Clean Bee Soapworks
Extracting honey means to take honeycomb, and process it just enough to get the raw honey out of the comb into a jar, and then onto your table. We are careful to leave 60-80 pounds of honey on each hive for the bees. We only get the surplus which averages about 40 pounds per hive in a good year. Last year, 2020 we had ten hives making honey, the rest are making bees as part of our sustainability program. This year we are also preparing to sell more comb honey for the first time.
1. It is harder than it looks to cut straight pieces of comb, of a regular size.
2. There is natural variation in how thick the bees draw out and fill the individual honey comb sections.
3. Honey gets everywhere
4. Miscuts are the property of the beekeeper making the mistakes.... some mistakes may have been on purpose.
This
Honey comes in different colors, as the bees use different nectar sources throughout the spring.
These are the colors of our 2020 extractions.
Our Bees
We are a small apiary in Laurel MD, just south of the Patuxent Wildlife Center. The bees are worked by Kim, Mike and James Mehalick. Right now we have 45 hives, at the house and in three outyards. Our mating nucs are small hives, splits from our larger colonies with a new queen. We get no honey from a hive until it is in its second year.
In preparing our honey we keep it as natural as possible. We simply filter our honey, never heat it. It is full of all the goodness from the bees. Normally we have ttwo extractions to get the light yellow prized black locust honey. This pale honey is flavorful and wonderful, and is from the black locust tree one of the primary nectar sources here in Maryland. The tree flowers for 7-9 days in April. If the hives are not strong enough early - very little honey is made. We sell liquid honey in 2 oz honey bears, 8 oz and 1 pound sizes.
We are a small apiary in Laurel MD, just south of the Patuxent Wildlife Center. The bees are worked by Kim, Mike and James Mehalick. Right now we have 45 hives, at the house and in three outyards. Our mating nucs are small hives, splits from our larger colonies with a new queen. We get no honey from a hive until it is in its second year.
2021 is starting as a wonderful beeyear so far. The hives are doing well. On warmer days we are seeing lots of bees flying and checking out the neighborhood.
In preparing our honey we keep it as natural as possible. We simply filter our honey, never heat it. It is full of all the goodness from the bees. Normally we have ttwo extractions to get the light yellow prized black locust honey. This pale honey is flavorful and wonderful, and is from the black locust tree one of the primary nectar sources here in Maryland. The tree flowers for 7-9 days in April. If the hives are not strong enough early - very little honey is made. We sell liquid honey in 2 oz honey bears, 8 oz and 1 pound sizes.
We are always looking for opportunites to find new yards to put our bees in, specifically within 20 minutes of Old Bowie. Contact us at 301-552-2214 if you would like to host a hive
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