a week, usually on Friday morning: in comes our master pollen cleaner, Jeanne Brigner. Jeanne is a retired elementary school teacher, so she now puts her acquired patience and mental fortitude toward another demanding and very tedious task:

They make commercial pollen cleaners to do this job also, but nothing can get it as clean as Jeanne with three hours and a pair of tweezers. I'm not lying. The machines just can't compete with a patient pair of human eyes. There are bee parts, hive beetles, ants and pollen clumps to contend with. Jeanne sorts through it all and bottles the final product.

At this point, the pollen is shelf stable. It's fine for months at room temperature, but we only keep a few out for the coming week's markets.

Most goes back into the freezer to preserve freshness.

Between the comb honey, chunk honey and pollen, our freezer space is in high demand this time of year. By mid-October, we'll have four deep freezers filled.

And little by little throughout the year, the orders will come in, and those freezers will slowly empty.

Next week is the easy part-- the benefits of bee pollen. Why do we go to such lengths to obtain this rare superfood? You'll be soon to know! I'm already researching this, and my excitement is growing. Stay tuned!

Goldenrod Season

-Posted by Isaac

The goldenrod is upon us. For bees and beekeepers alike, it's like manna from heaven.

This beautiful sunny week, you could walk into any bee yard and immediately smell the dirty socks. That's right, just like a basket of old laundry. When goldenrod nectar is coming in and the bees are rushing to dry it before the coming October cold, the air is filled with a rank musty odor. It sort of brings me back to my days of camper living. Gives me a chance to reminisce.

But that's a blog for another day. For now, I'm going to show you some pics from pollen collection. When goldenrod season begins, the pollen changes to a bright orange and the traps really start to fill.

We've been waiting for this. In August the traps went on. It's a tedious affair, requiring the lifting of every box. This year we're running about 65 traps in four yards.

This particular yard doubled as a comb honey yard. Mid-August, the comb boxes came off and the traps went on. Along with a couple pounds of protein. If you're going to be taking the pollen, the bees need a supplement. I try to give every hive in the pollen yards at least six pounds of patties over the next 40 days.

Another tedious aspect of pollen collection- getting the bees to maneuver through those traps. They don't exactly enjoy learning a new route, and will avoid the traps if they can find an alternative. Duct tape, as always, is a handy thing to have around.

I pick four yards that are not on pallets. The Sundance traps that we have are designed for hives on individual stands. Last year I acquired a few side-drawer traps that are made specifically for palletized hives, but still ran into complications. Now they just reside on individual hives, but are emptied from the side instead of the back.

The August pollen starts coming in as browns, greens, grays and whites. Soon the ragweed blooms and it turns a bright yellow.

For about two weeks you get a mix of yellow and brown, and then, slowly you start to see some orange. The taste changes with the color. I can tell what's in bloom by the look on Eden's face.

Suddenly, on a hot week in September, everything turns to a brilliant orange. The goldenrod!

The traps fill so quickly, you have to make the rounds at least every other day. Everything goes into the freezers after it is collected. We start with buckets, but soon move to black plastic bags when space gets limited. 

From there, it waits.

It just occurred to me that the cleaning and packing process may be of interest. Not to mention a possible blog post on the benefits of bee pollen. I'll try to collect some photos in the coming weeks.

But for now, with the goldenrod in full bloom, we've got to focus on the collecting.

If I'm lucky, I'll get a kid or two along for company. Maizy was with me the other evening and as usual, grabbed my camera. I mostly like to make the rounds in the mornings. It's cool, the bees are quiet, and you can pretty much do the job in shorts if you want to. Even in your tighty whities, which is sometimes fun in the murky veil of early dawn.

But in the evening it's a different story. The bees are still active and hot, having just worked a long day collecting the very pollen you're about to take. You learn quickly- bring a suit.

A breather

-Posted by Isaac

Yesterday I resumed work on the big barn lean-to. 

Back to the projects. We had to slog through the remnants of Irma this week, but by mid-morning on Friday the sun had come out, the temps approached 80, in the distance the soybeans were turning to gold, and those 16 hives you see below the locust trees were just a'roaring. For quite a while I simply enjoyed my perch, sat and listened. It was electric- the radiant flux, the fluid living air, streaming with sound and fury. What a day to be alive!

All's well in the land of Honeyrun. The bees have found the goldenrod, and if the weather cooperates, we're going to have ourselves a productive week. The girls will pack in that rich fall nectar, and I will do, well, whatever I darn well please. Within Jayne's approval, of course. The projects are calling. It's time to hang up the bee suit for a little while.

The three week summer harvest proved not quite as bad as I anticipated- about half of our normal. A Monday morning optimist I am. And securing my optimism, this last Monday we finished up the first round of buckwheat. Not bad-- Close to 700 pounds! 

This came off the hives here at home. You can see that it's not quite as dark as true buckwheat honey should be. I think I left too much spring honey on in June. But that's ok, the next round will be darker. The girls are already working the second bloom.

We're going to have sort of a succession bloom. Half now and half will go until mid October, providing the frost holds off.

The work really doesn't end when the last drop of honey finds its way to the bulk tank. There are the supers to think about. Three and a half trailer loads are now cleaned up and stacked neatly (or crookedly) in the barn.

And the cappings wax is still being rendered. This week Jayne put this cool shot on Instagram:

That's wax from the spring and summer harvests combined. About 400 pounds, which will make quite a few one ounce blocks.

So bring on the crafters!

How good it is. The summer harvest is over. The Honeyfest is over. The weather is lovely and the goldenrod is gorgeous. The bees are busy being bees.

It's time, for a while at least, to take a breather.

Honeyfest 2017- the great irony

-Posted by Isaac

How great is it to be right here, right now? 

Here it comes, the Big Parade! The Honeyfest is on!

Yesterday as I walked around garnering images, I couldn't help but feel a mixed sense of luck and guilt. Here we are in mid-Ohio on a gorgeous sunny September weekend. This never happens. Over the last decade, I can't remember a single Honeyfest weekend when there wasn't the threat of rain or wind, plague or famine. Usually it seems we luck out, but not always. There have been some miseries. Well, irony of ironies, here we are living in the sunshine while the rest of the country is getting blasted- running for their lives, drowning, choking on smoke, burning up... for once, the Ohioans rolled a seven. I'm not sure how I feel about this. It's hard to get used to not griping about something.  

But over the last few weeks I guess I've done my share. It's hard to juggle the bees and the Honeyfest prep during this busy busy time of year.

Thank God Katie is on the team.

Starting about two weeks ago, she's bottled a mountain of honey, sorted, organized, counted, cut, filed, labeled, built, created, carried, collected, cleaned, and generally made this big parade happen.

And the last few days, even Lafe got in on the action.

It takes some work. Some planning, some coordination. Some people skills. It's sort of an art in its own way.

My lovely girl is, and has been the mastermind of the whole thing.

So come on out to the Honeyfest and partake! You've still got today. Relish in the irony. 

You can watch old men wearing bees. 

Or watch old men learning about bees.

Or just buzz around and be your own parade.

If you tire of the kids, drop them at the Busy Bees learning area and go have some fun.

When you've had too much fun, you'll find plenty of soak-it-up options.

Or do what I like to do- relax in the park with music filling the air.

Enjoy yourself! You've watched other people work hard for this.

Summer Harvest, Here we go!

-Posted by Isaac

One last round of protein, this time much faster with Mr. Blair tipping brood boxes.

And into the summer honey. Here we go!

Not that I've ever considered this job a burden, but this summer it does feel more akin to real work . Most of the supers look like this:

Dry, dry, dry... the cupboards are bare. Why? Because of the wet, wet, wet back in July. It's hard to make honey with nine inches of rain during your prime season.  Not that I have room to complain. Complaining seems a bit facetious after hearing about what they're going through in Texas.

And anyway, it's not a total zero. We at least have enough summer crop to satisfy the boss.

There are even a few surprises. Here's a hive that filled three supers! I couldn't not take a picture.

Last year they all looked like that. Once again, where the summer crop is concerned, the western bee yards did the best. Everybody west of Mt. Sterling actually did ok- One or two, sometimes three filled supers. Why is that? I've got some ideas... I'll share with you on a future blog.

Overall, I'm guessing we'll end up with about 30% of our normal. But that's ok. Hey, it's agriculture... I'll just wait on that government subsidy check. Or the insurance to kick in.

Oh, no wait a minute, I'm a beekeeper...  

Ain't I rough enough?

So we're 10 days in, and we'll probably have another week before we wrap up the summer. Which is perfect timing. Soon the goldenrod will be flowing. Below you can see what the hives look like after pulling the summer supers. I leave one hopeful super behind to collect that rich fall honey. Most yards could actually bring in more than a single super of goldenrod, but we've got to think about the coming winter. The rest goes to the bees. 

On a few of the strongest hives, I've been known to get greedy.

Ain't I rich enough?

The boxes are not quite as heavy as they should be. We're flying through the harvest.

Which is a given, considering the millions I've invested in harvest equipment, and drying facilities, and storage facilities, and crop transport, and market analysis.

Oh, no wait a minute, I'm a beekeeper...  

Here is our  million dollar drying facility- a hot room with a fan.

You do have to hustle. I swear, the bees here at home must watch for the bee truck. I'll back in with another load of supers, and within five minutes it looks like this outside:

But inside on the extracting line it's pretty nice. Music, AC, and three ceiling fans make it livable.

Still, without the combines and grain buggies, and tractors, and semi trucks, our harvest is a bit more hands-on. In fact, what with the short crop this year, we've been forced to resort to child labor.

I'm not too blind to see...

Bridger knows his way around the honey house, I'm happy to report. He likes to take a quick moisture check before the kindergarten bus comes. If everything is running smooth and we're holding firm below 18.5%, I'm allowed to start filling buckets

Next week, we'll move on to the barrels.

With Bridger's permission.