Bad new on the 2009 honey crop

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Brad - Maybe you aren't a beekeeper, but what you do is "partner" with a beekeeper. Or several beekeepers. After all, I know a lot of microbrews that serve food, but the brewer and the chef are two different people.... For that matter, are beermakers thought any less of if they don't grow their own hops and barley? You get the drift.

Lori Titus
The Bee Folks
www.beefolks.com
 
Where to find local honey

As many of you guys know, we do not push a sale. And there are times we are asked, for various and sundry reasons, for aid in finding local honey, or local beekeepers.

The best method (at least in the US) is to google your county name and "beekeeping association", "beekeepers", or "beekeeping society". That will usually bring up the contact info for the bee club local to you. Call or email the president (the info would not be posted if he did not want phone calls or emails), and explain what you are looking for.

If that doesn't help, look up the phone number for your state's Department of Agriculture, ask for the beekeeping division, and ask them if they keep a list of beekeepers who sell honey.

This time of year, most of the small beekeepers don't have honey remaining for sale. Last year really was a bad year, all across the US. At our site, it was a long cold spring, a short cool summer, and winter hit hard and fast. The boxes we received from the South had poorly mated queens due to the spring storms down there, and all the swarms we caught had old queens. We drew hardly any honey off the hives, and all the bees were light going into winter. I'm rather anxious to see who has survived, but it is so cold out right now I can't crack the hives.

Lori Titus
The Bee Folks