Humblebeez
Our raw honey, bee pollen, beeswax, & propolis come from our apiaries located in Nowthen, Elk River,
💕 Sunday, September 8th thru Thursday, September 12th, we will be taking a break from the busyness of this season and will be unavailable. 🍯 Orders placed during this time will be fulfilled Friday, September 13th. 💕
We will also respond to messages received at that time. Blessings!
🐝 Be humble. Be well. 🐝
💜Stephanie
07/09/2024
Aug 24: 🍯 extraction began!
Sept 6 at 11:30pm: 🍯 extraction complete! Just needing to scrape the boxes for propolis and wax rendering! 🐝 We survived!
05/09/2024
2024 Bee Pollen update: I am sorry to say that we have SOLD OUT of bee pollen for the season. With the wet year we’ve had, we yielded far less than we were hoping to collect and thus were not able to do a later season collection like we’ve done in the past. We will begin collecting fresh 🐝 pollen again, weather permitting, in mid-to-late May 2025. Until then, be sure to take your daily spoonful of our raw honey to continue the seasonal allergy relief and give yourself a boost of natural energy without the sugar crash! 🍯
05/09/2024
https://pandora.app.link/lgv2jAqfDMb
Crankin the music up to push through extraction! Working in this 87-degree garage has got me exhausted but this beat and those lyrics are IT! 💕
Don't Let Go Discover Je'kob's top songs & albums, curated artist radio stations & more. Listen to Je'kob on Pandora today!
03/09/2024
Running low and wanting to stock up on our delicious and oh-so-good for you honey or other bee products?! Message us TODAY to place an order for pick up before 9/8 as we will be unavailable 9/8-9/12/24. 💜
🐝 Be humble. Be well. 🐝
27/08/2024
Come on over to the St. Francis Farmers Market tomorrow (Wednesday, 8/28) to see us at our last scheduled farmers market of 2024! Stock up on our delicious raw honey, fresh bee pollen (for seasonal allergies and an energy boost), HOT honey, flavored creamed honeys, and handmade bodycare products made with our beeswax like lipbalm, healing salve, and lotion bars. With 2024’s honey extraction underway, this may be the last place you’ll find us for a while, but know that porch pick up is an option as well from our home in Zimmerman. If you’d like to reserve a special order for pick up at the market, send us a message today! Hope to see you there! 💜🍯🐝💕
24/08/2024
🐝 Humblebeez’ 2024 honey 🍯 extraction has begun! 91 supers, here we go!
20/08/2024
Come find us at our last Zimmerman Farmer’s Market of 2024 TODAY (8/20)!! We have one more market next week in St Francis before we call it an end to farmers market season. Honey extraction will begin next week and we are ramping up for the 91 supers we pulled this week and last 🥵 🍯🐝☀️ Stay tuned for festivals and other events and locations where you can find us and our products. 💕💜
18/08/2024
Preview from the past couple days…1 more to go! 🐝🥵😬😴🤪 Stay tuned…
14/08/2024
Where you’ll find us and our delicious honey and bee products this evening (8/14)!
Our events have been fewer and further between as we prepare for pulling supers late this week and next 😃 and a week or so later… extraction! 🍯 🤪🥵 SO much to do in SO little time, so come visit us while you can! Limited quantities of healing salve (for bites, cuts, scrapes and stings), lotion bars (to nourish working hands), and lip balm (to prevent chapped and drying lips) remaining until we make more. Bee pollen (for allergies and energy), beeswax (to make wood and leather conditioners or bodycare products, for seamstresses, in the shop, to make candles, etc) and bee propolis (to make tinctures with it’s prophylactic properties), HOT honey (for added kick), hickory honey (think charcuterie boards or a ham & cheese sandwich), creamed (spreadable) and raw honeys, too.
Hope to see you there! 🐝
Third and final queen install at Prairie Restorations, Inc. just before storms rolled through. Even though these colonies were impacted heavily by the bear in Elk River, it seems they’re recovering decently given the vast resources available to them on the farm- but they had in fact gone queenless as a result of attack. What a blessing it is to have them there!
Then, scoped out the colony that was missing a frame (8 instead of 9, as 1 frame was broken by the bear) in hopes of adding the salvaged capped brood section (see photo below) frame for repair and revival. However, they had ever so quickly replaced it already, so we unfortunately could not add it. It’s been a few days since it happened (fell off frame), so fluctuation in temps and moving it also affect viability. What a day of emotions, heat, and HUMIDITY it’s been! 🥵
Time-lapse of second Queen install. What you can’t really see in this is that while the third queen cage was sitting atop the colony to the left of this one, field bees had begun to ball around her which made us suspicious of attack, so I needed to walk that cage away and blow off the bees- which is why the camera drifted to her location briefly- so that she’s be safe and protected, available for install at the main apiary up front.
Installing the first of 3 queens (the colonies that had been attacked by the bear in Elk River). This is on a taller colony at our second apiary site at Prairie Restorations, Inc.
After getting our 3 queens this morning, I added the marshmallows while we were driving! Quick video to show what I mean.
Intimidating morning video 2: What NOT to do!
Please note, we were just coached over the phone as to how to do this, no prior experience. I successfully loaded the Queen and a couple attendants while on the phone. Loaded another two attendants after disconnecting to allow for better concentration. Queen 2 was easy-peasy: load, add workers.
Then THIS. Chris forgot the process entirely and the result was this video! I can’t help but laugh, but in the heat, sweat, and adrenaline of wrangling these bees, life happened and thankfully we still have her! 💜 🐝
This morning, we took on a bit of an intimidating task: loading up 3 queens into cages (no previous experience handling in this way), along with attendants, rather than merely a simple pay-and-go pick up.
We have not yet ventured into Queen-rearing ourselves, though it’s been on our radar and is a goal for next year (was hoping to this year, but time escaped uas). However, we met another beek who has successfully mastered this and happened to be local. We were unexpectedly in need of 3 queens for our colonies attacked by the bear, but with the beek unavailable to be there in person, he “walked us through” his yard and coached us over the phone as to what to do. I (Stephanie) suffer some pretty bad responses to stings, especially those in the hands or joints, so was very nervous to do this bare handed (though it’s how we first embarked on our beekeeping journey, but that changed as my reactions increased), so a bit nerve-wracking and exhilarating at the same time! I also take all the photos and videos for our page, so I’m often not in the images, but I did ask my husband to snap a quick video of me loading the nurse bees/attendants as proof of my bravery (I didn’t think to ask before loading the queens)! Here it is.
I did not get any videos of me loading the two queens- which is a different technique (grab by the wings, place in cupped hand and allow her to walk into the JZBZ tunnel), but I did get one of Chris selecting the third queen, though he lapsed and entirely forgot the process, so it was a bit of a doozy. Stay tuned for video 2 of that! 😂
30/07/2024
What do YOU think of our new logo?! Be honest. It’ll take us some time as we phase out labels and slowly transition to the new colors, but we’re excited to have a more sophisticated and simple look coming soon, something that can be used in a variety of applications. Nothing else is changing. Same simple people, same healthy products, same motto of being humble and well, and the same goals of bringing health and wellness to bodies, minds and souls wherever we go. Be blessed!
Mite check Video 2. Shaking honeybees coated in powdered sugar VIGOROUSLY for 1 minute to dislodge varroa mites and gauge a colony count for colony 1. This method is accurate enough for us vs doing an alcohol wash which kills 100% of the bees to obtain a mite count. These ladies get a dose of sugar and survive for the most part- minimal mortality over the years. Check it out! 🐝
Mite check video 1. Yes, mite check, not mic check. 😂 This is how we do it- less aggravated bees with this method vs dragging a cup down along the frame. Trust me, I’ve had enough stings in the past to know. Video 2 will show the shaking of the bees. Check ‘em out. 🐝
29/07/2024
Added this last-minute since the 8/6 market is cancelled (the community center had a scheduling mix up), so mark your calendars for tomorrow evening, 3:30-7pm! We WILL be there! 🍯🐝💜 Zimmerman Farmer’s Market- search FB for the group to stay up to date with which vendors will be there each week! Tuesdays at the Station 1 Event Center
All set up! Last market for us in St Francis for the month of July! 💜🍯🐝
20/07/2024
Come on over to East Bethel Booster Day for the live music, food, co****le tournament, story stroll, vendors galore, playground, fireworks and MORE! You won’t want to miss it on this beautiful day! ☀️ And, be sure to get some 🍯 to take home, pickles from Hennum's Homemade, Hot sauces and mustard from Red Ghost Foods, delicious BBQ sauce and seasonings from CT's Revival Bar-B-Que! 💜 🐝
18/07/2024
Yum!
A staple of any summer tablescape, cherries are beloved for their great flavor, numerous health benefits, and versatility. Head to our blog to learn more about the powerful stone fruit, how it came to the U.S., and get a few of our favorite 🍯 + 🍒 recipes, like this No Bake Choco Cherry Pie! https://buff.ly/46y1wjj
Tuesday night, after the Zimmerman Farmer’s Market, we needed to move quickly…🐻 came AGAIN and I got alerted while at the market…
🐝💜🦋🌱
Our Hive
Humblebeez is the honey of our homestead. As a homeschooling family, we live a humble life in faith, fellowship, and finances. We work towards growing in every facet of life while seeking to enrich the lives of those around us. Always working, always learning, and always growing to one day be called Good and Faithful Servant. Like the worker bees of the hive, we are constantly building and growing to reap what we sow (we’ve established our brood, so now on to the honey!). Our harvest is for the world but more importantly for the kingdom.
In our pursuit of health, healing, and wholeness, we have embarked upon the adventure of elderberry syrup. Not only is it an immune booster offering so many incredible benefits, it is absolutely DELICIOUS! It has been a saving grace for our family with many littles, fighting off illness and drastically reducing sick times when the “wilderness” hits. The ingredients work together as in a graceful dance, and they glide down the throat with such sweet excitement. Beyond the ingredients themselves, the true choreographer is the humble bee whose work often goes unseen. It is the humble bee who travels from flower to flower, pollinating each plant and making a harvest possible. It is the humble bee who works endlessly to meticulously form that intricate comb which was designed to bring forth life itself in every way. Wax, pollen, nectar, new bees (or brood), honey, and the cycle continues on and on. If it wasn’t for the bee, none of it (or this) would be possible.
As a mom with multiple multiples, and homeschooling on top of that, I do not have an overabundance of time. However, the investment of time and energy spent teaching our children how to plant seeds, garden and harvest, how to use our hands and our heart, how to pray and sit low, how to do all things for good is unparalleled. I often feel like a Queen Bee in our hive’s daily bustle. Observing the bee, its work, its dance, its hive is all so fascinating and all so rewarding; it’s teaching my family that working smarter and harder is truly worth the effort.
Thank you for taking the time to read about our story! We look forward to seeing what lies ahead for Humblebeez and hope that you will cheer us on as we we continue to learn, grow, and serve the world around us. Blessings and health to you!
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