Harris Hives

This is a great video on the medicinal benefits of honey and why local honey from your beekeeper is normally better than honey from a big store shelf.

How to Save Lives with Honey - Dr Ferhat Ozturk Hives for Heroes® is a national non-profit service organization focusing on honey bee conservation and a healthy transition from service for military, vetera...

That’s a wrap-honey extraction 2024 is done. We had a great nectar flow this year and it seemed like everything was blooming around the same time. One of my colonies that is on a scale was bringing in around 12lbs of nectar a day. Now on to bottling and getting ready for the next Pittsboro farmers market on June 20th.

It was a busy weekend extracting honey from these three hives. I normally don’t do this until the end of May but the nectar flow has been so strong that all of my colonies don’t have room for the queen to lay. Three down, many more to work on in the coming week.

Second swarm in two days at this apiary. I love my for this purpose and it makes transporting the swarm back home easy. I placed a couple old brood comb frames on the limbs and the bees started covering them while I inspected my hives. I eventually had to shake the tree to get the bees down and this swarm is a lot heavier than what it looks like in the tree. I found the queen when I got home and caged her to persuade the bees to stay put.

Tulip poplars are in bloom and most of my frames are full of nectar from (I suspect) dead nettle, red buds and perhaps some holly. I may need to extract because I’m out of equipment and some of these hives are over my head!

We are at the Chatham County Ag Fest today from 10-3. Stop by and chat or purchase some local Chatham County honey!

Honeybee Removal - Chatham County Beekeepers' Association HELP! I’ve got a bunch of bees that need removing! If you want a swarm or colony of bees (honeybees ONLY) to be removed from your property in Chatham County, North Carolina, we can...

It is good to be home again-left on 21 Dec for TX and spent time visiting family. Then we headed to Louisville for the North American Honey Bee Expo. After 4 audio books and 70 hours of road time, it will be good to sleep in my bed tonight! The truck can be unpacked tomorrow 😴

Chatham county was well represented at the North American Honey Bee Expo in Louisville, KY! It was an awesome meeting with over 3000 attendees and over 100 vendors. What an experience!

We are ready for the Pittsboro Farmers Market!

Join us tomorrow at the Pittsboro Farmers Market and sample some delicious local honey that will go great on your charcuterie board! We will also have a limited supply of fresh baby ginger infused honey from Granite Springs farm.

We have lots of goodies to build your boards!
has a variety of flavored crackers, delicious chevre from , amazing produce like carrots, watermelon radishes, salad turnips, gf energy bites from Naturally Local, jams and jellies from ...and so much more! Come stock up with deliciousness for your upcoming celebrations!

Come see us this afternoon until 6pm at the Pittsboro farmers market!

This graph shows the honey situation in the USA. Honey importation continues to rise while US sourced honey declines. There are many reasons for this, but much rests in the hands of the consumer. The honey you purchase at a large bulk buy store IS much less expensive, but you have no idea what is in that honey and often the country(countries) of origin is not clear. Giving a local beekeeper your business ensures that you get the benefits of local honey while supporting their business.

Honey imports continue to rise, offsetting declining U.S. production Over the last 30 years, U.S. honey production has declined by around 1.4 percent per year while honey imports have grown by 7.6 percent per year, filling the domestic supply deficit. Imports have exceeded domestic honey production since 2005 and accounted for 74 percent of total U.S. honey supplies....

Come by and see me at the Pittsboro Street fair from 10-4 today. We have a lot of honey available and even have a limited amount of ginger infused honey available, made with baby ginger from Granite Spring Farms!

Today is cleanup day-making sure the colonies have enough food stores and getting them all another round of syrup. Also making sure mouse guards are in place and cleaning up some equipment that was left out from last inspection.

The Chatham County Beekeeper educational display received 1st place at the NC state fair. I received a first place for my amber extracted honey and color photo, and a second place for my extra light extracted honey 🎉

Congratulations to everyone who put in all the hard work to make this happen!

Cold season will be here before you know it-this looks like a good recipe for a cough syrup using honey!

Honey Cough Syrup In a small saucepan, combine lemon zest, sliced ginger and 1 cup of water. Bring mixture to a boil, simmer for 5 minutes, then strain through into a heat-proof measuring cup.

I received a couple 2nd place ribbons for my extracted honey at the NCSBA honey show!

Received my NCSBA Master Beekeeper certificate today!

Honey was extracted last weekend and it is time to start preparing for the summer meeting honey show in Flat Rock, NC. I swear I will not wait until the last minute this year 😊

I will be at the Pittsboro Farmers Market on Thursday, June 22 selling honey. Join us as we celebrate Pollinator Week!

Pittsboro Farmers' Market

Honey extraction for 2023 is finished for the most part. Now it is time to filter the honey that is in 5 gal buckets over the next few weekends. I will be bottling some up for the special pollinator themed event at the Pittsboro Farmers Market on June 22nd.

I had a big swarm occur on Friday afternoon and they have been hanging around for a couple days now, through rain storms and a bit windy conditions. The cluster was big and they broke a few times but rejoined the main cluster pretty quick. It has been a lot of fun watching them decide on a new home-I have several bait traps and the process they use to find the home that is just right really is fascinating. They just decided a few minutes ago on a new home and have moved in!

Another swarm on 15 Apr and they would not go into anything I threw at them. As much as I tried, they wanted to cluster on the post. This morning I went out and found an unmarked queen indicating this was a second swarm out of this specific colony. I marked the queen and eventually placed her into a queen introduction cage where the bees had to come to her. I will let her out in a few days when I can move this colony out to Mellow Marsh Farm.

Swarm season is in full swing! Two swarms in the past two days.

This swarm has finally made up its mind and is moving into their new home. Jennifer didn’t appreciate this too much since she was working on the patio and the bees decided their home would be on top of her new pergola 😂