The Sweet Life

Last Minute Christmas Shipping

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:45:00 +0000

If you are still Christmas shopping - we have been noticing that Priority Mail from us to Maryland, Northern VA, Delaware, Southern PA, parts of New Jersey, and parts of West Virginia are mostly getting there next day. So you still have time to shop, pay something less than Express Mail, and still get it there in time... for Christmas.

NO PROMISES - we don't control the post office, and we need time to actually pack the order and get it in the mail.

If you live outside those areas - choose Express Mail. And please realize - we need time to be able to pack it up and get it to the PO!

Review of Bee Folks Handcream

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 01:59:00 +0000

Diana Antal of Painted Lady Fingers just wrote a nice article praising our Lavender and Scottish Heather Handcreams. Give it a read!

http://paintedladyfingers.blogspot.com/2009/11/apothecary-my-favorite-all-natural-hand.html

'Tis the Season

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Just wanted to let everyone know - I am in the office by myself for Thanksgiving week. If I don't return phone calls promptly, please forgive me!

(Though when I'm in the office and not the warehouse, I will pick up the phone when it rings!)

Bee Folks at Ren Faire

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:21:00 +0000

It has been a long time since I have posted! Since being here last, I have found the joys of MySpace, then Twitter, then Facebook. (It seems like Facebook is so much easier to use than MySpace. Does anyone use it anymore?)

We have been to Pennsic, PA Renfaire, and MD Renfaire. Unsold merchandise is being returned from our booths, and now we need to find room for it all! Afterwards, a good thorough office cleaning.

We were swamped by Rosh Hashanna orders. (Many thanks to everyone who ordered from us - we will be much more prepared for next year!)

We have been through 660 pounds of Cotton Honey, and nearly a ton of Buckwheat Honey.

We have Echinacea Honey en route.

The website needs to be updated, I need to create emails for the email list, and start prepping for Black Friday, then Hannaka, then Christmas and Winter Holiday.

And somewhere, sometime, I will catch up on my sleep.

Looking for Workers at MD Renfaire

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:12:00 +0000

We are busy, busy, busy! Pennsic is coming up, then PA Renfaire right on its tail, then MD Renfaire a few weeks later. We are entering approximately four solid months of Faire, in one guise or another!

Which brings up todays topic: We are looking for three new people to join us at the Maryland Renaissance Faire this year. Must be mature, outgoing, and have own garb and transportation. Sales experience a plus, Renfaire experience a plus. Must be willing to work near bees, but you won't be asked to handle them (unless you really want to). We have a lot of kids at the booth, so applicant must be able to modify a sales pitch according to the age of the customer.

If you have to ask what I mean by garb, this is the wrong job for you.

I offer a base pay plus commission sales. I do direct deposit. Hours are part-days to start, and hours may grow longer as the season progresses.

If you are interested, review the products on our website, then send us a resume at lori@beefolks.com.

Bee Folks receives cease and desist letter from Hershey

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 22:22:00 +0000

My first thought was, 'We are big enough that Hershey noticed us?'

I mean, come on, it's not like I was trying to impinge on a trademark, or anything. Doesn't everyone recognize a large, tear-drop shape chocolate chip as a Kiss these days? Hasn't it entered the vernacular?

According to Hershey, it has not.

So, some intern (I'm assuming it was an intern, and not a high-priced attorney) was scouring the Internet for merchandise with the word 'kiss' in the title, and our little beeswax candles popped up. Mind you, we discontinued the candle a few years back, melted down the remainders last year, and simply overlooked it on the website since the candle section is horribly outdated. We never even wrapped it in foil or anything, it looked like a yellow candle. But this intern did not know and/or did not care, so we received a 'cease and desist' letter.

The nitty gritty is that we aren't fighting Hershey on this. The candle had already been discontinued, we never had an intention of violating a trademark, and Hershey is willing to settle this without lawyers. They essentially want them removed from the website and a promise not to do it again, and we are quite willing to accomodate that.

But, I found some of the language in the letter amusing, so I decided to share a bit with you. (Trust me, there is very little amusing about the threat of being sued by a huge corporation like Hershey, but some of the language in the letter is amusing, given the size of our family business and the lack of popularity of the candles.)

--------
(excerpts from letter, all emphasis mine)

It has recently come to our attention that through your website, http://www.beefolks.com/, you are distributing products which incorporate the KISSES Trademark and Trade Dress. Specifically, you are selling conically shaped "Small Kiss Beeswax Candles" and "Twisted Kiss Beeswax Candles" that are nearly identical in appearance and confusingly similar to our client's famous KISSES brand chocolate.....

Use of the KISSES Trademark and Trade Dress by persons or entities not affiliated with Hershey can result in a liklihood of confusion for consumers and can dilute the value of and/or tarnish our client's rights. Therefore, your use of the term "Kiss" in connection with the conical shape of these particular candles constitutes an illegal infringement and dilution of our client's valuable intellectual property rights. Even if the public is not confused as to the source of the Infringing Merchandise, your use of the KISSES Trademark and Trade Dress in this manner undoubtedly will tarnish and dilute these assets.

Our client has several options to enforce its legal rights.....However, at this time, our client wishes to resolve this matter amicably without resorting to litigation.

---------

So, Milton, if you are reading this, please know that the candles have been removed from our website, and your apology is in the mail. Please let me know if I may be of more assistance.

Those Durn Little Bees

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:43:00 +0000

This spring has been full of adventure! We went into the winter with five hives, and came out with two. Considering I did not work them at all (something about bee-ing a wee, wee, wee bit pregnant), I figured that was pretty good.

We ordered 10 new packages of bees, to increase our stock for the spring honeyflow. They were supposed to arrive at the beginning of April. But in case you did not notice, the South received rain, and rain, and more rain, and high winds, then a bit of rain.... The long-anticipated arrival was pushed back not once, not twice, but three times!

In the meantime, one of my hives was about ready to swarm. We had so many bees in it, we split it into four new hives, allowing each to requeen. Unfortunately, we have had so much rain ourselves, two of the hives lost the queen when she went out on her mating flight in the middle of a rainstorm. There is a reason why bees aren't supposed to fly in the rain - raindrops are bigger than the bees are, and knock them right out of the sky! But her genetics told her to go on a mating flight, so fly she did.... So then we were up to three functioning hives.

We finally got the bees installed, and lost only one hive in the process. The queen had not been released yet, so we transferred her to one of our empty observation hives, along with a frame of brood from one of our established hives. They accepted her, giving us 12 functioning hives, plus one observation hive.

Then there are the hives that belong to the 12 year old. He is not allowed to keep hives on his property, due to housing association regulations. We allow him to keep them on our property, and he checks on them when he remembers. Being 12, he does not check on them as often as he should. The day he came over, we found it necessary to split that hive into three separate hives, allowing each one of those to requeen. That brings the apiary up to 15 hives, plus one observation hive.

Then the swarms started. For the life of me, I don't know where they are coming from (though maybe from the 12-year-old's hive - I don't check on those). They have not been nice, polite swarms, that hang out on a branch low enough for me to collect. No. The first swarm (lost when we installed the bees) flew away before we could prep a hive for them. The second and third swarms were about 60 feet up in the air, well beyond the reach of my equipment. The fourth swarm absconded from the observation hive, but were nice enough to land at face level so I could collect it. (My 3-year-old daughter loved playing with the low-lying bees on THAT one!) The fifth swarm landed about 20 feet up on the trunk of the tree, and we are attempting to coach them down as I write this. Their may be a sixth swarm already in the hive we are attempting to coax the fifth swarm into.

And this does not include the swarm we caught when we responded to a request to remove bees from a tree. (We are still looking for a tree stand so we can remove the remainder of the bees from the tree.)

We aren't out of empty hives yet, but we may soon be.

Anyhow, I need to go out and check on that potential new swarm, but I did want to provide an update here. Sunny days!

Prepping for the Bees

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:47:00 +0000

Well, I have 10 packages of bees coming in on Saturday, so I spent yesterday painting the hives to get ready for them.

What is a package of bees? Well, there are different ways to start a hive. One is to purchase a full hive from another beekeeper. Another way is to purchase a "nuc" from another beekeeper (which looks like half a hive). A third way is to make a split from an existing hive - taking a frame of bees and two frames of honey from a current hive, transferring them to an empty hive and either giving them a new queen, or letting them requeen themselves.

This year, I choose to purchase some new packages of bees to get some new blood in the apiary. A package is a wooden box with wire sides, approximately 10"x6"x4", containing approximately 3# of bees, a can of sugar water, and a queen in a little wooden box. This contraption is designed to transfer bees to a new hive.

Since it had been, oh, at least 5 years since I had really gone through my equipment, and since they are calling for rain most of this week, I went through everything. I tossed remarkably little equipment, but the stuff that was bad was about as old as the business, and infested with ants (they bore into the wood, leaving the bees alone, but really annoying me when I work the hive). The rest was either in good condition, or was fixable. Yea!

Everything got a good scraping and a new coat of paint. After scraping the second hive box, it occurred to me that I was wasting an awful lot of valuable propolis from the hives. It is now saved in a box, awaiting a time to be processed (somewhat) and offered for sale. I have several customers who periodically ask for it, so sometime this summer it should be available.

The net result of this weekends work was 10 freshly painted hives, a sore back, and a wrist that feels like it should be in a sling instead of typing on this keyboard. Happily, I feel as though I have made a major accomplishment, and I can't wait until Saturday!

Bee Folks Kosher Certified by Star-K

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:04:00 +0000

We were certifiable, but now we are certified!

We had a lot of requests to become Kosher Certified. After much discussion, we decided to partner with Star-K, a leader in the international world of kosher certification.

So, if you are looking for honey for Passover, Rosh Hashannah, or any other holiday, please keep us in mind!

You can view our Kosher Statement via the following link:
http://www.beefolks.com/shopcontent.asp?type=kosher

Vote for us for the Top Mom-Owned Business!

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:00:00 +0000

We are in a contest for the top Mom-Owned Business, as decided by a popular vote. Please vote for us! You can vote once a day, so vote early and often!

Bee Folks Bookstore

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:10:00 +0000

We finally re-connected to our online bookstore! It is managed by Amazon, but we have tried to include links to all the relevant bee-related books we can think of, including meadmaking, cooking, books for kids, beekeeping, fictional accounts, etc. I plan to update it early next year, since Amazon has a lot more to offer now, such as videos and dvd's. So, please feel free to go take a look! http://astore.amazon.com/thebeefolks

The boys are home!

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:33:00 +0000

We are awfully tired around here at The Bee Folks. The triplets (Arthur, Brannon, and Charles) are home, and have not yet picked up a nighttime routine. It will come, but with preemies, it just takes a bit longer. They are already three months old, and yet their due date wasn't until October 17th. Does that mean they just turned 0 years old?

A wonderful reporter by the name of Jenn Bogden wrote a story about the triplets entitled "Triplets Born with Rare Condition Defy the Odds". The article has been printed in a number of local papers, and multiple places online. Yahoo is carrying the story at the following link (if you have a Yahoo account, please feel free to vote (buzz) for it, so it moves up the rankings!).

http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/1:0b68809b4274cd2fcd3bcdfb7b13f399:5f19093f75e9a2dbfd305c12b7bdf455

The following link carries the exact same story, but also has pics:

http://somd.com/news/headlines/2008/8613.shtml

We are so pleased with the newbies that we have decided to have a special - anyone who places an order this month (November '08) will receive a special gift to commemorate the new additions!

Thanks so much to everyone for their patience and understanding these last few months. We expect the babies to make their debut at our spring shows. See you then!

Triplets at The Bee Folks

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 20:58:00 +0000

I have been rather negligent on the blog over the last few months, but I have a good excuse!

I have been very pregnant, and on August 3, 2008, I delivered identical male triplets! They were 29 weeks 2 days when delivered, and we expect them to remain in NICU until sometime in October. But, they are relatively healthy, with only "normal" preemie problems (apnea, jaundice, etc.) and are progressively getting better.

The pics below show them at birth - they are already off the breathing tubes and IV's. They are still in incubators, they are fed milk through feeding tubes (they are still learning to swallow), and their pulse, heart rhythym, and breathing rate are constantly monitored by machines. However, we are allowed to hold them, they open their eyes at familiar sounds (including our voices), and can track fingers in front of their faces. In general, given their age, they are doing extremely well, and we are very happy with their progress.

Please help us welcome:

Arthur Raymond Titus, 2lb 14oz, 15 1/2"

Brannon Ash Titus, 3lb 5oz, 15 3/4"

Charles Ares Titus, 2lb 13.7 oz, 15 1/2"

A Beekeeper's Life on Bedrest....

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:24:00 +0000

Lori is officially on bedrest now, but that doesn't stop her from working. The docs said she could sit in a recliner with a laptop, so she has been busy updating the website, making phone calls for honey, and blogging. All of which is stuff that needed to be done.

And if it wasn't mentioned before - we are expecting identical triplet boys.

But on to other news: We have Bamboo Honey in! As soon as we strain the "bee bits" out, we will have it posted on the website, and send out a coupon to the email list. We are expecting a large order of Almond Honey within the next week or two, and will have that posted as well. This is also the year that we hope to get Radish Honey back in, but we are still waiting to hear from the beekeeper on that one....

One of Lori's "bedrest projects" is to update our candle listings! We have literally hundreds of candles that are not listed online, some of which we have not even displayed at shows yet. Lori's sister was kind enough to test out her new camera while taking pictures of most of them. We hope to crop and post these pictures within the 6 weeks. Some of these candles are simply amazing - 12-18" Chinese dragons, wizards, farm animals.....there should be something for everyone.

In other news - Colony Collapse Disorder has hit the country for the second year in a row. Many of the larger beekeeping operations have already closed for business, unable to make expenses. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find honey, and as a result, we expect to raise our prices sometime in August. The price of gas certainly isn't helping, either. The larger beekeeping operations use gas-powered equipment to process honey and beeswax, not to mention moving the bees around to the next crop, or to ship honey to distributors. This is going to be a hard year, indeed.

But, on the good side, except for a cool spring in Florida, growing conditions seem to be good in the majority of the country. We hope to find more varieties of honey, even if honey in general is hard to find. This should be an interesting year.....

A Miracle in the Making at The Bee Folks....

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:37:00 +0000

Life has been very exciting around here! In February and March, we were at the Florida Renaissance Faire. Just after the opening weekend of the Faire, we discovered Lori is pregnant!

We made it through the heat, rain, tornadoes, and high wind (the wind shredded our tent, and we were left scrambling for a replacement....). We had a short vacation in Orlando on the way back up.

But, when we returned to Maryland, Lori started having some complications. After a few calls to the midwives and a sonogram, we found the cause - TRIPLETS! Not only that, but as time has progressed, we have come to learn that they are probably identical triplets (occurs approximately 1 in every 167,000 births), and they seem to be boys.

So - to those of you who have had problems reaching us in the office over the last few weeks, we heartily apologize, and hope you forgive us. With all the doctor appointments, morning sickness, and pregnancy "sleepies", we hope you understand. And we have recently hired extra help around the office to make up for Lori's "condition".

Triplets are born early. If things go well, they will be delivered sometime between mid-August and mid-September. But don't expect to see Lori at any of our upcoming shows - she is taking it easy, and letting her extended family (and wonderful managers) to run shows through the end of the year.

Thanks for all the well-wishes we have received so far, and we will keep you updated!

Free Upgraded Shipping to APO Addresses

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 05:02:00 +0000

I was really surprised to see the deadlines for shipping items to APO addresses. The deadline to send items parcel post to APO addresses has past (it was November 13).

The deadline to ship items priority mail to most APO addresses is December 11. (APO/FPO AE 093 has a deadline of December 4).

In large part to honor my father's past military service, and in another large part to support our men and women overseas, The Bee Folks will be offering a free upgrade to priority mail for any order placed with us that is being shipped to an APO/FPO address. This free upgrade will be in effect until noon, December 11.

Just choose parcel post at checkout. When we see that the order is being shipped to an APO address, we will provide the upgrade on our end. If in doubt - call us at 877-4BEEFOLKS, or email me at lori@beefolks.com.

Happy Holidays, one and all!

Tartan Terrors

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 18:42:00 +0000

I just received this from the PA Renaissance Faire. If anyone can afford to donate, please do. Or go to their website and purchase their CD's - hopefully they had a stash that was not in their truck or trailer. They are a marvelous band, and they have done alot to raise funds for healthcare for Renaissance Faire workers via the RESCU Foundation:

November 9, 2007

Friends~

We, the family of the PA Renaissance Faire, are all pulling together to help out our mutual pals, the Tartan Terrors. On their trek home their vehicle and trailer, including all their merchandise, costumes and instruments, were stolen. The vehicle was found later, burned to a crisp, and the trailer remains at large. There was more than $100,000 in damages, all while facing a large tour schedule.

We’re asking you to kick in some funds…whether it’s $5 or $500 or anywhere in between. It’s that simple. Friends…need…help.
If you can help, send your check or money order in c/o:

Carrie Emich
PRF
2775 Lebanon Road
Manheim PA 17545-8711

Please be certain to clearly mark the donation as for “Tartan Terrors Aid.”

'Tis the season for a bit of cleaning

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 19:34:00 +0000

The one problem with the Renaissance Faires ending is that now we have to figure out where to put the leftover merchandise. I tell my "kids", if we have one left of everything on the shelf at the end of the final day, then we had just the right amoung of stuff. If we have two or more, then we obviously have too many. If we run out, then maybe we could have sold one more. And, whatever is left at the end of the final day, they have to pack down for me.

PA Renfaire did pretty good (thanks, Paddy!). But the MD Renfaire....

To give Ben some credit, it was his first time managing something this large and this busy on his own. Given that, he did a great job. Its just that we have many, many shelves full of candles, honeysticks, and candy come back.

Well, at least we won't have to make many candles for awhile! And, I hope to see the carpet soon. At least, I THINK we have a carpet.....

The Renfaire are Almost Over!

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:26:00 +0000

I almost hate to say it, but.....YEA, THE RENFAIRES ARE ALMOST OVER!

Please don't get the wrong idea. We loved seeing everyone there. But we have been working 18 hour days, 7 days a week, for several months now. We are due a brief spite before the holiday rush is upon us.

Last weekend was the final weekend at the MD Renfaire, and this weekend is the final weekend at the PA Renfaire. When I last checked www.weather.com, they are calling for a bit of rain on Saturday, but gorgeous weather on Sunday. Well, as long as you dress for 65 degree weather. Still, I think it hit 45 degrees a year or two ago, so 65 should be a nice balmy day!

If you haven't done so already, sign up for our email list - we will be sending out new newsletters soon, and the holiday sales are coming up. Should be exciting!

Swarm at the MD Renaissance Faire

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 01:33:00 +0000

What is a swarm? Well, if a queen runs out of places to lay eggs, and/or if the bees run out of places to put honey, then the hive will swarm. The queen and a portion of the workers will gather up and leave the old hive, settling on a nearby branch. They will send out scouts from there to look for a new home. In the meantime, the old hive makes a new queen, and continues on with life.

The swarm queen and workers are programmed at this point to make a new hive and stock it full of honey as fast as possible. This is important, since they are starting over from scratch! To help them in this endeavor, they have stuffed themselves so full of honey that they cannot get their stingers out!

An old rhyme goes:

A swarm in May is worth a bale of hay.
A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon.
A swarm in July isn't worth a fly.

This is a comment on the value of a swarm at different times of the year. A swarm early in the year is a good thing, since the beekeeper can expect them to make lots of beeswax and honey. However, a swarm late in the year is not worth much, since the spring honeyflow is over, and they are running out of time to stock their new hive for the winter (hence are likely to die).

So, imagine my surprise when our bees swarmed on September 30 at the Maryland Renaissance Festival!

This was a Sunday, and the bees swarmed sometime around noonish. The hive had been congested, but the bees did not show any signs of making queen cells, and bees are genetically programmed not to swarm at this time of year, anyhow. Still, nobody ever said that bees "read the book".

The queen's wings were clipped. This is done in a manner similar to clipping a bird's wings, and for the same reason - so she cannot fly too far. Thus, when the bees swarmed, the queen came down to the same level as our customers!

Mind you, the customers were never in any danger. Bees only get aggressive when they are frightened, or when they are protecting their hive. When the swarm, they do not have a hive to protect, and like I mentioned above, the bees are so full of honey at this point that they cannot even get their stingers out. Still, it can be a bit unnerving for some people to walk through a cloud of bees.

Our workers came out from inside the booth, and formed a ring around the swarm as they were flying. We knew they would settle down within 20 minutes, but we weren't entirely certain where that would be. In the meantime, we tried to keep people from walking into the swarm. When it became obvious that people would not listen (you would not believe how many people purposefully walked through the bees because they thought it was cool!), we called Security, and they put yellow security tape around our booth until the bees settled down. Even so, we had people lift up the tape, walk underneathe, poke at the bees, and ask us what the bees were doing!

Anyhow, eventually the bees settled down, and we set up a curtain around them to protect them from curious eyes. Once the dust settled, we took down the security tape (with Security's blessing), and proceeded with the remainder of the day. Once night fell, we brought an empty hive in and literally grabbed handfuls of bees and placed them in the hive. They thought it was a cool home, night was falling (they fly by sight, so need daylight in order to fly), and stayed put.

To make a long and exciting story short - the old hive is now ensconced at home and being well-fed so they can survive the winter, we brought in a weaker hive to replace the display at the Festival, nobody was stung, and lots and lots of people were educated about the gentleness of honeybees!

(As a side note - the new display was also a late swarm that was mite infested and was unlikely to survive on its own. By placing it in the display, we can treat them for mites, feed them heavily, and hopefully they will survive the winter.)

Preparing the Bees for Winter....

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 22:53:00 +0000

OK, so this is really my way of procrastinating, rather than having to go out and work the bees today. The weather is beautiful, it is the perfect day to work the bees, but we have been really, really busy recently, between the MD Renaissance Faire and the PA Renaissance Faire, and I just wanted a slow day for once.

We have observation hives at both of the Renaissance Faires, and people ask us questions all day long about it. (We have someone stationed with the bees at all times, specifically to answer questions!) One of the many, many questions is which are the boys, and which are the girls.

We usually tell people that, by this time of year, the bees are all girls! Worker bees are sterile females, the queen is a fertile female, and the drones are the boys. Thing is, the drones are there to eat, mate, and die, and this is past mating season. Notice - food collection is not on the list of "things to do". If the boys stayed in the hive during the winter, they would eat all the food and the hive would starve. Even if the hive did not starve, the boys would not be productive in those first few weeks when the bees are hunting for food sources, when nothing is blooming yet. Nope, better to get rid of the guys. After all, the queen can make new drones.

How does she do that? She can choose to lay a fertile egg, or an unfertile egg. The fertile eggs turn into workers, and the unfertile eggs turn into drones. The queen just chooses not to lay drones in the fall!

Anyhow, what I really intended to write about is how we go about preparing our hives for the fall. Beekeepers typically treat the bees for disease, and make certain they have enough honey laid in for the winter. If they do not have enough honey, they are often fed either a mixture of sugar and water, or corn syrup.

At our apiary, rather than treat with harsh chemicals, we use essential oil treatments. Might sound rather new age-ish, but the oils we use are found in nature, and seem to be beneficial. For example, it has been noted that bees that are in fields of mint and thyme have lower incidents of mites. It is believed that as the bees fly into the hive, they are brushing against the leaves and stems, thus getting some contact with the plant oils.

Our treatment consists of feeding the bees a sugar-water solution that contains wintergreen (which is a type of mint) and lemongrass in it. (This website from the University of West Virginia, or this website from Wikipedia will give you an idea of what is involved.) We also apply a paper towel that has been soaked in a thyme oil mixture.

These methods apply the oils in three ways: the bees breathe the vapors, have direct contact with the oils, and eat the oils. Breathing the vapors helps control tracheal mites, direct contact helps control varroa mites, and feeding the oils to the larvae helps to disrupt the mite lifecycle.

Our bees usually don't require feeding. However, we often have a warm spell followed by cold weather. In such times, the queen would have started laying eggs, and the hive will starve to death in a hive full of honey trying to keep the broodnest warm - they won't leave the nest to get to the food! When the weather gets really cold, we find it beneficial to fill a paint bucket with sugar syrup and place it directly over the cluster of bees in the hive. This way, the bees have a ready food source without travelling for it, if necessary. If they are able to get to the honey, they won't touch the sugar.

Anyhow, enough I have procrastinated enough for one day. It is dark now, so I have served my purpose - a nice, slow afternoon, writing in my blog!

Hashannah Tov! Happy Rosh Hashannah!

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 06:19:00 +0000

I must have been crazy! On September 11, 2001, I was glued to the TV like so many others around the world. At the time, my husband had a job in what must be the shiniest building owned by NSA, and I was unable to raise him on the phone. With multiple planes in the air, I was scared to death he would become one of the causualties that day. As it is, I lost colleagues in New York, Dave lost coworkers at the Pentagon, and my sister was on the DC Mall that day, close enough to hear the Pentagon collapse.

Ever since, I have been determined not to go into places like DC on certain days, like the 4th of July, or September 11. So what was I doing boarding a Metro car, 11:30AM on 9-11, heading towards Farragut North? Well, Rabbi Herzfeld talked me into it.

For those of you who may not know, Rosh Hashannah is the Jewish New Year. It is a time of reflection and remembrance. It is a time of well-wishing. And, one of the traditions is dipping apples into honey, to signify a sweet start to the New Year. Rosh Hashannah without apples and honey is like, well, Thanksgiving without the turkey.

Rabbi Herzfeld came up with what I consider a really "sweet" idea (no pun intended, really). He had 1,000 jars of honey from Israel (not from us!), and decided to distribute them on the corner of Connecticut and K Street in Washington DC, they day before Rosh Hashannah, at lunch hour.

So how did I get involved in this? Well, we were originally contacted by mutual acquaintances regarding a new radio program he started (Smoozin' with Shmuel). However, the topic quickly changed to the upcoming holiday, and we were invited to bring our honey tasters and help distribute the jars of honey. Rosh Hashannah started at sundown on 9/12, so that meant we were in DC on 9/11.

Despite my jitters while travelling, I had quite a bit of fun once I was there. Rabbi Herzfeld blew in the new year with a ramshorn, and over nearly 2 hours a dozen people showed up to help hand out the jars. One was dressed as an apple, another dressed as a honeybee. They made quite the pair, and certainly made people pause!

Afterwards, I stopped at Starbucks for a coffee and apple fritter before jumping on the Metro for the return journey, and reflected on the last two hours. I decided I was rather glad to have conquered my fears and participated in the day's distribution of well-wishes -- and honey!

MD Renaissance Faire has opened!

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 02:54:00 +0000

With heat indices around 105 Farenheit, we opened at the Maryland Renaissance Festival this past weekend to less than spectacular crowds.

To our Patrons who braved heatstroke to visit with us - Many, Many Thanks! Only those who truly love the Faire (or who could not make it on any other weekend) were there, and we greeted many old friends.

To those who were "sane" and stayed home - please come visit us this coming weekend! It is supposed to be perfect weather - no rain, and 80-83 each day.

See thee anon!

Great Green America Fest

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 16:33:00 +0000

Last weekend was amazing! We were at the Great Green America Fest at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Fairegrounds in Pennsylvania. Wrapping up the day was Peter Yarrow (of Peter, Paul, and Mary) and his daughter Bethany.

I was able to catch them on Sunday night during their performance. My daughter, Rowan (2), was dancing in front of the stage with a bunch of kids. Then, Peter invited all the kids up on stage while they sang "We Shall Overcome" - and Rowan went! As an encore, they sang "Puff the Magic Dragon", and Rowan was right there in the front row, rocking along with everyone else. What a night!

It was even more interesting after the bands were packing up and going home. Several of the kids Rowan had been dancing with climbed into cards driven by Peter and Bethany's troop. I don't know what their relationships all were, but just think - Rowan had been dancing with Peter's grandkids, or grandnieces, or something... I wonder how many proud mothers my age can claim that!

Anyhow, back to work for me. We have some special items coming up, and we are waiting until the website is transferred over to the new host before posting them. Ta!

Getting ready to harvest

lori@beefolks.com (The Bee Folks - Lori Titus) — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:47:00 +0000

We get our honey via two methods. One is through commercial pollination services, which may pull as many as 15 or 20 different crops in a season. The second method is from our own bees!

In this area, we harvest only once a year. The goal is to leave 60-80 pounds of honey on the hive for the bees to winter-over on, and we take the rest. It can be a bit tricky to guestimate 60-80 pounds, simply because there is a fall honeyflow that the bees are able to collect from. Just like a standard farmer, we have to be able to judge the honey potential of the fall crop, before ever knowing what the weather will be like!

However, judging from the weight of the hives, it looks like we will be able to bring in 200-300# of honey, all from the 3 hives that survived the winter. Yippee!

The honey in this area is a wildflower honey, consisting of Black Locust, Linden, Skunkweed, Maple, Dandelion, Berry, Clover, Crabapple, Alfalfa, and whatever else is blooming within a 2-mile radius that the bees decide is tasty. So far, it has always been a light-colored honey. (Some parts of Maryland also have Tulip Poplar, which is a dark honey.)

The weather is looking good, and I hope to bring the honey harvest in before the rain that appears to be scheduled on Wednesday. Between now and then - mostly sunny skies, 80 degrees (not too hot, yet the bees will be flying).

The trick is to pull the honey off quickly, with minimal fuss to the bees. If I have to chase bees off the honey, they clue in to the fact that loose honey is moving around, and ALL the hives will try to get a piece! If the bees are in the field, I can usually get in and out quickly. Hence, a sunny day is perfect for honey collection.

To extract the honey, I scrape the "cappings wax" off the honey (the top layer of wax holding the honey in the comb.) I have a huge centrifuge that beekeepers call an "extractor" (nobody said we were creative in naming objects). The centrifuge spins the honey out against the wall of the extractor, leaving the comb in one piece. Then I return the comb to the bees, and they lick it clean.

It is said that in the time it takes bees to produce 1 pound of wax, they could have produced 7 pounds of honey. It is in both my interest and theirs to salvage the comb and give it back to them to fill again!

Anyhow, back to work for me. If you are interested in "first dibs" on our local honey, please subscribe to our email list. The signup form on our homepage is for the general list, but it will send you a link for a "local" email list. We will be notifying members of the local list first when honey from our own hive is available, before making it available to the general public. (And don't worry about spam - we do not sell, lease, or otherwise distribute our list, and we typically send out one news update and one recipe each month.)