Summer Season

As they say, a pictures worth a thousand words and there's nothing better for any farmer than seeing the bees pollinating the crops! As I always say, "If the bees don't kiss the flowers, we don't get berries".
Bees aren't just for making honey. Without bees the world would starve.
Like you, Summer involves a lot of mowing and weed whacking, but for me weeding the bogs is a monthly chore as well.
June activities include cranking out fertilizer, adding honey supers to the bee hives as needed, and spinning honey. You'll be surprised to learn that frost watch continues into June as bogs are generally 5-10 degrees colder than the air temperature. It is also kicks off berry picking season! No, not cranberries, but raspberry (June) and blueberry (July) picking; can't make my popular jams without those local berries. It's also the time for processing lavender used in making my soaps later. July finds me making Annie's Crannies jams, marmalade and cranberry sauce which I store in a temperature controlled "jelly room". Another honey spinning precedes the primary honey bottling of the season. August sees more batches of jam, more honey spinning/bottling, and making my Annie's Crannies soaps. Late Summer has me applying labels to jams, wrapping soaps, and cleaning my Hayden Separator and Bogside Barn which is reset for Annie's Crannies Gift Shop. I also undergo a town inspection of my 5 sf of Gift Shop food space (jams) and generate my Annie's Crannies punchlist. Lastly, I clean my picking machine, ready all the equipment for another harvest, and change the oil in the pump and well again. This is a great time and place to celebrate the many furry and feathered native visitors to the bog (see below).
Fertilizing Niece Molly cranking out fertilizer with a portable chest-mount spreader being careful how and where to walk.
Raspberry's Picked Local raspberries picked for Annie's Crannies 3 Berry Jam.
Blueberry Picking Annie's Niece, Molly, picks local blueberries for Annie's Crannies Cran-Blue and 3 Berry Jams.

Spinning Honey Annie spinning her Bogside Honey (well actually labelling since the spinning occurs out of site in that large thing she's standing in front of). Each hive is kept separately, the honey graded on the Pfund scale by color ranging from 0-114>, and bottled together.


Bottling Honey Annie bottling 4oz light amber Bogside Honey.
Honey, Honey! Rows of 8oz and 16oz amber Bogside Honey being bottled.
Soap Making Annie making xxx soaps...
Catching a Swarm
Summer heat can cause hives to swarm, a process of splitting the hive and establishing a new queen and hive elsewhere.
Capture Could be anywhere. Often In the eave of a building or the limb of a tree.
Isolate and Relocate A section of tree limb is removed and placed next to a vacant hive super.
Bees Check Out New Digs Find the new queen and place her in new hive and the worker bees follow.
Native Visitors

Check it out

Since the Gift Shop won't open until Fall, check out the cranberry History, My Story, and Recipes pages while you're here.
History
My Story
Recipes