Spring is coming!
January 03, 2023
As I sit here planning out spring and tuning up the ole website. I find myself looking back on the past 10 or so years of beekeeping. It's hard to believe that just 10 years ago I was a full-time project manager for a Telecom company and had zero knowledge of Farming, let alone raising honey bees. I got a couple hives for our backyard garden in April of 2012 and I was hooked. I had no plan to completely change our lives because of the fascinating little bugs. Yet here were are in 2023 with a farm, over 1000 hives, better than a handful of family and friends who help us produce the best honey, bees, beeswax, and other goodies for folks in the Tulsa area and around the entire United States.
With spring just around the corner, we are busy taking orders for Nucleus hives, we call 'em nucs. "What's a nuc?" you might ask. Well, it's the nucleus of a bee hive. More specifically it's a baby bee hive that is ready to explode with growth. I guess there is a pun in the name which I never realized till right now. Don't worry they won't actually explode!
When you pick up your nuc in the Spring, usually late April / early May, you take 'em home and transfer them into your own equipment. They immediately get to work gathering nectar and pollen as they grow into a vibrant colony. Pollen from flowers and trees is protein for bees. Nectar, which becomes honey, is their main source for carbohydrates. Bees will continue to gather nectar and pollen as long as it's available and they have a place to store it. In most cases, they gather far more than is necessary to sustain the colony and this is why we can take that surplus and use it ourselves without a negative impact on the hive.
We tell folks not to expect a large surplus of honey on their first year with bees but more often than not we hear back that the bees did their job and had more than enough honey for new beekeepers to take a jar or 12.
If you are thinking about beekeeping now is the time to get your equipment and bees on order! While we do not sell equipment, we do provide a list of everything necessary and where to get it. Of course, You can buy your bees from us directly!
We will also have queens and queen cells available for those of you who already have been and are looking to make some "splits"
