Cleared to go to the Island

Our hives are no longer towers. We consolidate each one into single boxes for the winter.

What's new on the farm:

We're a couple of weeks away from the BC move. The season is winding down, and we're looking forward to getting the bees settled for the winter

This past week, the provincial inspector came by to make sure our bees were healthy. In Canada, you need to have a permit to move your bees across provincial borders.

Unlike other livestock, bees move freely and can fly long distances! That means they can also spread diseases to other colonies, even if they aren't yours.

To control this, a sample of our bees are assessed for a list of diseases and pests that commonly affect honeybees in Canada. If we pass, we can go. If not, we can't go until we take care of the issue.

Andrew and the crew have been doing a good job treating the hives and staying on top of diseases this year. So after a few hours of going through hives with the inspector, Andrew was glad to get his approval that our hives were good to go.

The next step is to give the results to Alberta and BC to get permits issued from them. Then we also need to get approval from BC Ferries to take our bees onto the ferry to get to Vancouver Island.

Like most things in life these days, there is always paperwork involved!

We're also watching the weather to make sure that it's a good window for the bees. You can't have it too warm when they arrive in BC, because the bees will start being active again, which wastes their energy and resources.

With Canada's volatile fall weather, you also have to be careful not to wait too late because it snows! This is especially risky when crossing through the mountains in BC and Alberta.

And once you make it through the mountains, there's also a chance of flooding in the Lower Mainland! Then when you get to the island, there's often strong windstorms that knock out trees and power.

Last year, we left way too late because of trucking issues. The drive out to BC involved avalanches and road closures and added a few hundred collective grey hairs to everyone involved (if you want to read about that adventure, click here!). In previous years, we've also narrowly missed flooding that shut down the main highway.

It's always an adventure getting out there at the end of the season. Hopefully it's a very boring trip for us this year!

Honey Apple Crisp

While enjoying delicious homemade pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving dinner, the conversation turned to favorite pies. To me, you can't beat the classic fall flavors of a warm apple pie.

But sometimes you want to get that delicious apple filling without the work of making a pie. That's when the crisp is the perfect dessert!

Here is a recipe for apple crisp with honey to sweeten the filling instead of white sugar. If you have a favorite crisp recipe at home, you can always try swapping out honey for sugar in that as well. For every 1 cup of sugar, just swap it for 3/4 cup of honey. Crisps are a great recipe for swapping in honey because they don't rely on white sugar for structure, like you do in cookies or some cakes.

And make sure you have some really good vanilla ice cream to go with this!

Check out the recipe on All Recipes!