November and Winter is Certainly Here!
Well I’m sat writing this looking out on the hardest frost we’ve had so far this winter. I think as beekeepers our years go quickly because we spend half the the year waiting for winter so we can (hopefully) slow down a little and take a break and then we spend the winter waiting for spring so we can get back out and about checking our bees!
At this time of year very few checks are necessary on the hives themselves. In a couple of weeks, probably just after Christmas we will go around with fondant which is almost solid sugar to give them a boost!
November started off very nicely with an awards evening for Stafford and Birmingham Agricultural Society where I was honoured to win the Young Entrepreneur of the year award for a farm Diversification Business.
We have took the decision to stop attending Market Bosworth Farmers Market a couple of months ago and as part of reducing our markets we haven’t done as many Christmas events either. We attended Staunton Harrold Christmas Market which was absolutely beautiful and considering it was November, surprisingly warm. We only have two events left, an open night at Blabers Hall on the 1st December and 2 days at the Gift Shop at Pinwall which is a beautiful Christmas shop!
Many of you who have seen us at markets before will likely recognise my Mum, Christine who has been busy making gift sets of our Mini Jars, pouring all of the candles and manning the stalls!
Before I started bee farming and realising the scale of honey production I couldn’t really imagine honey in anything other than a jar, after the first year we were filling buckets and that seemed like bulk. Now we do more and more packing for larger brands that use their own honey or buy it in from others we get the privilege of seeing honey from all around the UK.
It also means we can show you what bulk honey in the UK comes in. These 5 barrels, two on the pickup and 3 on the trailer each hold 300kg of honey, that’s over 1,300 of our size jar in each barrel! These were collected from a local bee farmer for a large customer of ours and will be packed into their own branded jars. We have a special attachment on the forklift that grabs the barrels so we can lift them on to pallets making them easier to move around the honey room. They will be gently warmed before being pumped into the jarring tank. A nice easy process that doesn’t involve the same heavy lifting that tipping buckets does!
As always thank you for reading our blog, don’t forget we’ve got our Bee Merry (Honey infused with a mixed spice that tastes just like mince pies!!) and our Christmas Hampers too! Last post for Christmas is the 18th December so please get your orders in nice and early, your support is always very much appreciated!
Thank you
Matthew Ingram