Bee Diary: Bottling 2011

Lughnasa                                                      Waxing Harvest Moon The honey harvest has moved to the bottling stage.  Kate has dozens of jars filled already, quarter pint, half pint, pint and quart (peanut butter jars). We’ll give them out as gifts, tips for good service, for barter. I’d say our harvest this year was twice what it was last year, […]

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Senescence

Lughnasa                                                    Waxing Honey Extraction Moon Walked in the garden alone.  Yep, it’s an old time spiritual, much loved in the churches of my youth.  It also describes my morning turn among our vegetables and in our orchard. The garlic has come out already.  The potatoes have a while yet to go.  The beans have gone […]

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Still Alive.

Beltane                                                              Waxing Garlic Moon Oh, boy.  I’ve not gone a day without a post in a long time.  Yesterday went by so fast. Worked on Latin for a bit, but a brightening day pulled me outside.  I plucked tulip detritus out of a bed where some tomato plants needed to go.  These were full grown […]

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Bee Diary: Hive Inspections

Beltane                                                    Waxing Garlic Moon Colony #1:  This is the colony in which my queen release went well.  She’s been busy.  The second hive box, on only a week, has all the brood frames with brood, some full, some partial, so I went ahead and added another hive box.  This is the colony I’m going to […]

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Precious

Imbolc                                                  Waning Bridgit Moon Sheepshead tonight.  I took in honey for Ed, Dick, Roy and Bill plus honeycake that Kate made from our honey.  Artemis Hives honors the ancient Greek Goddess of the hunt who also had honeybees within her domain.  Worshippers took to her altar honeycake as an offering.  My original idea was to […]

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What is Analysis for?

Lughnasa                                   New (Artemis) Moon This month is the Artemis moon because Artemis is the goddess of honeybees and the name goddess for our hives.  Why this month?  Because the end of August is the usual time for honey extraction among beekeepers in our area.  Our brand new extraction equipment is in en route to us […]

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