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Ohren Livestock, 201 Hickory, Alhambra, IL (2025)

12/25/2024

Merry Christmas from all of the animals.

11/21/2024

We got all 22 of the rabbits back in the shed for the winter. Also got the entrances of the beehives reduced.

10/16/2024

I have 1 pedigree Flemish breeders group left. Buck won 1st place in class at the State Fair. Doe took 3rd. 3 rabbits, $200

08/12/2024

Meet Moses. Your 2024 Illinois State Fair Best of Breed Flemish Giant. The competition was very difficult thanks to Teresa Heuermann, Wyoming, IL. Her Sandy's kicked my Sandy's ass. If you want great looking Sandy's hit her up.

08/10/2024

We're ready for tomorrow's open rabbit show. Hoping to beat the best Flemish Giants in this state.

08/04/2024

We didn't officially win best of breed this year at the Bond County Fair. But Hercules here, was born at Ohren Livestock. So it's still a win. Congrats to Michelle Haller on her victory.

08/03/2024

The newly remodeled rabbit barn is wonderful. We're ready to go for tomorrow's rabbit show.

07/26/2024

Showing as a kid is so much more fun than showing as an adult. Before you knew what "politics" is. When you thought you could out-work & out spend your compeditor. Sometimes it worked, but more often it didn't. I didn't own the right breed or buy my rabbits from the right guy to even get looked at yesterday. Maybe next year we can get an honest judge. 🙏

07/24/2024

Lots of excellent rabbits at my home show. Best of Breed is locked in already. I think I have a great shot at champion this year (Moses & Elizabeth). Show is tomorrow at 6pm.

07/13/2024

It makes me so happy when a rabbit born at my farm wins BoB for someone else. I'm glad she's taking great care of her. It also let's me know my breeding program is on the right track. Hopefully there is a lot more wins in their future.

07/12/2024

State Fair entries are in. Our seniors are going to be hard to beat.

07/07/2024

We have raw honey back in stock. 618-974-7675

07/06/2024

We're all set to harvest spring honey tomorrow.

07/01/2024

The hardest part about show season is judging your own rabbits. But I believe we picked some winners.

06/12/2024

We're so Flemish.... even our meat pen is purebred pedigree.

06/02/2024

We say goodbye to this pedigree steel buck today as he makes his trip to his new home in Georgia. Safe travels buddy.

05/20/2024

Happy World Bee Day.
How do bees make honey?

Contrary to common belief, honey is not made from pollen. It is made from nectar. Most insect-pollinated plants produce both pollen and nectar. Pollen is dispersed from the male flowers or parts of flowers to the female flowers or parts of flowers. Because most plants are not self-fertile or self-pollinating, they need the help of bees, other insects and animals to carry the pollen between the flowers and do the pollinating for them.

To entice these little helpers, plants produce nectar. In beekeeping parlance, nectar is also known as floral rewards; it is the reward that the pollinator receives for carrying out pollinating services.

Nectar is a weak sugar and water solution and is very attractive to bees. The concentration varies depending on the plant, climate and weather, but nectar usually contains about 20% sugars and 80% water. Flowers often hide the nectar deep inside the flower so that the body of the bee has to touch the pollen in order to get to it. When they brush past the pollen, tiny bits of pollen are then attached to tiny hairs covering the bees’ body. The bee then carries the pollen onto the next flower. As the bee brushes past the female part of the flower to get to the nectar, the pollen gets stuck on the sticky stigma and pollination has occurred. And the bee gets her floral reward!

But, back to the nectar. Honeybees have a short straw-like tongue, called proboscis, with which it sucks up nectar into its honey crop or belly. When the honey crop is full, the bee returns to the hive. Once inside, the forager bee offers the nectar to young worker bees just inside the entrance. As she offers the nectar, she may also perform a dance, called the waggle dance. This dance will show the other bees how to get to the flower that this nectar came from. Depending on how enthusiastically she dances, she will also show the others how good she thinks this nectar is. When she has found a young worker bee to receive the nectar, she will transfer it to her. The transfer is done via trophallaxis, where the nectar passes from the mouthparts of one bee to the mouthparts of the other, and then ends up in the honey-crop of the receiving bee.

Inside the hive, the receiving bee looks for an empty cell to deposit the nectar in. When she has found an empty cell, she will empty her honey crop of nectar via her mouthparts. Also contrary to common belief, honey does not pass through the bee and come out the other end as honey! It goes from flower to honey crop of the forager bee to honey crop of the receiver bee and then into the cell.

Once offloaded, the nectar needs to be dried out and turned into honey. This is done by converting the 20/80 sugar to water solution into a 80/ 20 sugar to water solution. Bees do this by creating an air flow in the hive of hot air. Hot air can hold more moisture than cold air. To create this airflow bees fan their wings to move the air around the hive. The air absorbs moisture from the nectar. Once the nectar has dried enough and the moisture content reduced to under 20% it has been turned into honey. The bees then seal the cell with a layer of beeswax. Beekeepers call this to ‘cap’ the cell, and coincidentally these wax cappings make the most sought-after beeswax. This is because the resulting wax is white and clean. It is the only wax that should be used in skin care products. Bees cap the honey because if it was left uncapped, it would absorb moisture. Honey with a high moisture content is likely to ferment, and the bees cannot use fermented honey for food.

When beekeepers harvest honey they remove full frames of capped honey. The cappings are then removed and melted down for beeswax. The frames of honey are placed in a honey extractor. Most extractors are large metal cylinders. Inside the cylinder is a central axel onto which the frames are attached. When the extractor is turned on, the central axel and frames spin at increasing speed. The honey from the cells are pulled out of the cells by centrifugal force and end up on the inside walls of the cylinder. The honey then gathers at the bottom of the extractor and is removed via a valve on the bottom. The frames of beeswax often remain intact and can be reused so that the bees do not have to build the comb again. When honey is prepared for sale, it is strained or filtered to remove beeswax and other debris such as bee-parts propolis and pollen.

This is how bees convert the nectar from flowers that they pollinate into the delicious sweet and flavorful honey that we can enjoy...

04/30/2024

We're expanding our apairy but we do have 10 frame starter hives for sale.

Ohren Livestock