Too Much Honey Oozing Out of Our Home

Don’t read this post if you want me to bee all professional and a little bit sarcastic and trifle sad on the attempt at being humorous because I’m really bored. Sorry this might disappoint you a tiny bit. Unless you know me, and then you are probably used to me. Update!!!! Matt says we are going to have, gulp, nightmares of honey oozing everywhere, 400 lbs of honey to sell this season. He says, I have to get my little “butte” in gear and sell some honey. I guess you all know to whome he was referring. I think to lose some weight now. By the way, who has 400 lbs of honey hanging around their house that they have to sell along with all the other things they have to do in life? Oh wait I do because I’m a happy bee keeper, and it’s my job. I should of thought about that thought before I started to play around with all them 1,000s of bees as Matt’s assistant.

Better yet, I should of really been a better wifey nag, and tried to really encourage him to not invest in 20 hives the first year. Who does that? Most people start out with one or two hives. Nope not my husband. He has to start with 20. Yet there was something about that magic number. The first year we played around with 20 hives of wild European bees that were more Africanized than European. Then most of them died. Now we are both addicted bee maniacs devoting all of our free times to going around playing in bee hives. Matt has beecome (notice the pun there–I had to throw that one in) much more knowledgeable. I am just praying for a good year! Also, I am praying that people will buy all this honey around my house, or it will just pile up and up and up some more each year in one oozy mess. Also, I need the honey money for my retirement. Are we crazy? Yes!!! I think it must be the thrill of finding the queen has made our brains over heat with too much excitement, or our brains have gone down hill from too much carbon monoxide from all that smoke we have inhaled from them smokers! It was fun today play rake girl up Tapo St. Canyon raking up all that grass in our apiary. For all who have been hoping against all hope that we actually might get around to processing and bottling our Citrus Blossom Honey; I believe Matt might have actually have ordered the bottles. If not I will actually nag him about that.

The Trouble With Pop Ups

This summer I decided I would venture into the Farmers Market scene.  We became certified with the Ventura County Agriculture Commissioner, and I was very excited to order a pop up tent so we could apply to the Ventura County Farmer’s Markets.  In order to apply you have to 1. Be certified by the Ag Commissioner. 2. Have a photo with a pop up tent, which would include our  honey display inside the tent.   Step 1 completed (Ag Commissioner), Step 2 get a pop up tent.   You  would think  that should be easy.  Well in my twisted ADD world this was not easy, and it still has not been accomplished.   Why not?  First I ordered pop up tent came with a black top and white walls.  I was going to return it, and had every intention to do so, but now it’s lost.  Oops.  Now I am waiting for Amazon to charge me for it.  Then, the second pop tent up I ordered was blue.  I thought it would be easier to keep clean.  I did not realized the pop ups had to be white until I read the rules of another Farmer’s Market Association.  It hit me like a ton of bricks.  I had to absorb the cost of it from my allowance.  We had fun taking it to the beach until one of the pipes bent in the wind.  Ouch! That hurt me financially.   Then finally I ordered another really cheap popup tent.  It came with no pop up capabilities.  It was more like an assortment of pipes you had to fit together.  Then the nail on it’s coffin was well it had no tent for it’s cover on top.  I did manage to send it back.

We thankfully have now a strategy to sell our honey to a local gas station and to the Royal High School’s Advanced choir.  Plus now I am selling it every Saturday.  I made a cute poster (that looks like a 7th grader did it) and put it on a beat up  chair that I painted white.  Plus I put out stuffed animals for the neighborhood kids to take.  So far I have one neighbor who wants honey from me!  Yes!  Plus my good friend, Deborah  who runs the Simi Valley Honey group came to so me.  That made me feel really great, and my best friend Debbie came to visit me.  She bought honey from me.  So the neighborhood weekly honey sale is a fun thing so far.  Much better than an annoying farmer’s market pop up tent that I have to put up myself.  So I think I am in it to win it (as the saying goes)  I am a home body any ways.  If the forces of the universe are trying to tell me that farmers markets are not going to work–maybe I should listen.  What do you think?

Tips on how to Make an Amazing Aroma Therapy Candle With Bees Wax

For all of you who may be wondering if we are venturing into the “uncertified area” or maybe the more unregulated side of beekeeping, well guess what?  I am fascinated, obsessed, “into,” learning about, and trying very, very, hard to make candles.  I won’t discuss the wax accident that fell onto the floor today.  My excuse is that  I had a migraine.  However after watching extensive videos on you tube it has come to my mind that is very easy to make wonderful aroma therapy candles.  Then the next thought after that has been, “Why have I been paying so much for them all these years when I could of been making them myself?

First, watch some videos on how to make beeswax candles.  They are all on You Tube.  Then go buy a used crock pot.  Don’t make candles in any pots or crock pots you own. You will get wax all over them, and then they are done.  Never to be the same again because wax is extremely hard to get off once it is on surfaces (like my floor 😦 ).    Next, buy your supplies.  I look for wax on ebay.  I like the seller at this link.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Pounds-Pure-Beeswax-Yellow-Bees-Wax-Chemical-free-/121143171865?epid=1071010402&hash=item1c34b21b19:g:f7kAAOxydB1Sko7s

I get really good quality bees wax, and it’s about $6.28 a pound (a real deal), although you still have to pay for shipping ($7.39).  One time I ordered beeswax from a five star seller of wax from Amazon, and the wax came smelling like cigarette smoke.  I had to throw it away.  Amazon refunded my money.  Most beeswax is a lot more expensive.  If you find it cheaper let me know.  Matt and I don’t make enough bees wax right now.  Plus a lot of it “accidently” falls on the ground when we are working.  I have to rescue it.  I have a liter bottle with wax, unfiltered.  That’s not enough for my side business.  If you have followed my directions you have ordered  your wax, and you have your crock pot.  Now you need to get your wicks and your essential oil.  Order your wicks from Amazon or EBay.  They are super cheap.  I like the longer wicks because they give you more flexibility.  Order the ones with the little tin cans on the bottom so you don’t have to make them your self, unless you  want to spend time tying knots and threading the wick through the little chimney at the bottom.  I don’t know to me it’s a waste of time.  Life is short, and I would rather spend time with my husband or my kids.  When you get your essential oils make sure they are “therapeutic grade.”  I buy them from Amazon.  Don’t buy the sample sets.  They are only 5ml.  That won’t last long.  Buy at least the 10 ml sets.  They are all reasonably price.   Make sure once you get your essential oils that you keep your oils in a dark place so they will last longer.  Look up recipes online for good combinations.  I have listed the combinations for my candles in my shop at my Simi Valley Facebook Shop

https://www.facebook.com/pg/mattndasimivalleybees/shop/?ref=page_internal

Second, follow the steps that are listed on the YouTube Videos when you are making your candle.   I melt my wax for the candles with the lids on the crock pot with a double boiler.  The water is about 1/2 way up the container.  I use a glass measuring container, with a handle that has the ounces  on it to melt my wax.  This is essential to me because it has a handle on it, because once I lift my wax out I have something to grab onto with my hot pads.   If you use a lid on your crock pot, then wipe the lids a lot to make sure the water doesn’t condense on it.  Wax and water don’t mix.   I make sure the crock pot is never, never on high!!! That would be a great way to burn the house down.  Wax is extremely flammable.  So don’t mess around with wax.  Always keep the temperature low.  I put 100 drops of essential oil directly into 8 ounces of wax.  That way the candle will smell good.  Use stronger smelling essential oils for wax like mint, eucalyptus, lemon grass, citrus, etc..  Wax does not release the smell of essential oils easily.

Last, enjoy your candle.  I love the smell of a finished candle and how my home smells when I am making the candles.  That is why I am so “into” making them I suppose.  I feel the joy of doing something creative with my time.   However, I need to not to spill it onto my floor any more.  That was bad

P.S. Add some commercial fragrance to your essential oil candle because the smell usually will not last on these candles.

 

 

 

 

The Insanity of Beekeeping

It’s probably in the top 10 most insane jobs in agriculture. Up there with raising bulls for bull fighting or rodeos. Why put on a bee suit and go play with bees, who regularly find a way to sting you through your gloves and buzz in your ears? Are all bee keepers crazy? Yes and […]

via Why Beecome a Beekeeper? — SIMI VALLEY BEES

Why Beecome a Beekeeper?

It’s probably in the top ten most insane jobs in agriculture.  Up there with raising bulls for bull fighting or rodeos.   Why put on a bee suit and go play with bees, who regularly find a way to sting you through your gloves and buzz in your ears?  Are all bee keepers crazy?

Yes and No

Yes they are crazy passionate about bees.  A lot of new beekeepers report to the Los Angeles Bee Keepers Club they want to become beekeepers so they can help “save the bees.”  They are putting themselves out there to be stung and tortured by bees so that they can make a difference in this world.  Some of these people don’t last, by the way.  The reactions to having being stung to bees is too much for them.  They can’t take being stung and having the reaction of swelling up like a balloon.  It’s painful, itchy, and downright embarrassing if the bee stings you on your facial area or on your neck.  So it’s like a revolving door for some folks.  The problem being that bee equipment  and bee suits doesn’t come cheap.  Also once you buy a couple of  beehives you all of a sudden become responsible for a couple of thousand tiny little animals who are very intelligent insects, who are dependent upon you for their care.

But then there are the hard core beekeepers.  The ones who have encyclopedic knowledge about beekeeping, and who brush off getting stung like it’s nothing.  Because, well your body will build up a defense against bees stings and get used to them after a while.  My husband, Matt doesn’t have much reaction to bee stings because he played with ants so much as a child.  He was stung so much by ants that bee stings don’t do anything to him.  I notice I am not reacting to bee stings as much as I did when I first started.  I have some hilarious photos of when I first got stung by my eyes.  My older friends all over reacted and said I should get out of beekeeping.   Anyways, these beekeepers are very much passionate about beekeeping because for many of them it’s their livelihood.  Some of them have 100+ hives, and they have beekeeping down to a science.  They are true artisans at beekeeping, and it is in their blood.    They are excellent mentors, and my husband was fortunate to have one of them help him when he first started with way too many hives and not a lot of experience this last March.  We are now up to nineteen hives, and we have learned a lot first year bad bee keeper  lessons.   My best advice for anyone who wants to get into beekeeping is to go and find an experienced beekeeper and work their hives with them for a while.  If you still like beekeeping after that, then dive into a wonderful industry.  The folks who are beekeepers are honest, have a wonderful sense of humor, and are always willing to lend a helping hand to other beekeepers in need.