Mississippi State Fair

We went to the State Fair this year, the first time since I moved to MS.

We took my favorite 4-year-old, who made the day so very memorable with his excitement. He never complained or asked to be carried. On the way home he said, "We had a big day. We can go again."

Of course we stopped by the honey booth! We didn't enter anything this year, but this gave us a good idea of how it's done.

Mississippi Beekeepers Association Conference

Last Friday and Saturday we attended the annual MBA conference. For me, it was very convenient, as it was held in the conference center at my workplace -- the Bost Extension Center at Mississippi State University.

Event organizers had a stellar line-up of speakers.

Randy Oliver, whose site www.scientificbeekeeping.com is a repository of all kinds of research-based information, knocked our socks off with his keynote address. He and his sons run 1,000 hives in Grass Valley, CA. He is full of energy and enthusiasm for maintaining healthy colonies. He also convinced me that raising queens isn't as hard as I think it is. ;-)

Russian bee breeder and long-time MBA leader Harry Fulton greeted everyone and taught packed sessions on beginning beekeeping. It was heartening to see so many people interested in taking up beekeeping as a hobby. (I didn't even get up and give a testimony about how they *think* it's going to be a hobby and then it takes over their lives . . .)

Walter T. Kelley Company and Dadant were both on site to sell equipment and all sorts of bee-related goodies, like these signs.

One of my favorite presentations was given by Ed Levi, a retired apiary inspector from Arkansas. He has traveled the world to help struggling beekeepers improve their practices for more financial stability. His amazing photos included traditional hives, a house with a hive kept in the wall for instant access to sweetener, and photos of honey hunters who have to avoid tiger attacks while harvesting.

Thanks, MBA, for a great conference!

900 pounds and counting

On Saturday we extracted about 300 pounds of honey from the Delta. We've had to order more storage containers, as we still have honey at Mayhew to harvest, including what we hope is delicious comb honey.

If you know of any businesses that need a holiday gift for clients, we'd love to help! Last year we shipped our honey all over the world -- the business owner provided the mailing labels and greetings, we boxed everything and took it to the post office.

Cooler weather is making the honey harvest more pleasant! I've also started my fall garden in my raised beds.

Calling All Honey Customers!

We have been blessed with a bountiful harvest. If you have empty PBBF honey bottles you need refilled, please let us fill 'em up! Remember there's a $2 discount on refills, so the prices drop to $13 for a 3-lb refill and $5.50 for a 1-lb refill!

We'd love to fill your honey bottles and make room in the bottling tanks. Both are full and we've only harvested from two bee yards.

Bring your bottles to us with your name on them somewhere (a Sharpie marker on the lid works well), and Mark can fill them up with super fresh honey from this summer's harvest.

Coming soon: 2-lb bottles. For those of you who just can't decide between the 1 & 3!

Honey Bon Bons?

The W hotel in Minneapolis, MN has beehives atop its lounge, and the harvested honey is turned into bon bons for their guests. The news story is here.

I've never been to MN, but I'd love to go and taste those bon bons. Or apparently I can order them online, $7 for three from Mademoiselle Miel. Which would likely be a lot more economical.

Given that my last bottle of gummy vitamins arrived melted into a giant vitamin glob, ordering these chocolates will have to wait until it cools off in MS.

Aaaaand she also has salted honey bon bons. Le sigh.

People may think honey is perfect as it is, but what can't be made better with chocolate?!?

Photo from Mademoiselle Miel's blog.

Slatted Bottom Boards

Mark invested in some slatted bottom boards this year, to help with ventilation.

Some beekeepers think it's an unnecessary expense.

We like them for the following reasons:

• bees don't beard on the front of the hives -- they can congregate down below the brood chambers. If you have an urban bee yard and it freaks out your neighbors to see bees bearding ("They're SWARMING!"), slatted bottom boards might be a good option for you.
• ventilation. Mississippi is hot. We have screens on top to help with temperature, but the extra ventilation may help us cut down on common bee diseases, like Nosema.
• the bees seem calmer. Maybe it's because they don't feel as crowded, but our colonies on the slatted bottom boards don't seem as aggressive.
• we can still use oil traps for pest control, rather than chemicals.

Here are two pictures.

The hive entrance is to the right.

The Hilts' Visit to Bee Hill

Some dear friends stopped by as part of their vacation. I've known Becky & Jay since we were all in college together at FC. They still live in Florida, though we're trying to convince them to relocate here.

We took them to Stafford's Big Burger in West Point for a Mississippi culinary cultural experience: fried pickles and fried green tomatoes. Oh, and I had a strawberry shake for supper. Annabelle really liked the fried pickles. My kind of kid!

They wanted to see the bees, so Mark got them all suited up and Becky took my camera. The bummer was that it was set on manual focus. Boo.

Here are a couple of pictures from their sunset visit to Bee Hill.

We really need to invest in some kid-sized bee gear!

The next morning we fed them deer steak, deer sausage, biscuits and eggs.

Then Dougray had some target practice.

It's a Redneck Vacation Extravaganza, y'all! Come & see us!