Our Backyard Bee Journey!💗🐝

[sourland]

Interesting. I had someone tell me the same thing about the buckwheat.
Do you like goldenrod honey?

Did not like the goldenrod honey. Taste was 'off' to me. I always left it for their winter supply.

 

[N F C]

When DH and I had our little store in south Florida we had a local honey supplier. We carried about 5 flavors, my favorite was the black mangrove and the orange blossom was good too.

 

[drstratton]

NICE!!!

Beautiful, beautiful!

Thank you!

One of our neighbors is going to take out their lawn; it's a pain to mow due to the topography. They're putting in wildflowers instead. They also bought a bunch of trees to plant on their property, and one of them is a tulip poplar. Those can be literally dripping with nectar in the spring.

We'll be happy to share honey with them!

That's awesome. I have friends with a huge amount of land, a section of it runs along the Columbia River. Their son is also building a house on their property and they want to raise bees. I'm going to take them a jar of honey and talk to them about it. Hopefully they will plant an area that will be good for our bees and their future ones. I'll have to look up Tulip poplar, but it probably doesn't grow in our zone.

 

[drstratton]

Did not like the goldenrod honey. Taste was 'off' to me. I always left it for their winter supply.

Thank you! That is good to know. Maybe I won't let that get established. I'm going to plant mountain mint, I've heard it's good for honey. It's a clumping plant so not invasive like other mints. As soon as we finish our harvest, we'll be building them up for their winter physiology. Need to test for mites and see where we are on that front. We'll make sure they have the resources to get through winter. Trying to help them as much as we can.

 

[drstratton]

When DH and I had our little store in south Florida we had a local honey supplier. We carried about 5 flavors, my favorite was the black mangrove and the orange blossom was good too.

That was your Tea Shop, right? I didn't realize mangrove would be a nectar source. Would love to find both of those to try.

 

[N F C]

That was your Tea Shop, right? I didn't realize mangrove would be a nectar source. Would love to find both of those to try.

Yep, it was. We mostly sold tea, spices and organic coffees but had a small amount of other stuff too. The honey came from a local guy and was a good seller for us, customers enjoyed getting to taste the different varieties.

 

[drstratton]

Yep, it was. We mostly sold tea, spices and organic coffees but had a small amount of other stuff too. The honey came from a local guy and was a good seller for us, customers enjoyed getting to taste the different varieties.

I think it's a shop I would have loved to visit, often!
We went to Thailand last year with our daughter, her husband and his parents. The kids and I love tea and while we were there we visited the Araksa tea plantation. It was so interesting, to learn about the different varieties. Green, white & black all come from the same plant. They taught us how to pick tea, we were not very fast...lol

 

[sourland]

Thank you! That is good to know. Maybe I won't let that get established.

It is a great source of winter reserves of honey and pollen to get the bees through the winter.

 

[drstratton]

It is a great source of winter reserves of honey and pollen to get the bees through the winter.

Thank you so much! I've learned so much since we started, for everything I've learned there's probably 10x's what I haven't.

 

[sourland]

Thank you so much! I've learned so much since we started, for everything I've learned there's probably 10x's what I haven't.

So much to know about bees. Way back when, there was a book - The ABC and XYZ of Beekeeping. I devoured it.