Melissa's Bounty Apiary

06/29/2022

How do you go from the comb on the left to the beautiful, yellow beeswax on the right? Refine, refine, refine!

We save all of the comb that we scrape off during routine hive inspections and then refine it in batches. To do this, the comb goes in a slow cooker with water for a couple of hours. The debris floats to the top (see second photo) and we scoop it out before pouring the rest through cheesecloth to ensure the resulting wax is clean. As the water/wax mixture cools, the wax separates and goes to the top and can be removed once it solidifies. Then we have beeswax to use for our products!

06/28/2022

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2022/06/26/lawns-are-an-outdated-cultural-norm-lets-lose-them-before-we-lose-the-pollinators.html

Once considered a status symbol, lawns of turf grass are now a sign of our disconnection from the wild species on which our very survival depends.

05/14/2022

"Two, four, six, eight; bog in, don't wait."

02/08/2022

12/30/2021

Thank you to everyone who bought our beeswax lip balm 😊 we still have a small amount of lip balm in each scent available. If interested please send us a message!

11/25/2021

It's that time of year when everyone is shopping for that perfect gift for their loved one. Why not support local and buy from your local beekeeper! 🐝

We have a limited amount of our homemade lip balm available, made with beeswax from our beehives in Spryfield and Portuguese Cove.

Lip balm is $5 each and comes in unscented, vanilla, and peppermint.

Please message this page with orders. Etransfers can be made to [email protected]

10/16/2021

Many people have asked us why we have honey that is different colours. When you purchase honey from the grocery store, you mostly see light-coloured honey. However, honey comes in a wide variety of colours!

The nectar source (flower/plant) that bees visit determines the colour of the honey. Plants that bloom in the spring tend to produce lighter colored honey, and as the season progresses, honey will be darker in colour.

In the pictures, the jar on the left was harvested in July and is lighter in colour and cloudy. The jar on the right was harvested in September and is darker and more clear. The honey is cloudy because the bees visited a wide variety of different nectar sources. The darker, more clear honey is produced from a more narrow range of flowers because later in the season, bees don't have access to as many different types of flowers.

Next time you have the opportunity to purchase some local, raw honey, try some different coloured honies to see if you find a different in the taste! 🍯

06/16/2021

We haven't done a beekeeping update in awhile and lots is happening in our apiary!

We've expanded and purchased two more nucleus colonies which means we are now managing four hives! The colonies have settled in to their new homes and are doing well foraging, drawing new comb, and producing new bees.

The colonies that we purchased were five frames each, which include workers, drones, a queen bee, capped and uncapped brood, pollen, and some honey.

If you look closely at the frames, you can see bee larvae in the uncapped cells!

05/27/2021

Can you find the queen? Swipe for a hint!

We found our queen for the first time in a year! Fittingly, it was on World Bee Day! Beekeepers aren't always able to find the queen during each hive inspection, but this also isn't necessary. As you see in the second and third photos, we have marked our queen to help with identifying her more easily. If you don't see a queen during a hive inspection, you can look for signs that there is a queen present in the colony.

These signs include: new eggs, larvae, or capped brood. If there is no queen, the hive will emit a low droning sound and they will attempt to make an emergency queen out of young larvae by feeding it royal jelly. You will see queen cell(s) in the middle of the frames.

05/10/2021

Have you ever wondered what you need for a basic beehive setup? Let us break it down for you!

-Bottom board: this is the base of the beehive that would sit on the ground. It's recommended that you sit your hive on a stand of some sort. We have ours on a plastic pallet to keep the wood from rotting.

-Hive box: this is where the bees live! You can have several of these stacked on top of one another.

-Frames (left): consist of foundation that the bees use to build honeycomb on. The comb is then used to store pollen, nectar, honey and for the queen to lay eggs. The type of hive we use has 10 frames per hive box.

-Inner and outer covers (right): these cover the top of the hive. The outer cover has metal on top.

-Entrance reducer: this is a small piece of wood makes the hive entrance smaller. We use these in the winter, in early spring while our hive is strengthening from the winter, and for newer, weak colonies.

This description is of a very basic setup. There is a lot more supplies you will need down the road. You can get all of this equipment in a bundle at beekeeping supply stores to save some money, or some people opt to build their own woodenware! We are not that adventurous.

04/30/2021

Hey everyone! Thanks for checking out Melissa's Bounty! Our skincare products are made with beeswax derived from our backyard beehive in Spryfield, NS. We will be launching some of our products soon, so sit tight. If you have any questions, please feel free to message us!