Mary Bee Honey Co.

Did you know my honey list subscribers are the first to be notified of seasonal honey releases? Sign up here to be in the know: https://marybeehoney.com/pages/subscribe

I post updates on my socials a few days after notifying my email subscribers.

Today we celebrate the mom's in our lives including the queen bee! 👑

This queen is searching for an open cell in which to lay an egg. First she puts her head in the cell to assess the situation. Then she backs up into the cell and lays one egg in the back of the cell.

In 3 weeks, this egg will become a brand new worker bee, the queen's daughter.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom-figures out there! A special shout-out to my mom, Grace Bammer. Thank you for believing in me and for your encouragement and advice as I try to grow my little bee business! ❤️

This Earth Day, I am celebrating all the small green spaces that beautify our neighborhoods and feed our bees 🌎🐝🌻

This worker bee was laid as an egg 21 days ago. Today she joins her sisters in the hive for the first time! Over the next several weeks she will clean cells, build comb, make honey, and forage on spring blooms around the park.

Watching a new bee emerge never gets old!

I am happy to report that all of my colonies have made it through this winter! We still have another cold snap to get through, but the bees are already busy. My queens are all laying eggs (can you spot the two queens in this post?) and the workers are bringing in lots of pollen and even some nectar.

Winter hive checks look very different from the full inspections I do in warmer weather.

This quick inspection included:
☑️Listening for buzzing
☑️Peeking under the lid
☑️Checking hive weight

These steps tell me if the bees are alive and if they need food. If the boxes feel light and the bees have already moved to the top box, that tells me they are running low on honey stores. Thankfully in this hive, the bees were not fully in the top box and the boxes felt heavy. So these bees are still well-supplied with food!