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Freeloader Farm

We are a small urban farm focused on sustainability for our family on less than an acre.

07/14/2024

We got a message about some bees that had moved into the bottom of a wicker chair. This one was more of a challenge than most since the wicker gave the queen a ton of places to hide and dodge my attempts to get her.

Shout out to my fearless, flip flop wearing dad that came out with me a second time so we could move them safely to a hive.

Keep us in mind if you ever need bee removal, we never charge for swarm removals 🐝

07/04/2024

Never Again!

First time with pulling a few frames for comb honey / chunk honey… never doing this again. What a messy, sticky job! If you want some comb honey you better get it now!

04/21/2024

First honey harvest of the season! Our honey pull came in at a whopping 54 pounds of honey!!

01/13/2024

Pollen packing in action!

01/12/2024

The calm before the storm!

If you look closely you will see just about every lady has her pollen pants on!

12/03/2023

With a little effort you can extend your gardening season through winter! These pepper planta are actually 2 years old! They continued to produce for us last year and are still giving us beautiful peppers a week into December

Prepare early and plan out how to cover and uncover your plants easily or invest in a green house.

Here at Freeloader Farm we do both, although our growing slows down some, we are still able to grow organic veggies all year long ❤️

10/10/2023

Unexpected Fall Honey pull. It is dark and beautiful (bottom photo shows spring honey, summer honey and fall honey color difference)

We moved forward with dropping down to two deep boxes for the winter to allow them a better chance at staying warm and less space to protect and maintain.

I really hope our hives make it through the winter and maybe even have a chance at splitting them for additional hives come spring.

09/16/2023

Our loofahs have done amazing this year!

All the credit goes to our honey bees and the native bees!

We took extra time to plant wildflowers between out crops to attract bees and other polinators.

For comparison, last year I only got 1 loofah, this year I have over 20!

09/16/2023

Here is your reminder not to let those herbs go to waste!

Temperatures are getting cooler and we quickly forget to make use of everything we still have.

My favorite section of the garden is the herbs! I give my basil a squeeze every time I walk by because it’s my favorite smell.

I also always let at least a few basils flower and harvest the seeds for next seasons planting.

09/08/2023

Fall colds are upon us!!

Elderberry syrup recipe:
1 cup dried elderberries
3-4 cups water
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tablespoon ginger paste or chunk of ginger
clove to taste

Bring to a boil, turn down heat and allow to simmer until cooked down to 1/2 volume (mine took about 1 hour)

Allow to cool completely

Add 3/4 to 1 cup RAW local honey

Store in refrigerator (stays good for 2-3 weeks)

I recommend using local and raw honey as this will have the most benefit for allergy related issues as well as not heated to kill off any of “the good stuff”

(it is not recommended to give children under the age of 1 year honey ; always consult your medical professional before consuming anything for medicinal purpose)

08/19/2023

Happy National Honey Bee Day 🐝

If you are interested in becoming a bee keeper, contact your local bee keepers association. Many recommendations are location based (South East has mild winters compared to the North East so hive management during the cold months is very different)

If you don’t want to keep bees but you want to help (honey bees and native bees) plant flowers with pollen and nectar sources that bloom in different seasons. Around our house we plant tons of lantana, wildflowers, trumpet trees (what you see in the picture), our garden and we also have different camelias that bloom from October -April, and azelas and privets that are our first spring bloom.

Planting a variety of trees and shrubs that bloom year round will aid in your hive’s success!

08/18/2023

If you are a fan of bumble bees, plant some loofahs!

The bumble bees cover this vine and we often catch them taking naps in the part way open blooms 🐝

08/15/2023

Double rainbow over our homestead today 🌈

08/04/2023

Pindo Palm jelly is a hit!!

08/02/2023

Our first Pindo palm harvest!! We have 3 more big bunches ripening. I think we will do jelly and wine but if you have other recipes please post them!

07/30/2023

Early honey pull is the lighter color in the front, while today’s honey pull is darker 🐝

It is cool to see the color difference between the seasons!

07/30/2023

Last harvest of the season!

All the girls have plenty of honey for themselves as we enter a dearth and I can start feeding them since we have taken the consumable honey box off.

This medium box weighed in at 45 pounds!

07/26/2023

Another swarm removal in the books for us!

These ladies took up residency in a grill drawer. They had already started to build comb and had some pollen and nectar stored.

They are now happy in their new hive and have a feeder attached since they will be working hard to build up enough stores for the winter 🐝

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Summerville, SC
29485

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Videos

Pollen packing in action!

The calm before the storm! If you look closely you will see just about every lady has her pollen pants on!

Washboarding: There are many theories on why bees do this… mine is, when the population grows large and there aren’t enough jobs inside the hive, the extras get sent to do outside cleaning. Its like me tossing my kiddos windex and a rag to my kids and telling them to wash windows when they say they are bored!!

My OG hive view from underneath! She is completely full and busting at the seams!

Shaking’ in the bees 🐝 When picking your bee starter there are a few things to know. A package is 3 pounds of bees including worker bees, nurse bees, your queen (usually mated) and some drones. There are no resources for your bees they are just in a box. I feel 1:1 sugar water so they can get started making wax comb on their frames. A Nuc is also a full colony including the same bees as above but they generally have 3-5 frames build. They typically cost more than a package since they come with frames and resources. I choose packages because of a few reasons. 1- they are more cost effective and 2- our bees usually can draw out a whole frame in a few days. Within 3 -4 weeks they will have almost all 10 frames drawn out and we will be adding another brood box.