April Newsletter: Exciting News, English Tea Parties are back, A Stressful Spring, Spring Nucs
Exciting News! Downtown Sarasota Farmers Market we are swarming your way!
Sarasota honey company is excited to announce that we will be joining the Downtown Sarasota Farmers Market starting in April! We will be located near the Madison’s restaurant which is near the Whole Foods. Our store will still be open on Saturdays from 11-4pm. We adjusted the Saturday hours after Alma did an analysis of sales traffic at the store on Saturdays.
Our Saturday tours have been put on hold due to renovations at the store. She is contemplating to scheduling the honeybee tours on Saturdays at 4 PM. but wanted to get her barrings with the start of the our new market booth at the Downtown Sarasota Farmers Market.
English Tea Parties Are Back with a Bonus DIY Resin Honeybee Jewelry Workshop by Driftwood Theory
Sarasota Honey Company is partnered with Driftwood Theory to bring a bee-autiful and fun collaboration. What better way to celebrate Earth Day by being one with nature! Join us for a special Resin experience creating Necklaces and a Garden tea party! We will be preserving REAL Honeycomb, Honeybees, and Wildflower all hand gathered and locally sourced from Sarasota Honey Co. in Resin !
Experience a private tour by Alma, the owner, to learn about the bees, beekeeping in Florida, benefits of the hive, duties of the hive, agriculture, and what makes Sarasota Honey Co. unique. Check out our bees, exotic chickens and a pollinator friendly garden.
Wrap up this fun event with a Traditional English Garden Tea Party! Sample a selction of Suncoast honeys paired with fruit and part-take in a variety of pastries, jams, fruit, finger sandwiches, and tea on fine linens and lace! Bee sure to bring your garden tea party hats and creativity to fun event! Honey Tasting-- Gift Goodie Bag & Giveaway! Shop Specials & More!
To register click the link below or call/text Alma at 941.726.8755
A stressful spring:
The spring season for beekeepers starts with the blooms of the orange groves and then the blueberry groves. These blossoms typically happen in February. We were all very happy to see that the blooms were happening early this year! We moved our bees to the orange and blueberry groves area or in mid - January and did a happy dance after seeing how well the bees went straight to work.
All was going incredibly well until we had the freezing February. What we discovered was that the bees ate everything that they had made up to that point and the many of the blossoms were destroyed by the freeze. The trees have since blossom again, but not in the same abundance. The extreme weather changes, from cold to heavy wind has made for a very stressful start of the citrus and honey season. All of our honey comes from the nectar of flowers, so we are at the mercy of what the bees are able to collect while fighting a head wind or cold, rainy weather patterns.
We have already heard storys of other beekeepers stressing out their ablity to fullfill obligations of orange blossom honey. In the past, we have heard storys of beekeepers feeding their bees a sugarwater while the bees are collecting nectar from blossoms in an atttempt to water the tap and fullfill thier obilgations. This process is something, Sarasota Honey Company refuses to do and why we feel our orange blossom honey out shines other orange blossom honey. This is why we can't sell in gallons and at times this honey sells in smaller bottles when supply is low. To do it right and for our customers to get the quality of honey they are use to when purchasing from us there just isn't an unlimited supply. I have heard Alma joke: "Want to go on a spritual journey that is guaranteed to test and grow your faith in God? Bring you closer to God... Let your livelihood and the livelihood of those you are resposible for, those that make what you do possible, let all that be dependent...on the success of business in argiculture. You can do everything right from a bussiness standpoint but you never have full control of nature. Just when you think you got it figured out...you made it! Mother Nature will humble you and remind you there is still much to learn" When I asked Alma, was she worried about the orange blossom honey? Her reply was, “At this point the only thing we can do is: let go, let God, and remember the birds and the flowers in the fields” Matthew 6:26-34
Reserve Your Spring Nucs
What is a Nuc?
Nuc is the best and more secure way to start hive because your colony will be off to a much better start than a colony started from packaged bees. A nuc is essentially a small working hive, whereas package bees are a box with bees with a queen. When buying package bees you have to supply the bees with a new home. You may run the risk of the bees rejecting the new home provided and take off elsewhere. Nucs come with frames filled with brood, honey, and pollen provided by the queen and bees of the nuc. The frames are well covered with enough bees to keep the brood warm and to take care of the small hive. A healthy, young, laying queen is also included with the nuc. A nuc will grow fast enough so that bees are an established colony and at full strength for when the honey flow starts.
What makes our Nucs Special: Our Nucs are "grown" not "thrown."
It is an accepted practice to throw together a nuc for sale. Large-scale beekeepers will throw together the needed 5 frames to make a nuc by taking frames from different hives. They will then shake a reasonable amount of bees into the box, pull and cage a queen and place her in the nuc. The nuc is then sealed and sold. The risk is that the bees may not accept the caged queen and you really do not know the quality of the queen you are getting. Most of these type of nucs are available for daytime pick up.
Our nucs are grown. Our nucs are started with a queen cell. The queen hatches in their nuc box, mates, and cared for by the bees that have been by her side since hatching. So that we can be sure of her temperament and laying pattern. We keep our queens for 3-6 weeks or until they have "grown" their nuc to the needed 5-8 frames. By receiving a "grown" nuc the new owner is receiving a nuc that is a true family and reflection of the quality of their queen
To reserve a nuc or for more information please call/text Alma: 941.726.8755
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