Kertz Beekeeping, Wichita, KS (2025)

05/27/2025

Hey everyone! We are about 4-6 weeks from our first honey harest of 2025! We are a solid 6 weeks behind where we were this time last year and im not totally sure why!

This year has been a bit weird for the bees. They are doing great, the population is strong but overall slower. We have had LOTS of storms and it seems to have affected their ability to get out and have productive flying days / many of the flowers have been getting blown off trees earlier this year. We normally have an extremely strong black locust flow with a dedicated harvest in Mid May but this year we had violent storms and rainy days during that time.

While I have 2 honey boxes on each hive for a total of 4 boxes, the bees are just finishing off filling the bottom two from what they ate over winter and recovering from splits. I really hope they begin filling the next two in the coming weeks!

P.s. I will post a honey wait list signup later this week!

04/11/2025

Spring Splits

Friday April 11, 2025 @ 3:00 PM
HWY 94 Apiary - Overcast and 55°

Today, I visited my 4 hives to prepare them for spring splits. Queens came via UPS to the club that I’m a member, this morning. My goal is to go from 4 hives to 6. To do so I need to find each queen so that I don’t put two queens in the same hive.

Finding the queen in the first hive was pretty easy and I put her in a cage so I can keep working.

When I opened the second hive I noticed that there were no young eggs and they had a queen cell. I looked and looked to never find this queen. I now assume they swarmed as the hive was lighter than i expected.

The third hive was bustling with bees! I went frame by frame looking for the queen after about 20min of no luck I closed up the hive to move on to the fourth.

The fourth hive was similar I found myself looking frame by frame to be frustrated. I ended up checking these hives twice for their queens till frustration. At one point I found the queen in hive 3 only to accidentally drop her in the hive and have to start over.

At the end of the visit I spent 2 hours looking for queens. Found one, have three hives that I know whether they have queens or not, then the other three I need to verify before adding the ones that came in the mail.

I will keep the new queens at the house feeding them honey until I have a chance in Sundays warm weather to visit again and inspect for the queens.

03/30/2025

Visited the hives yesterday in the warm weather!

Spring is here and hives are booming. The colonies quickly replaced their winter stores and I have placed honey supers on a couple of them. While I don’t expect to collect any honey in them for a couple more weeks I wanted them to have the space they need to grow!

A management change I’m trying this year. Normally i have an extra piece of hardware that goves the bees a full width entrance to thee hives. I’ve decided to try drilling a cork sized hole instead making summer inspections easier so i dont have to worry about the fragile upper entrance.

I have placed a bait hive in the yard now! This hive is not only no longer taking up space in my garage but in the event that there is a swarm nearby the swarm will be attracted and hopefully take up in the hive giving me free bees to care!

Also, i found some kinda of animal skull in the field!

Honey update:

We have chunk honey remaining from 2024. All other honey products are sold out until late May/early June!

03/09/2025

Warm weather is here! Daffodils and tulips are pushing up, tree buds are swelling, and some lawn weeds are flowering. That means the honey bee queens are laying their eggs and getting ready for Spring! Today visited the hives and we will have 4 strong hives coming out of winter! I aim to keep 6 production hives. In the early winter we had some losses due to aging queens and possible varroa mites (you kind of always assume mites are partially at fault). These hives will continue to built up over the next month at which point I will split them into 6 hives and likely put honey supers on!

01/18/2025

UPDATE: Someone with a mini skid steer got word of the need for help and has begun clearing the sidewalk. There is no need for man power to help anymore.

—-

Hey there!

Want to help the community and get some honey?

The roads have been cleared but there are no public services in charge of making the sidewalks safe for our kids to walk to school. Let’s come together and clear the way!

I will be out shoveling (01/18 at 1pm) in a neon jacket with my kiddo and handing out coupons for a free jar of raw honey to everyone who comes out to help. Let’s do this! 💪

01/09/2025

I love working with these ladies and having them in our community! Please support them in keeping their store front open and a part of New Town. The small businesses is a big part of what makes NT an awesome place, let’s show them that we appreciate them. 💙

12/18/2024

🐝✨ Hey everyone!

Apologies for our radio silence lately—life has been quite busy for the Kertz family! Mrs. Kertz is back in school pursuing her nursing degree, Mr. Kertz has taken up running races, and our little one has entered Kindergarten! 🏃‍♂️📚👶

While honey advertisement has taken a backseat, we’ve consistently fulfilled orders for those who've reached out directly. We greatly appreciate everyone who has done so!

We’re excited to announce that we have delicious honey available for those last-minute Christmas gifts! 🎁🍯 Orders can be picked up or delivered through this Sunday.

Orders may be placed via comment or online form: https://forms.gle/uMgQegVV6zNVeSXQ8

Thank you for your continued support! 🐝💛

11/29/2024

We thank them for their curiosity!

09/17/2024

🐝 🍯 Local Saint Charles Honey! 🍯 🐝

Each batch of raw honey we produce is individually tracked and dated. We also never mix batches so you know the exact harvest date of your honey! Our honey is also strained, never filtered or heated, keeping the full flavor and benefits you'd expect from a small batch beekeeper!

🍯 Current Stock 🐝
♻️ Return glass jar and band for a $2 discount on your next purchase! ♻️

1lb quilted glass jar of raw honey - $12
3lb (quart) glass jar of raw honey - $32
6lb (1/2 gal) glass jar of raw honey- $60
1lb quilted glass jar of cinnamon creamed honey* - $14
1lb quilted glass jar of creamed honey* - $14
22oz (pint) glass jar of raw honey with comb - $18
6in honey dipper - $2

We accept Cash, Venmo, & Zelle. Delivery is FREE on a weekly route within and around the Charlestowne, Fox Hill, and New Town neighborhoods of St. Charles. We will also have porch pickup via our “honey stand,” address available upon request!

* creamed honey takes time to set up and have delayed delivery if none are ready when contacting

Check out our page at https://www.facebook.com/KertzBeekeeping

09/05/2024

Week three of school and we’ve settled into a bit of a morning groove! Our breakfast most every morning has been a healthy well balanced start to the day. On Mondays I make a double batch of Swedish pancake mix (crepes) and hard boil some eggs keeping both in the fridge. Then each morning kiddo goes out and picks raspberries and peels his egg while I cook up some pancakes for the two of us. We ran of syrup on day 2 and have been using honey ever since for an awesome upgrade!

It’s a simple morning routine but with a bit of prep he gets out the door every morning with some protein, carbs, fruit, and of course honey in his tummy!

08/01/2024

After we extract honey from the frames we set the boxes out in our yard for the bees to lick clean before we put them away for storage. Enjoy a little bee action!

07/30/2024

Available for porch pickup or home delivery!

1lb: Creamed Honey - $14
1lb: Raw Honey - $12
3lb: Raw Honey - $32
6lb: Raw Honey - $60

Order via reply or by filling out our order form:
https://forms.gle/2VGQYTQVMMFju9fw7

Kertz Beekeeping

05/27/2025

04/11/2025

03/30/2025

03/09/2025

01/18/2025

01/09/2025

12/18/2024

11/29/2024

09/17/2024

09/05/2024

08/01/2024

07/30/2024

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