End of Spring 2019 Bee Farm Update

It’s getting to that time of year where everyone asks John if we are going to have Sourwood Honey this year. We should have a response for you soon. In the meantime, let me give you our End of Spring 2019 Bee Farm Update.

Advantageous Spring

We had a very advantageous spring on the Bee Farm. Here are some highlights:

• The bees started foraging, and this means that they gain strength beyond what they can build when they are getting supplemental feedings.
• When the bees forage in the spring, it means this year’s Wildflower Honey is not far behind.
• The weather was better than last year. While we got some rain, we didn’t have as many heavy heavy storms as we did in 2018. This means the bees were able to leave the hive more often to gather nectar and pollen.
• We also had some dry days. Dry days mean that the flowers stay on plants/trees/shrubs. This gives the bees more flowers to visit.

Sourwood Honey Update

For new customers who may not know that we work with Nature, and varietal honey availability is dependent on a host of natural factors, I want to point you to this post, What Is Up with Sourwood Honey? This post describes why we have Sourwood Honey some years and don’t have it others.

While we can’t always predict whether we will have Sourwood Honey, what John said is:

We expect a Sourwood Crop as long as the rain stops by mid-June because the Sourwood trees are going to bloom about 1 1/5 weeks early this year.

Keep your fingers crossed that we didn’t get too much rain in mid-June. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more. (By the way, we usually make the formal announcement about the crop between late summer and early fall.)