February 9, 2010
"Well the weather outside is STILL frightful . . . . "
As we all know, the groundhog saw his shadow. And true to prediction, the weather is nasty. Just a few moments ago my sweetheart and I stepped outside to see exactly what we were seeing fall from the sky. It looked like snow, but turned out to be a fine mist.
I'm glad to report that my bees are all doing good. I seized a couple of the warm days last month (temps 60 or above) to check my bees. A few hives were low on food reserves for which I gladly gave them my own supercharged syrup mix to give them a decent quality substitute for honey. For the record, nothing a human could feed a bee is as good as the honey they produce themselves. For that reason we leave generous reserves of honey on the hives to overwinter. Many a beekeeper has lost hives during the cold months to starvation because they were greedy and robbed more honey than they should have.
January has not been lost though. We've spent a lot of time in the kitchen making lip balms, lotions, etc. If you've not seen it yet check out the newest products in our store. We scrambled to fill orders for BEEMU Lotion Bars last month and had to order several thousand lip tubes to meet demand for our lip balms. Fire Ant First Aid continues to be in high demand for non insect related skin problems as well.
I missed the annual beekeeping symposium at Auburn this year. That hurt, however I plan to pick my beekeeper friends brains about the event. I've already heard that Africanized bees have moved north of where they were known to be this time last year. That's the bad news. The good news is that our Department of Agriculture, and the Apiary division in particular has taken a pro-active postition to deal with it. A public service initiative is already in place to educate the public. If you are in Alabama, expect to hear more about it in the months to come.
That being said we hope you get lots of Valentine's love, no extra pounds, and that the rest of February is good to you. Stay warm my friends!
Ros Horton
Dale County, Alabama