Our honeybees feasting on some bluebells on the island.
What's new on the farm:
From November-May each year, our little honeybees make their home in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island.
We make the trek out because of the milder weather and early spring that lets our bees start foraging a few months ahead of the cooler prairies.
But now it's time to return home! Our home base is just north of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and things are starting to green up!
In the prairies, long summer days and tons of flowers mean that our honeybees can have access to lots of food and produce huge yields of honey.
This is where we harvest all of the raw and creamy honey that gets packaged for you.
How do we get our bees from Vancouver Island to Saskatchwan?
Don't worry - they don't have to fly back on their own. But in order to get everyone back, we wait until night time when the bees are no longer out flying and they are back at home in their hives.
Then, we load them up onto an open-deck semitrailer, cover the hives with a net so the bees stay inside, and then drive them back to the prairies.
It's a lot of work, but worth it! In 2022, 45.5% of hives across Canada were lost over the winter. This is devastating for beekeepers and has a massive impact on for fruit, vegetable, and oilseed production that relies on honeybees for pollination.
So far, our own numbers for 2023 have been okay, but a lot of work goes into trying as many options as we can to ensure that our hives will survive through those brutal months.
Don't cut those dandelions just yet!
If you're starting to see those dandelions popping up on your lawn - don't rush to get rid of them yet!
Dandelions are one of the first meaningful sources of spring food for honeybees but also native pollinators.
Instead of a weed, think of them as bright dots of bee food on your lawn as you do your part to help the bees!
A resource for you:
I think a lot about healthy eating and living a whole-foods centered lifestyle.
If you are interested in the same, I just put together a simple guide to making healthy food choices starting with reducing added sugars.
It also includes 5 healthy tips on how to swap refined sugars for raw honey!
To get the guide, check out this link.
Wishing you a Happy Mother's Day weekend and thanks for reading! We wanted to start sharing the journey of how your honey gets from the hive to your pantry and we hope that you get value from knowing the process.
Take care,
Angela