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Honey produced in Phoenixville, PA by Jaarsma Apiaries

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Our virgin queens have emerged from those queen ce Our virgin queens have emerged from those queen cells from last week! This newly minted regent will spend the next week or two, depending on the weather, going on a series of mating flights during which she'll mate with up to 40 different drones. The drones die during mating, but their multiple genetic contributions ensure greater genetic diversity of the daughter bees which in turn means a better chance of hive and colony survival. So, hopefully within the next week or two, we'll have laying queens and will be able to move these nucleus boxes to their new homes! #phoenixvillepa #phoenixville #phoenixvillehoney #beekeeping
May market schedule! Note the changes in times fo May market schedule! Note the changes in times for the summer market season. Hopefully we'll have honey fresh off our hives in early June, but until then, we still have stock from a fellow local beekeeper friend. Pre-orders are open for Downingtown this Saturday, link in profile!
More queen cells found during today's inspection o More queen cells found during today's inspection of those splits. Check out this overachiever! #beekeeping #phoenixvillepa #phoenixville #phoenixvillehoney #queencell
So I mentioned that I was working on some hive spl So I mentioned that I was working on some hive splits to make new hives, and here are two queens-in-progress. They're the peanut shaped structures hanging off the comb. Queens are longer than both drones and regular worker bees, so they need extra growing room. I think this frame had nearly a dozen such cells on it. Why so many? They create a bunch of queen cells to ensure they get a good queen. Once the virgin queens start to emerge, they play a deadly game of marco polo, tooting and quacking to find one another in the hive. Sometimes the worker bees even decide which one they like best and actively help her or hurt her competition. After a few battle royales reminiscent of The Highlander, eventually only one queen will survive (in the end, there can bee only one!). She'll go out on a series of mating flights and (hopefully) will eventually return home and begin laying eggs. It can sometimes be a little more complicated than that, and in beekeeping there are exceptions to nearly every rule! #beekeeping #phoenixvillepa #phoenixville #phoenixvillehoney
Found this little bee visiting with some grape hya Found this little bee visiting with some grape hyacinths today. This Spring is proving to be odd, hitting some unseasonably cool weather this week. All four hives are working hard though, finding pollen and nectar all over the place. Saw a ton of dandelion pollen coming in today. Also split out 4 nucleus boxes to start new hives in two new locations. Pretty excited about those, so more on that soon! Also if you happen to see a swarm of honeybees in the area, definitely shoot me a DM. Always love to grab local swarms (free bees are indeed the best bees). #beekeeping #grapehyacinth #muscari
Printed up a new round of our tea towels today! Y Printed up a new round of our tea towels today! Yes, our bee towels are hand printed by yours truly in small production runs. The color is hand mixed, so there may be a slight variation from batch to batch, but it's always a sunny yellow orange color. We're thinking about reversing this and doing white printing on a yellow-orange towel.. what do you think?
The boys are back in towwwwnnn! That is one fresh The boys are back in towwwwnnn! That is one fresh chunky drone which means it's the start of swarm season. The hives remove all the male bees (drones) for the winter since they're a strain on hive resources - they don't forage for food and can't protect the hive since they have no stinger. In the Spring, however, the queen starts laying unfertilized eggs that produce male bees. While they never contribute their DNA to their own hive usually, they're important for honey bee survival as a whole, and exist only to donate their genetic material to a virgin queen from another hive. It's a mating ritual they don't survive, but they live an otherwise pretty carefree life, not having to work like their sisters! #beekeeping #phoenixvillepa #phoenixville #phoenixvillehoney
April market dates! We've got honey from our loca April market dates! We've got honey from our local beekeeper friends since we're sold out of our own, plus we'll have candles, dippers, and hand-printed tea towels. Pop over to @growingrootsfarmersmarkets to see who else will be at the markets!
All those pretty pollen pants coming home! Spring All those pretty pollen pants coming home! Spring is _finally_ here and the bees are all over it. Checked all the hives and we've got queens in all 4 of them who are laying eggs all over the place, plus we already saw capped drone brood so we're about 2ish weeks out from having drones around. I finally undid all the winter insulation and put on standard entrance reducers instead of the mouse guards, so of course we're getting a two day cold snap this week. 🤦 Pretty sure they'll be fine now that they're ramping up and building up the colony size, plus they've already stored a bunch of nectar and pollen. . Yet another year of going 100% on hive survival over the winter and it feels so good for all that work (and worry) to pay off in the Spring. While we're currently sold out of our own honey, we do have honey from local beekeeper friends, and we should have fresh honey starting in June! #phoenixville #phoenixvillepa #phoenixvillehoney #pollenpants #beekeeping
New market dates for March! New market dates for March!
Headbutt. . Slow motion bees are still my favorite Headbutt. . Slow motion bees are still my favorite bees.
Still four for four on hive survival! The bees we Still four for four on hive survival! The bees were all buzzing in the sunshine and warmth today after a long stretch of snow and cold. The snow was spotted with orange, proof they've been out pooping *everywhere* today. I even spot checked a frame since it was warm enough and found capped brood, so the queen has been laying for about two weeks at least, if not more. I also noticed the Maple trees starting to form buds, so even though it feels like this is the longest winter ever, Spring really is right around the corner. . Tomorrow (Thursday) we'll be at the Eagleview Farmers Market in Exton from 11a-1p. We're completely sold out of our own honey, but we do have a stock of honey from beekeeper friends in Chester County. It's a lighter honey from June 2020 and is exactly the same as our own June honey, plus the beekeepers are friends and mentors and I know they're following the same practices as I do and have the same level of care for their bees. . More later - it was so delightful to see the bees stretching their wings, cleaning up the hive, and returning to activity after so many quiet months! . #phoenixvillepa #phoenixville #phoenixvillehoney #beekeeping
We're prepping for our next few weeks of markets a We're prepping for our next few weeks of markets and Downingtown is up first on Saturday from 10a-noon! Pre-orders for Downingtown are open on the site (link in profile) and we'll be there in person as well.
Hard to believe we're only about 4 weeks away from Hard to believe we're only about 4 weeks away from Maple tree bloom time when the hives look like this! All are showing activity and it's pretty likely that our queens have started laying eggs already in anticipation of Spring. It takes 3 weeks to go from egg to adult bee emerging from her cell for a worker bee, so in order to have a new set of worker bees ready to forage on Spring pollen and nectar, the queen usually starts laying about now. It can also be the most tricky part of the winter - hive population is going to start building and stored honey is going to be at it's lowest point, so we have to be sure to monitor the weather and supplemental feed. One long cold snap can sometimes mean that it's too cold for the cluster can't move to a new area of stored honey in the hive, so they can starve even though they're just a few inches from honey. Glad to see sunny days like today to give the bees a break and shift the winter hibernation cluster if need be! #beekeeping #phoenixvillepa #phoenixville #phoenixvillehoney
Salted Honey Caramels, or also, how beekeepers hib Salted Honey Caramels, or also, how beekeepers hibernate. . I'm always looking for different ways to use honey and this is a perfect way to use up crystallized honey (if you're not stirring it into tea and spreading it on crackers with cheese like we do). To be fair, there's nothing at all wrong with crystallized honey - it's a natural process of the sugars in raw honey separating over time. I prefer using crystallized honey in recipes where I need to measure out a specific amount because it's a little easier to coax out of the jar and measuring cup without dripping honey everywhere. . The recipe is really easy to follow with some great tips, but you do need a good thermometer and need to carefully watch the temperatures since that boiling sugar can get away from you pretty quickly. The hardest part of the process is trying to wrap all the caramels while you've got a sugar high from periodic quality assurance testing! . Recipe from @wholefedhomestead, used cream from @seven_stars_farm and butter from @milkhousecheese to keep it mostly local. Also used two different varieties of our honey - a lighter Spring honey for the lighter caramel and a darker Fall honey for the other. There is a taste difference, and unsurprisingly, I like the darker one more since that's also my favorite honey. I read elsewhere that once wrapped, they can be frozen in a bag for up to a year which makes for a pretty delicious year if they manage to last that long! . Recipe: https://wholefedhomestead.com/salted-honey-caramels/ . #honeycaramels #honey #phoenixvillepa #phoenixville #phoenixvillehoney
Checked on the hives today and all four are still Checked on the hives today and all four are still buzzing! For winter, I use a screened inner cover, layered with a towel or old t-shirt, insulation board, and the the outer cover. In the video, you can see the towel lifted away to show the cluster of bees eagerly awaiting a sugar restock! Throughout the winter, on milder days like today, I add fondant or candy sugar chunks to provide supplemental food. The purpose of the setup is to absorb the condensation produced from bee respiration as well as the temperature difference, and make it easy to add sugar without disturbing the bees too much. It takes me all of two minutes to lift the towel, slap on some fondant (yes, just like cake fondant!) and cover them back up which keeps them from losing too much heat. . I'm in the hives once a week in the Spring and Summer, and about every other week in the Fall, but it's only about once a month in the winter. They're busy keeping warm and it's better to not disturb them any more than is necessary to add extra sugar if needed. Mid-January means we're only about 6-8 weeks off from our first Spring flowers which are usually in early March, starting with Maple trees. Hard to believe we're already this close! #beekeeping #phoenixvillepa #phoenixville #phoenixvillehoney
It's National Hot Toddy day! Grab a mug of tea, a It's National Hot Toddy day! Grab a mug of tea, add your favorite honey 🍯, some lemon and spices, maybe a little whisky too, and enjoy a warm winter beverage on this grey Monday. Apparently the traditional recipe calls for plain hot water instead of tea, but an informal polling showed tea is the preferred base for a hot toddy. How do you make your hot toddy? Do you have a favorite mug or a favorite whisk(e)y? Let us know all about it! . #nationalhottoddyday #hottoddy #hottoddyday #phoenixvillehoney
New year, new schedule! Eagleview and Downingtown New year, new schedule! Eagleview and Downingtown for this week are already open for pre-orders and we're looking forward to bringing our full stock including candles, dippers, and tea towels to markets (also available for pre-ordering convenience!). Pre-order link is through our website (link in profile). . #phoenixvillepa #phoenixville #phoenixvillehoney #downingtownpa #eagleviewtowncenter #extonpa
Tomorrow (Tuesday) is our last market of the year Tomorrow (Tuesday) is our last market of the year at Eagleview Town Center from 11a-1p! . We'll do a final round of local deliveries on Thursday for all your last minute gifting, and we'll be back with markets and Friday local deliveries in January. A jar of local, raw honey and a handmade dipper make a perfect under $25 gift! A full market schedule is available on our website (link in profile). #phoenixvillepa #phoenixville #phoenixvillehoney
Weather-related schedule change for this week, but Weather-related schedule change for this week, but don't worry, Eagleview, there's a pop-up holiday market on Tuesday! Pre-orders are open on the website for both Malvern and Eagleview (link in profile), and I'll have a table at both markets as well. . #phoenixvillehoney #malvern #malvernpa #eagleview #extonpa #eagleviewtowncenter
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