Puppies expected late January 2010

Our yellow lab, Sedona, is expecting puppies to be born Jan. 25, 2010, give or take a few days. This will be her second litter (the first was in Feb. 2008). We anticipate another beautiful litter!

Bee Bedtime

The winds of autumn blow and the cold of winter is approaching and the bees will soon settle in for a long winter. It was a pretty good season for the bees: lots of moisture, moderate temperatures, and moderate mite pressure. Moving indoors for the winter, the bees remain in their hives during the cold and will venture out briefly for 'cleansing' flights whenever the thermometer breaks 50 degrees F.

The picture, above, is of a swarm that took up residence in one of my abandoned hives. The apiary where these gals settled in had been a dismal failure and I'd left the boxes for an eventual cleanup. The property owner saw me in the grocery store and alerted me to our new residents which I promptly rehoused and fed sugar syrup in the hopes of helping them survive the winter. They had built up this comb on the inside cover in the void of the hive which had half the space occupied by honeycomb frames. There was no honey to be found so they were grateful for my contribution. If the weather permits we will give them a couple more frames of filled honeycomb to complement the converted sugar syrup that they're processing belatedly into honey stores.

The population size is relatively small so it is uncertain how well they will do during the cold season. A late season swarm rarely survives the winter but with our help we hope to improve the odds.

New Litter Coming Spring 2010

Our usual winter litter has been delayed as we wait for our Sedona's heat cycle. We have a list of anxious puppy-owners-to-be. Contact us if you'd like to learn more about our puppies.

Honey Season Coming to Close

Our bees came through in fine fashion this year, producing a record crop of the most outstanding tasting honey in Connecticut! We had three harvests, in mid July, early August, and mid September, each with distinctive colors and taste

Our mid-July harvest was our earliest ever, coming two weeks sooner than usual and was the most remarkable honey we've ever had: very pale yellow in color, it was made up of significant amounts of locust honey which bloomed profusely in the first week of June.

Three weeks later, wild raspberry nectar provided a beautiful addition of light-to ruby red honey that when blended with the earlier honey produced a rich but mild honey with a hint of berry flavor.

Finally, in September, the bees had finished ripening a deep red amber honey consisting of Japanese knotweed, jewelweed, and tulip poplar nectars--our darkest honey yet--that was more complex and richly flavored than the two harvests from earlier in the summer.

TASTE makes our honey memorable and preferred by non-honey lovers three-to-one!

Lavender Blooms = Luscious Honey!

Years ago, Stasia and Glenn traveled through Provence in mid-July at the height of the lavender harvest. We brought back a few seeds and started our own 'field', a few plants to remind us of that magical week in France. Since then, we've planted more and our own harvest, on an infinitely smaller scale, is under way.

Our lavender is in full bloom now, sending up tall spikes of fragrant flowering buds. The honeybees and bumble bees are hard at work moving up and down the rows lighting on a flower for a brief moment before moving to the next spike. The soft buzzing drifting through the mounds is something to behold.

We use our lavender in our infused lavender honey, combining the dried buds with our wildflower honey to make a uniquely flavored treat. This year we're also selling fresh bunches of lavender at our farm market venues. And, we make several wonderfully rich handcrafted soaps and a skin cream, each with the relaxing scent of pure lavender. Together, they spell July in Connecticut!

Finest Honey Yet

Okay, as the beekeeper we may be a bit partial but this year's honey crop is the best tasting honey our bees have ever made (well at least for the last 10 years)! Never seen our honey as 'white' (or light) as this year's crop. While we've had a pretty extensive and lengthy clover bloom it seems like a significant amount of honey came from the incredible bloom from the black locust, a tree that exploded with creamy white/yellow flowers for about 10 days in early June. Along every major road we traveled the normally low key locust flaunted its dense pea-flower clusters, and really popped out from the deciduous crowd it hangs with.

Some reports suggest up to a third of one's honey crop in Connecticut can come from the locust tree. The book, ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture, by A. I. Root, describes locust honey as "water white with a mild flavor and good body... bringing premium prices due to its high quality." This was the best bloom of locust in at least the past ten years and is dependent upon good weather; rain or cold weather can end the bloom prematurely. Amazing, that with all the rain we've experienced this spring and early summer, our window of good weather came just as the locust came into flower.

Some of the hives had frames of wild raspberry honey too! Pinkish in color and tasting like raspberry syrup its taste can still be detected when blended with the other frames of white honey collected thus far. We look forward to bringing in more tasty honey in the weeks ahead as the bees finish the ripening of this year's honey.

Dogs Gone!

What a fun litter this one was! With only four puppies we saw a very different dynamic: less sibling rivalry and more 'brotherly love'. Usually in the last weeks we have them the noise level from the whelping box grows as the puppies begin to explore the social framework of being canines. There's a lot of ear biting, tug-o-war, and chase play as puppies learn to live and play with others. In this smaller litter, there was less competition and a calmer atmosphere.

Our last two pups to go, Mo and Eenie, both males, found themselves going home with loving families. Eenie moved west... to Glenmont, NY (near Albany) and Mo went East... all 15 miles to Waterford, CT. Alas, shortly after they left we had several calls from others looking to take Mo or Eenie home. As usual, we plan to have a late Fall litter and the story will go on...

Best Honey Crop Ever!

We're looking forward to our best and biggest honey crop ever! It's been a strange season weatherwise but it's been quite agreeable to the bees. Cooler and wetter than normal but not so wet as to wash out all nectar, our bees have built up quickly and are currently bringing in clover and wild raspberry, making for a very clear white and then pink honey in the combs. We expect to make our first harvest very soon--about three-four weeks earlier than normal. Soon available at our farm markets!!!

Eight Weeks and Homeward Bound...

How fast pups grow! Now at 10 lbs., our pups have achieved the ripe old age of eight weeks... and 'Minie' was the first to go to her new home. She moved just up the road here in Essex where she'll enjoy a loving family.

Our remaining three, from left to right, Mo (M), Meenie (F), and Eenie (M) are having fun without their sister--heck, same helping of food three times a day but now split among three. Yippie! Meenie will be leaving us today for her new home in Chester, CT. A very excited family will be enjoying their FIRST DOG ever! Always a special moment for us, placing a pup with a family who has never experienced the joy of a lab licking your face, holding the ball waiting to play retrieve, or nuzzling against your outstretched hand while you sit watching TV.

Honey Crop Looks Promising

This year's honey crop is shaping up to be our best in years!! Weather has been cooler than normal but we've had good rainfall at appropriate times to keep good ground moisture and promote consistent flowering. The cool weather in early May truncated the dandelion bloom, or so it seemed, but the flowering of willows, maples, and oaks brought consistent sources of pollen and nectar to the bees during the critical early buildup of bee brood in the hives.

Right now we're seeing a healthy bloom of clover and an amazing abundance of black locust flowers! This tree can be a significant contributor to honey production and this looks like one of those years. In contrast, last year's locust nectar was washed out by eight consecutive days of rain and really set back honey production for the season.

Japanese honeysuckle is just starting and wild raspberries will not be far behind. This is the peak of flowering and we're hoping the bees enjoy nature's bounty as much as us!

Puppies @ 5 Weeks!

Hard to believe the pups have reached the ripe old age of five weeks! They're now eating solid food (much to mother Mingus' relief--she's not the doting mom the way our Bromley and Sedona can be) and growing by leaps and bounds. This photo is of "Meenie" at 4 weeks.