AboutLavaBees
Farmer’s Market Fun!
I am so excited to announce that we are finally selling at a few local farmer’s markets! We have been friends with the family that runs Pali Kai Farm for many years, and they generously offered to sell our honey at their booth! Enjoy some of the best non-GMO, organic veggies around and pick up our honey while you are at it! Look for the Pali Kai booth at Uncle Robert’s in Kalapana during the Saturday SPACE market, on Sundays at the Hamakua Harvest Farmer’s Market, and at Uncle Robert’s in Kalapana at the Wednesday night market!
Bee(hive) Happy!
About our beehives… We currently have 8 beehives. 2 top bar hives and 6 langstroth (the traditional boxed-style) hives. 6 of the beehives reside in our yard just steps away from our house allowing me to peek in on them day and night. 2 of the beehives are on another property a mile down the road. All 8 beehives have ocean views! My husband was adamant that the bees hang out in a spot on the properties where WE like to hang out and view the ocean.. so cute. 8 hives seems to be my happy place. I have a full-time job (not as a beekeeper), so managing 8 hives has been challenging at times, but I continue to learn and grow as a beekeeper and am now thinking.. hmm.. maybe I can handle a couple of more hives soon. We shall see! I should mention that all of our hives originally came from one hive. That hive grew and I split it into two. Those hives grew and I split them. Some of the hives swarmed from being too full, and I caught them and so on until bam — 8 hives. As much as I love where I live, I believe the bees love it even more. The warm breeze, the nearby flowering trees, the quiet, peaceful life in Kalapana. They must wonder why I leave to go to work! I wonder the same thing sometimes! And these girls (yes, most of the bees are female) are rock stars! They have won awards for their honey and the mead we make from their honey. I always make sure to give them a big pat on the hive when that happens. Sometimes I think of them as my children, but in reality they are my teachers. A story for another day!
NewBee Blogger
Aloha Busy Buzzing People of the Internet,
I have been keeping bees for over 3 years (already?!), and what I have learned is that 1) I will never know everything when it comes to bees, 2) My bees would like me to be a full-time beekeeper, and 3) We have really good honey. The story never ends when it comes to our bees. I am constantly thinking about when I will go into the hives next, what am I going to do with all of this beeswax, Uh-oh — strong gust of wind — how are the bees? Bees on the brain!! Our bees get to enjoy a near constant state of summer (It’s a hard life here in Hawai’i), and as a result, it seems like the honey harvesting season never ends! Between all of the fruiting seasons of mac nut trees, avocados, mangoes, lehua blossoms, Christmas berries, and more, our honey is different and delicious every harvest, but nearly impossible to tell you exactly what they are gathering at any certain time. Bees can fly up to 5 miles from the hive, and we are simply surrounded by all kinds of things, so the bees go to where the nectar flows. Speaking of flows, we live near an active lava flow. Remember that town that was recently on the news as “about to get covered up by lava”…? Yep, that’s our town. But the lava goddess Pele has turned her attention elsewhere for now and we live to buzz another day in this bee-autiful paradise. I am not sure how good I will be at blogging, but once I get started talking about bees, it is hard to stop. So, I will save some more blog love for later. Thanks for checking out Lava Bees and I hope you enjoy the honey.
-Callie
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