Three Peaks Farm dba Apiary Apothecary

Pics from today’s collection

Found the tiniest, most adorable feather in the coop today…

Completely appropriate for a beekeeper, right?

Thank you to Three Peaks Farm dba Apiary Apothecary for the amazing raffle item that they donated for tomorrow's bout! 🐝🧡

If you're looking for some good work boots, I ran across these w/ $90 off

Women's Traditional Welt Waterproof 10" Steel Toe Wellington | Women's Steel Toe Boots | Carhartt Browse and shop the Women's Traditional Welt Waterproof 10" Steel Toe Wellington - CWP1250 at Carhartt.com. Clothing and apparel that works as hard as you do since 1889.

One of the reasons I will never be a successful business owner: I accept payment in flowers! 🤣🌻🌸🌷🌼 Got called out to a potential honeybee colony removal today, but it was just yellow jackets…

Farming is SO dependent upon weather. We were praying for rain to ensure we'd get a second cut of hay. I was praying yesterday that it wouldn't rain because I needed to put my fall varroa mite treatments on the hives. Hay is done. Treatments are on. Now today it rains, and it is a glorious break...

Still watching Raven (one of the donkeys) to see if her hoof gets better or worse. My farrier is on vacation out of the country, and the vet doesn't seem particularly concerned because she's still eating and hopping around with the others. However, I know donkeys have a reputation for being particularly stoic, so I know the poor girl is in pain. (I have been giving her Bute.) I haven't worried too much about picking out (cleaning) my donkeys feet, which is something you do more often for horses because you ride them. Therefore, I'm not particularly confident in my ability to do it. I found this video helpful though. It shows the hoof, shows how you pick it out, and discusses a common donkey hoof ailment - white line disease. My neighbor is a horse person (and has been for years). She came over to take a look at Raven and picked out her hoof and didn't see anything, but I am going to keep an eye on it. I am also going to be more diligent about cleaning out their hooves from here forward. Hate to see one of my babies in pain! Five days later and Raven is still hobbling around...

How to clean a donkey's hooves This is how we regularly treat our miniature donkeys' hooves for white line disease. At the time this video was made, their condition had greatly improved as...

On Shark Tank the other day there was a start-up called Bee Free vegan honey, and their claim was that they "saved bees" by providing a honey alternative. This is tantamount to claiming that keeping bees is what is killing bees. I would REALLY love to have an educational conversation with folks who think that beekeeping is killing bees. This is FALSE.

Beekeepers are doing more than ANYONE to help save our honeybee population! And we are DEVASTATED when we lose a colony.

Do you know that a managed colony has a significantly higher likelihood of survival than a wild colony? Did you know that the primary killers of bees are: loss of forage (your lovely, manicured lawns), climate change, monoculture (you eat big farm produce?), pesticides, and diseases/mites that are traveling around the global marketplace faster than honeybees can adapt to survive them?

Yes, if beekeepers take too much honey, then the bees will not have enough food to make it through the winter. That's why we see counterfeit honey all over the place! We are refusing to take more honey to meet the demand, so folks are flooding the market with fake stuff! American consumers are too uneducated and/or cheap to notice or care.

If you don't know your beekeeper, then you don't know it's honey. you don't know where it came from.

Small apiaries don't make money from the honey. Period. Large apiaries only make money through pollination leases with farmers. The vast majority of honeybees in America are transported across the country, following the growing season for a variety of crops. (Ironically, crops like the apples that Bee Free honey replacement is made from!) If farmers lose their bees, they lose their livelihood.

If anyone has any questions, let's chat! I hate being the recipient of accusations from uneducated folks that I am cruel to bees, or worse, responsible for their demise! We need to be talking about: monoculture, climate change, pesticides, and honeybee diseases and mites.

There are many things that folks can do to help the bees, but if you believe switching to apple-based honey replacement is going to do it, you should reconsider. This start-up is cashing in on the "save the bees" trend, which isn't a trend at all for those of us who really care...

I did that. Quick lunch break then back at it until either it’s done or it’s dark…

Pic from inside one of the hives yesterday. Beautiful variety of pollen. Worth the sneezes??

Here's the link to last week's interview with WSVA's podcast Spotlight on Agriculture

Hilary Moore-Three Peaks Farm | WSVA News Talk Radio On this edition of WSVA's Spotlight on Agriculture, Hilary Moore, owner of Three Peaks Farm, talks about how she got into the honey business, raising bees and the different products she now offers

We’ve got drones (males), so I may be spending some time splitting hives this weekend!