A steady summer rhythm

Cruising the yard after all the hives were unloaded off the truck.

What's new on the farm:

We've settled into a steady rhythm here in Saskatoon.

The main honey harvest is now only about 1.5–2 months away. June is usually the calm before the storm, a time when things are steady but not overwhelming.

All our energy now goes towards growing the hives so that they are at their peak populations during harvest, and making some new hives to build up our numbers for the winter.

During this time of year, we go through every hive at least once every 1–1.5 weeks.

It's important to check in with each hive to make sure everything is okay. Nature can be tricky, and there are many things that we watch out for.

Is the queen laying enough worker eggs? When the queen gets too old, she begins to lay drones instead of workers. Hives with drone-laying queens will die if neither the colony nor the beekeeper intervenes.

This is because drones can't do any work. If a hive was only full of drones, there would be no one to feed the babies, forage for food, take care of the queen, protect and clean the hive, and so on.

Has the queen gone missing? Sometimes we check a hive and find no queen. Maybe the workers decided to replace her for some reason and killed her, but then the successor queen got eaten by a bird during her mating flight. Or so many other random things that can cause queen loss.

Are the bees healthy? Varroa mites, viruses, and diseases are always a concern for us. Are there signs of disease, weird deformities on their wings, or brood (baby bees) that are dying before emerging?

There are also positive signs that we look for. Are the bees bringing in good amounts of nectar? Are pollen stores filling up? Is there enough room for the food and for the queen to have space to lay efficiently?

One thing I wish I could bottle or describe is the scent of a healthy hive when you first open the lid.

There's no other way to say it, but it smells...clean. In the most natural way.

The same kind of clean you get from drying laundry on a clothesline in the bright sun.

Honeybees are incredibly clean creatures. They leave the hive when they need to use the bathroom. They quickly carry out any dead bees or bits of trash so nothing builds up. If a baby bee (brood) gets sick, other bees sniff it out and remove it right away to keep the rest of the hive healthy.

They even use their own special "glue" called propolis to seal up cracks and sometimes mummify bigger intruders (like an unlucky mouse), so it doesn't rot and cause problems.

As a result, a healthy hive smells fresh. Slightly sweet from the nectar, slightly pine-y from the propolis.

It's one of my favorite scents in the whole world. When you open a hive and get a whiff of that, you know everything is going well inside.

Recipe: Mexican Chopped Salad with Honey Lime Vinaigrette

One thing I no longer buy in store is bottled salad dressing. With a few basic pantry staples, you can easily create delicious and fresh dressings to add some spark to your summer salads.

Honey lime vinaigrettes are one of my favorite ways to add a lot of flavor and lightness to a leafy or chopped salad.

It also goes great with Mexican-inspired flavors. If you're adding avocados, it's a great balance against the creamy, fatty texture of the avocado.

Try out this Mexican Chopped Salad recipe for a fresh and flavorful salad that is perfect for bringing to a barbecue or enjoying at home on a hot summer day!

Check out the recipe at The Cafe Sucre Farine.

By the way, great salad dressing is always better with real, high-quality olive oil. This is no small feat, as olive oil is the #1 most faked food in the world (followed by seafood at #2 and honey at #3).

I'm always on the lookout for authentic olive oil, right from the source. It's usually never found in a large chain store. If someone has a lead on really good olive oil that I can get in Canada, hit me up!