Ridge 62 Apiary

Watching our girls work the lavender.

New year. New bees! We're looking forward to the coming season!

These ladies are hard at work! Spring is here!!

Would you be interested in joining future beekeeping classes?

Bee Fact of the Day: A honeybee has to travel over 55,000 miles and visit approx. 2 million flowers to make 1 pound of honey.

With the warmer weather this weekend, we found this girl buzzing about. She got a little wet because she was near kids at a warm pool.

WE NEED YOUR HELP! Ridge 62 has been working to perfect the 100% beeswax candle. Turning comb into candles is quite the process and we have been putting a lot of time into making a great, eco-friendly candle. BUT...
We need ideas for a name for the candles. If we use your idea for our candle, we will give you one of our candles for FREE! We ask that you send us a message with your best idea for a name for our candle and you could have one of these sweet aromatic, bee-produced, small light torches for your very own home!

Just brushing up on the latest in the world of beekeeping.

Some of our empty comb.

When we have our own brick and mortar shop... We definitely want to have one of these!

http://www.honeybeesuite.com/an-immense-observation-hive/

An immense observation hive - Honey Bee Suite Whenever someone mentions an observation hive, I remember a small and narrow glass box that I once saw in a New Jersey museum. The bees came and went through a small tube and the comb was all crushed against the glass and not all that interesting. But last week when beekeeper Carl Uhlman of Seattle…

The Mighty Bee.
It isn't the size of the bee that is in the fight. It is the size of the fight that is in the bee.

http://www.refinery29.com/2016/01/100764/ian-somerhalder-foundation-bee-fence-reduce-elephant-poaching

The Surprising & Sweet Way We Can Help Save Elephants Before It's Too Late Even the faintest buzz of a bee whirring by is enough to make you tense up, your eyes scanning the sky for a sign of the tiny insect whose prick can make even the most stoic among us weep in pain. Elephants, it turns out, share our reaction to bees. And that inherent fear of being stung is being

Great News! First major grocery store to ban bee-harming pesticides. Hopefully this is spreads to other stores.
http://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2016/01/major-supermarket-bans-bee-toxic-pesticides-on-fruits-and-vegetables/

Major Supermarket Bans Bee-Toxic Pesticides in Produce Production - Beyond Pesticides Daily News... (Beyond Pesticides, January 20, 2016) Aldi Süd, the German supermarket chain with stores in the U.S., has become the first major European retailer to ban pesticides toxic to bees, including the neonicotinoids imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam, from fruits and vegetables produced for their…

2016 is going to bring about some big plans for Ridge 62. We look forward to our plans for community outreach, environmental education, and the upcoming products. If we can get more people (and youth) interested in hobbies centered around beekeeping, we can raise a whole generation seeking to make our world a better place. We look forward to you joining us as we grow the field, get you involved, and offer you a great product! STAY TUNED!

BIG things are in the works for Ridge 62!

Playing the waiting game.....

The bees are doing AWESOME this season!!

Here's a great list of bee-friendly plants for this year's garden:

What Plants to Grow for Honey Bees: Organic Gardening Wondering what you can plant ot keep honey bees happy and well-fed? Here's a list of the most bee-friendly bulbs, annuals, perennials, herbs, shrubs, trees, and even weeds.

Doing a little beekeeping at dusk! They're coming along!!

Gearing up for a great 2014 season. New bees, New name.

Ten Interesting Facts About Honey
Lori Piper, Yahoo! Contributor Network

September is National Honey Month.

Interesting facts about honey #1
Honey is a Hebrew word meaning enchant. Initially it was a culinary sweeter, but now it is also recognized world wide as a healing ingredient in medicinal treatment.
Interesting facts about honey #2
Honey dates back for 150 million years. Honey is written about in hieroglyphics. Egyptians would used honey as a form of payment, like the Aztecs used cocoa beans (mentioned in another article of mine). Honey was fed to their sacred animals. It was often offered as a tribute.
Interesting facts about honey #3
The Bible mentions honey as well. In Exodus 3:17 "17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites-a land flowing with milk and honey." The land where Palestine and Israel are today, to be exact.
Interesting facts about honey #4
Greeks and Roman referred to honey as a food fit for the gods. Some are of the belief the honey is the ambrosia of the gods. Greek custom was to offer honey to the gods and deceased spirits, this tribute kept one out of harm's way and in a spirit or god's good graces.
Interesting facts about honey #5
A honey wine was developed, and largely consumed by many. Its given name was mead. How many romance novels have written about mead? Now you know it is honey wine. Norsemen sweetened their beer with honey.
Interesting facts about honey #6
Honey was so in demand in the eleventh century that it was a stipulation for German peasants to offer their feudal lords payment in honey and beeswax.
Interesting facts about honey #7
With the arrival and development of the American Colonies in the 17th century, honey was carried even further weight. Honey was used in the making of cement (crystallized sugar-not something, I would want to be bopped on the head with...). Moreover, it was also used in food preparation, to make beverages, as a fruit preserver, in furniture polish and varnish as well as for medicinal purposes.
Interesting facts about honey #8
With the tip on how colonists used honey as a fruit preserver, honey discovered to soak up moisture rapidly. To have cake and cookies last longer, and retain that moistness, substitute one-half of the required sugar with honey. After all two primary ingredients of honey are fructose and glucose, which are sugars.
Interesting facts about honey #9
Have allergies? Take a teaspoon a day of a honey made from the region where you reside and it will aid in developing resistance to pollen thereby reducing your allergies. This works in animals, too. Not a teaspoon, but a little dollop in their mouth can help with an animal's environmental allergies.
Interesting facts about honey #10
Have you burned your skin? Received a cut or abrasion? Mix honey with cod liver oil and place over the infected area. Bandage it up or that will be just too sticky of a mess. Change daily and it will assist in the healing process. Have chapped lips? Apply honey!!!

Funny Honey? Bringing Trust To A Sweet Sector Fraught With Suspicion : NPR

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/12/13/142903171/funny-honey-bringing-trust-to-a-sweet-sector-fraught-with-suspicion

npr.org More than half of the honey that Americans consume today is imported from abroad, but some say the industry is plagued by forgery and illicit products from Asia. Five of the biggest American honey retailers are now setting up a system that they hope will clear away suspicion that illegal Chinese hon...

Most Store-Bought Honey Isn’t Honey At All Tests Show - MSN Health - Healthy Living

Yet Another reason to buy straight from the us...the beekeepers!! http://health.msn.com/healthy-living/most-store-bought-honey-isn%e2%80%99t-honey-at-all-tests-show

health.msn.com Filtration process removes virtually all of the pollen naturally occurring in the product.