Lake Oconee Honey

Put a new Queen Nefertiti on the throne today. You can see her on the screen of her queen cage. The white stuff on the right is queen candy. The other bees in the cage are her attendants. The cage protects her from the rest of the bees in the hive until she seduces them with her pheromones. If she is released before they bond and accept her as their queen, they will kill her.

We moved the bees/hives this weekend to a new location on this side of the lake, less than a mile from our house. We lost our last queen and the colony's honey and pollen were destroyed by hive beetles so we will be putting a new queen on the throne and feeding the girls this winter. I have ordered packaged bees for the two empty hives that are due in March 2021.

just checking in... how are the bees? We keep only three hives: Elizabeth, Nefertiti & Isabella, named for the queens in each hive. I would like to say the three queens have been the same queens I started with, but, that is not the case. Queens and even whole colonies have come and gone. There are many reasons for this: swarming, pest, viruses, pesticides old age. Any worker larva of the right age can be crowned a Queen. So the colonies can make a new one. Some times th...ey do not. This season both Elizabeth and Isabella hives did not. Without queens the colony collapses, the honey and bee bread are robbed out, and wax moths and hive beetles take over and eat everything that is left. After a banner year of harvesting we are down to one colony , Nefertiti. The Nefertiti hive is thriving. I suspect that some of the bees from the other two hives have joined it. This is not a rare event and is one of the reasons why I keep three colonies. I will be starting over with new bees in the other two hives next year. See more

Thank you to all our friends and neighbors for your interest in, and purchase of our products this season. We do not have enough product left to sell at the Farmers Market again this season. Below is picture of all we have left. 170 lbs of honey seemed like a lot of honey when we harvested it, but we have and our bees and their delicious honey have developed a loyal following. God willing - and the Creek don’t rise we will be back again next year. Until then, sweet honey dreams. Follow our Facebook page and we will keep you posted.