Good Karma Honey & Apothecary LLC

12/19/2024

10/12/2024

2024, limited quantities.
I'm sorry iknow not everyone who wants some will get it. I can't hold without payment.

55 pounds harvested.
In various sized mason jars.
2 pounds $25 (6 jarred)
1.5 pounds $20 (18)
1 pound $15 (16)

Fyi, I still need to print labels for some.

09/25/2024

For those who have asked... there will be very limited quantities of honey available this year. It will be bottled in a couple of weeks, and I will know better. I'm guessing 50 pounds or so. If you're looking for honey, let me know!

07/26/2024

Busy bees making honey.

When you remove a frame and are looking in from above. This is what you might see....

07/13/2024

This is hive #2. They are spicy and not happy with my intrusion and complete over haul of their hive. They are very hard workers and have outdone their neighbors by doubling their house in a week! I may have to keep their spicy-ness in check as they grow in size over the next couple months. They are not a bad as my Russian hives I had several years ago but I'll be watching.

What would you name hive #2?

07/12/2024

This is chill Hive #1. Just doing their thing. Paying no attention to me. Maybe we should name the hives??

This one's personality is way more lax and definitely is not filling their boxes as fast.

What would you name hive #1?

07/11/2024

Well, I didn't expect this!!! I thought this race would at least go for a couple of weeks! One of the hives filled the 2nd deep with honey comb!! (The other is virtually at a stand still)

So what does that mean?

Hive #2 will no longer have supplemental feed. It now has a queen excluder and 2 honey supers on it. So yes, they can start to make honey for a possible harvest!!

What is a queen excluder? It's a wire frame that has small slots in it. They slots are small enough for the worker bees to get through, but the queen who has a much larger abdomen can not. That means she can't go up to the honey supers to lay eggs. Honey supers are boxes that are above the rest of the hive where they store extra honey (honey I'll take in the end of August).

Hive #1 has been really filling the first deep but just not wanting to draw honey comb on the second. I will need to watch that one to see if they need help to get them ready for winter.

So- like I said I didn't expect it to happen so soon- Hive #2 wins!! I guess it makes sense when I look at it because Hive #2 was always a little more spicy. And spicy hives make more honey. 😋 🍯

07/06/2024

Is it just me, or do you find slow-motion video of bees in flight hilarious?? They are so clumsy!

These bees were doing orientation flights. Which means it's the first time they are leaving the hive, and they are setting their gps and stretching their wings.

07/05/2024

Video Comparison- hive #1 vs hive #2.
Watch to the end.

Who's going to be first to fill their boxes so we can make honey?

07/03/2024

The race is on! Who will do it first? Who can fill their 2nd deep box first? Hive #1 or hive #2?

They are both working on drawing out the frames. Which means they are putting wax on the frames (honeycomb) so they can fill them with honey, pollen, and brood.

They need both boxes full before I can put honey supers on (honey, I can harvest). A lot of it also depends on what's available for foraging and the weather. Too much rain and they can't get out. And being a new area, I'm not sure what is around here for them. I think it will be similar because we are still in the Minnesota River Valley and not too far from where we used to be. It's just with the flooding- who knows?!

What do you think? Hive #1 or hive #2?

06/27/2024

Kind of like when your cat leaves you a gift they killed. My bees left this for me on their front stoop.

They are continuing to build the 2nd deep. Looking good.

06/20/2024

The girls are doing well as they start to build the comb and fill their second deep box. I think queens love new frames. This queen was laying like crazy in the new frame. Can you see the eggs?

05/29/2024

After much searching and preparation, we have moved! Bees are getting settled in their new bee yard. So nice to spend the morning with them. 🐝

01/31/2024

That's a wrap on our month long series on honey bee anatomy. I hope you learned a few things along the way.

Did this bring up any new questions? Let me know what you would like to hear about next.

01/29/2024

What do you know about a honey bees skeleton?

As you may know, insects do not have internal bones, but they have a different type of skeleton than humans. Even though bees may have hair and be soft, they still have an exoskeleton. It is made of chitin and is covered with wax, which protects the internal organs and holds in moisture.

🐝 ❤️Bonus: bees have an open circulatory system. They do not have veins or arteries. Instead, their internal organs are bathed in a liquid called hemolymph. They do have hearts that circulate the hymolymph.

01/27/2024

What can you tell me about the honey bee reproductive systems?

The reproductive organ of the drone (male) is the endphallas, which is used to mate with a queen. The drone does not have a stinger, pollen basket, or wax glands in its abdomen.

The worker bee, which is a female, has undeveloped reproductive organs. They are sterile and not able to lay fertilized eggs. Occasionally, a worker may lay eggs when a colony is queenless, but they will all be unfertilized eggs and, therefore, drones.

The queen bee, although she is also a female, from the very beginning develops different anatomy than a worker bee. She has a longer thinner abdomen that is useful for laying eggs. She has several developed reproductive organs such as ovaries, fallopian tubes, seminiferous tubules, and a special organ called a spermatheca. She is the only bee capable of laying fertilized eggs in a colony.

The spermatheca allows the queen to decide if she is laying a fertilized (female) or unfertilized (male) egg.

01/25/2024

What can you tell me about the honey bees' digestive system?

It's hard to believe honey bees, as tiny as they are, have organs inside their little bodies. Honey bees' digestive system is mostly in the abdomen and takes up a large part of it. It has 4 main parts. The esophagus leads to the crop, which is like a stomach that holds the honey or nectar. It has a special part that allows workers to remove pollen from the nectar and make sure any digested food does not enter the crop, which ensures the nectar is never contaminated. The second stomach, or midgut, is where digestion happens. Then, lastly, the re**um is where waste is stored until the honey bee is ready to relieve itself. The honey bee is very clean. It will not relieve itself in the hive, and it leaves the hive to poo. In winter, in our area, that might mean the bee may need to wait months to go to the bathroom!!