beekeeping
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Bee watching
People who don’t keep bees think this is weird, but one of the relaxing things we do around here at Maywood is to go down by the bees and just watch them. It’s a nice spot for sitting, down the hill from the house, tucked back in the woods. It’s very secluded ( in spite of Continue reading
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Lip balm
Making lip balm is one project I’ve been wanting to do with our beeswax. It is relatively easy and foolproof. The success of a lip balm has more to do with preference than with messing up a recipe. (This reminds me of a time when I made chocolate truffles as Christmas gifts. The raspberry truffle Continue reading
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Purifying the beeswax
The most obvious advantage of maintaining bees is to have honey. A secondary advantage is to have the beeswax. It’s an amazing product with so many practical applications. Last year we harvested our first honey. This year we want to find uses for the wax. The first step is to get the wax from the Continue reading
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Harvesting the honey
Let the honey harvest begin! Sunday afternoon John began harvesting honey. A sudden thunderstorm cut his work short, so he only pulled frames from one hive. The rest will have to wait until next weekend. He was able to pull ten frames of honey from that one hive, yielding about four gallons of honey. We’ll know Continue reading
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It’s almost honey time
It’s a rainy day and the honeybees are hunkered down in their hives, probably fanning each other like crazy to keep the heat down. Next week we will be on the beach in Cape May, where John will be hunkered down under the umbrella to keep the sun off. But when we get back, it will be Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 