1000 Islands Honey

Direct from the beeyard! Beautifully raw, premium wildflower honey. Porch pickup in Gananoque or Kingston. We love our bees and we’d love to share this season’s amazing honey with you. Go bees! 🐝

September is a busy time for beekeepers. Now that the honey has been harvested and extracted, it’s time to prep the bees for the winter months ahead of us. This means full hive inspections, fall medications, and feeding them sugar water to help boost their winter stores. The bees will convert the sugar into honey over the next couple of weeks. Each colony will need 70+ pounds of honey to feed them through the winter. Go bees!

We’ve harvested the last of the goldenrod honey for the season and will be extracting and bottling over the weekend. Now it’s time to ensure the ladies are strong and healthy going into the winter months. It’s been a great season and this year’s honey is simply beautiful. As always, we encourage you to taste a teaspoon of our raw honey on its own and see what happens on your tongue. it’s like nothing else in the world! Porch pickup in Gananoque or Kingston. Note that we don’t sell our honey in stores. Learn more about us at www.1000islandshoney.ca Go bees! 🐝

Hard to believe this sweet girl is in her 14th year. She grew up in the beeyard and is the best beekeeper’s dog ever. Lots of beautiful fresh honey in stock. https://1000islandshoney.ca Go bees! 🐝

Our 2024 premium, raw honey is now available! Note that we don’t sell our honey in retail stores. Porch pickup in Gananoque. Learn more about us at https://1000islandshoney.ca Go bees!

Now bottling our 2024 honey. Premium, raw unpasteurized wildflower honey. You need to taste it to believe it. Go bees! 🐝 ❤️

I’m a simple guy. Shiny new things make me happy. 🐝 Go bees.

Made a beekeeping supplies run today, ready to harvest and bottle! This year’s harvest is exceptional. Go bees.

Rainy, cool days for the ladies, but they are staying snug. In the summer months, the honey bees keep the inside of their hive at around 35 degrees Celsius day and night, using their bodies to create heat when needed, and using their wings to fan the hive if it gets too hot. Go bees! 🐝

Our bees have been working especially hard this season and the honey is truly exceptional! Beautiful and raw, our premium wildflower honey is available direct from the beekeeper. Porch pickup in (we don’t sell in retail stores). Learn more about us at https://www.1000islandshoney.ca

Go bees!

The July honey flow is on!

Bee snacks, just outside of these two hives. Beautiful and delish. Go bees.

Strawberries, yogurt and 1000 Islands Honey hot honey. Oh my. 🍯 Photo credit, my Queen Bee. 🐝🔥

Homemade hot honey pizza pie. Oh my.

Come see us at the Gananoque & District Humane Society community yard sale today until 2pm! Lots of great vendors and pet stuff, come say hi and pick up some , or ! Just look for the queen bee. Go bees!

Reminder: come see us at tomorrow’s pop up sale Gananoque & District Humane Society Community Yard Sale, 85 County Rd, Gananoque. In support of Gananoque Humane Society and joined by other animal rescues, local businesses and community members. We’ll have a limited supply of honey, hot honey and maple syrup. Saturday 11am-2pm (the event is on Sunday as well but we’ll just be there tmo!)

Weather permitting, we’ll be at the Gananoque & District Humane Society Community Yard Sale this Saturday from 11am-2pm. Come say hi, grab a bottle of amazing local honey and support a great cause. We will bring a few bottles of our new Hot Honey (with chili peppers) along with us too. Hope to meet some of our local customers! Go bees. 🐝 (Location: Gananoque & District Humane Society, 85 County Rd 32.)

This nuc is ready to be transferred to a full sized hive box, hopefully the weather cooperates this weekend for some work time in the beeyard. Go bees!

The beekeeper’s dog, getting some R&R.

The bees were bearding a bit last week when we treated for mites. They settled down after a few hours.. they don’t like it but it’s a necessary treatment to keep them healthy and thriving. Go bees.

Not what you want to see when arriving at the apiary. It seems that the pesky raccoons are still a problem. They would be more interested in the brood than the honey, and the nuc was an easier target for them. Luckily I came up when I did as I’m pretty sure the frames would have been pulled out and the nuc destroyed had it been left like this for another night. I have a plan to deter them though.. stay tuned for the next episode of beekeeper vs tween raccoons. Go bees.

Headed to the beeyard today with the sleeves rolled up. It will be a busy afternoon checking on the progress of our nucs, hive splits and established colonies. We’ll also be monitoring our mite levels, one of the biggest threats to our honey bees, and treating as necessary. Missed a weekend of work last week during the long weekend so it will be a busy one today. Reminder that honey is back in stock for porch pickup in Gan. Go bees!

Hot honey! Currently in test phase and finding the perfect sweet spot. For anything on the bbq, salmon, chicken, potatoes, ice cream, pizza, cocktails. Coming soon!

Ouch. Only one other time in my 14 years of beekeeping have I been stung so many times. It’s no secret that the bees aren’t especially fond of a lawn tractor rumbling past their hives. Often I’ll put on a bee veil when mowing around them to be safe. Yesterday though, they seemed quiet and I took a chance. My first pass with the tractor was fine, no one even seemed to notice. So I thought. Second pass, not so lucky. They really lit me up! First couple of stings were in my side, the rest were mostly on my back, shoulders and head as I tried to outrun them on the not-even-close-to-be-fast-enough tractor. 🚜🐝 In the end I took well over a dozen stings, and the swelling is mostly gone now. Good luck to any bear who tries to steal honey from these bees.

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Spring is a busy time of growth at the beeyard. A Queen Bee can produce 2,000 eggs a day. Fertilised eggs become females and unfertilised eggs become males. You can see how quickly a colony can expand with numbers like these. By midsummer a colony can have upwards of 80,000+ bees in the hive. Go bees!