Honey Bees are coming to NightBlooming!

Honey Bees are coming to NightBlooming!

Several years ago we switched to only using locally-sourced ethical honey in our products.  Because of the honey bee crisis, I wanted to make sure that NightBlooming was doing its part to only support local beekeepers who put the health of their bees in front of honey production.

This year, we're going one step farther, we're getting our own bees!

Top Bar Hives

Our family made us two top bar hives.  Top bar hives are long, horizontal hives that house smaller colonies of bees, are easier to manage, and allows the bees to build their own natural comb rather than forcing them to build on a plastic template.

And they have windows!  What isn't to like about a hive you can peek in on?  Our hives are built to the Golden Mean, which is ideal for honeycomb.

 

 

 

 

Ethical Beekeeping

Our focus on bees is helping to build up bees that are healthy and will thrive.  That are successful pollenators and will breed with the local bees to make all bees stronger.  We're using as little intervention as possible to encourage bees with strong immune systems and disease resistance, which also means that any honey we take will not be full of antibiotics, chemicals, and pest treatments.  We will also not take all the bee's honey and then feed them sugar water or artificial bee food.  The best food for bees is honey, and they will get all they need first, and we'll use the extra.

You can get an idea of both the top bar hive and ethical beekeeping here:

 

 

Bees Landing Soon!  Shop on Vacation to Prepare :)

We should be getting our bees in the next week or so. We've got a bit of preparation left in the yard to finalize where the apiaries will go and then bees to install. 

Family is also visiting that week, so in order to make time for all this, I'll be closing the shop on Thursday April 17th sometime in the evening, just before I pack orders.  That means you can order right up until I begin packing.  We'll reopen on Saturday the 26th, and the first round of orders will be packed on Tuesday the 29th.

The break will be worth it!  We're excited at the prospect of using our own honey in our products, and also, if extras allow, selling pure, raw honey and other honey products in the store.

The store will be closed until Saturday the 26th