Honey & Smoke

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Goshen, NY
Honey & Smoke

Turning hobbies into healthy provisions for others! We offer wild honey, smoked provisions and spices

07/18/2024

At long last, her highness has emerged!! It’s been many weeks since we split our hives and since then we’ve been doing regular wellness checks to see how the new hive was getting on, only to discover they were having a hard time creating a new queen. 🐝
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Yesterday, the new queen was spotted and looking very healthy! In the coming days we’ll jump in quickly to see if she’s been laying any eggs and can rest easy for a bit, hoping that hurdle is behind us. Hopefully, this newer hive can increase their numbers and grow strong like their sister hive next door.
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In our location of the Hudson Valley, we’re entering a period known as dearth, which means less nectar-producing flowers for a period of time that can lead to many issues for honeybees and other pollinators. We are actually lucky because we have an abundance of Japanese knotweed growing on our property (and surrounding area) which provides a huge nutrition boost for our hives starting in the next few weeks as they begin to flower! Super invasive and the bane of many people’s existence due to its ability to take over everything, knotweed is what gives our honey that very dark, rich color and lemony, almost tangy flavor. A little research showed that Japanese knotweed actually has many health benefits when ingested, inhaled and used in other ways. It might be worth researching a bit more instead of pouring chemicals all over it and trying to burn it down! 🤷🏻‍♀️

Anyway… all hail our new queen bee!

06/24/2024

We’ve posted a lot about the honey and honeybees but no mention of where “smoke” comes from in our endeavor!
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Our peppers are popping!
1.) looks like a cute little pepper blossom but this will be the almighty Ghost Pepper in just a few short weeks. These peppers land towards the top of the Scoville Scale coming in at 655,000-1,041,000 heat units!!
2.) Sugar Rush Peach Pepper comes in at 50,000-150,000 Scoville units and is often used in sauce blends to help mellow out the hotter peppers without making it too mild we’re also growing a variety of their striped cousins.
3.)Chinese 5 Color Pepper- 30,000-50,000 heat units. Beautiful color that gets hotter as it ripens and often surpasses the 50,000 unit rating.
4.) Jalapeño Pepper - the most familiar and often used pepper next to the bell pepper, vary around 2,000-8,000 heat units. Yeah, read that again! In comparison with its friends above, seems super mild but as we all know, they pack the heat and flavor!!!
5.) Bell Pepper 🫑. The old standby! These generally don’t rate on the scale since they are all about sweet flavor and even help to cool down spicy dishes!
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There are about a dozen different varieties of peppers in our spice garden as of now. Bryan is the mastermind and cultivator for this part of our plan! These will be dried and grinder into powders, others will be sauced, smoked or stuffed in various ways.
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So that’s a quick introduction to part of our Smoke(d) provisions and process! We can’t wait to share more as the season unfolds.

06/12/2024

A little update from the hives! Yesterday we added a honey super to the original hive since they seem to be thriving and pulling in lots of pollen and nectar. The ‘honey super’ is a box placed on top of the hive where bees can begin to store honey once they have all the food they need down below in their hive. We’re using a medium “super” because they can get very heavy when the frames are full of honey so these sized boxes are more manageable. As we inspect throughout the summer, we’ll add more supers when the current ones start to get full.
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As far as our new hive from the split we did a few weeks ago, still no queen but we added a frame full of 1-3 day old eggs from the existing hive in the hopes that they will start creating a new queen. The nurse bees will choose a bunch of eggs to attempt to make into a queen and the worker bees will feed those eggs “royal jelly” which is a substance they secrete through their heads. The milk like substance has amino acids, proteins, vitamins and more to facilitate the transition from a regular bee into a queen bee. They then will make queen cells around the potential queens for them to grow in. The first to emerge is the new queen. We’ll keep you updated!! 🤞🏼

05/21/2024

Happy World Bee Day!!! 🐝 what better way to celebrate than to inspect the hive and find out it’s time to split!! Their numbers have rebounded well after some winter loss and they have been buzzzy!!!
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A hive split is when you divide an existing colony into two by taking frames that have brood (eggs, larvae and pupae) as well as ample nourishment and place them in a “new” hive box. The purpose is to reduce the chances of them swarming from being too crowded, to create multiple hives and healthy reproduction and in some ways to reduce mites and other colony disease.
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To accomplish this, we shook out many of the worker bees from existing frames to help ensure that “nurse” bees were put into the new hive. They will be the ones that help create a new queen! If they are successful, a new queen will emerge in about 2+ weeks. That queen will then go on a mating flight and begin producing her own brood. This new colony will be genetic descendants of our existing queen who has ruled over a friendly and productive hive so far! It’s a lot moving parts, nature, luck, observation and minimal interference from us! Wish the new hive well for us!
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Aside from our OG white hive boxes and the new pink hive boxes, we’ve decided to name the hives after goddesses from both of our ancestral roots. The white hive will now be known as Beyla after the Norse goddess of honey, fertility and mead. The pink hive is named Brigid, the Celtic goddess of nature including bees, honey and mead. This will help us differentiate and take notes as the two colonies live side by side.
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As always a special thanks for the wisdom and guidance from ! I was the photographer today since I got home just as they were suiting up and heading in. I love that Bryan and I both get hands on time and are learning so much along the way!! ~E

04/23/2024

Went in for a hive inspection today and everything looks strong! We caught a glimpse of her Highness and some brood (various stages of eggs, larvae, pupa). Lots of foragers bringing in bright orange pollen which is likely from the dandelions! First food!!
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We hope to split the hive in May which I will explain further once I’ve had the chance to assist and experience the process.
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Since we’re still experiencing cold nights and temperature swings, the bees are in need of some supplementation. About 6 weeks ago we added a honey super that contained 8 frames of capped honey they made last year and which we had froze over winter to preserve. Those frames are now clean! Tomorrow I’ll set up the 1:1 sugar water to help keep them hydrated and set up for health while we await the late Spring/summer pollen surge!
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It’s the beginning of swarm season so if you see a large cluster of bees in a tree or other surfaces, check out your local beekeeping groups for help, do not call exterminators. Most beekeepers will come get them for free and give them a good home. Do not spray!

04/14/2024

As we kick off our second year in beekeeping, I had the idea to use this page as a place to share our photos and experiences as well as to hopefully educate those who are curious about all that is involved. We won’t have honey until Fall and there is a lot that can happen between now and then so I thought it would be cool to share more about the fascinating world of honeybees!
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In this photo, a worker bee in (foraging stage) gathers pollen from peach blossoms on our property. She’s got quite a bit already stuck to her pollen basket or “pollen pants”. She goes from flower to flower collecting specks of pollen and uses her forelegs and saliva from her tongue to wipe from her head and face onto her hind legs where it forms a pollen load that’s easier to carry back to the hive. The pollen is mostly used to feed the larvae but also serves other nourishment purposes that I’ll get into more at some point!
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Of course, this process is also what contributes to honeybees and other insects as being necessary pollinators and crucial to the food chain and crops. As they travel from flower to flower, they pick up and drop pollen from male parts of plants to female parts of plants aiding in reproduction. Honeybees are not the only pollinators, but they are great at it which is part of the reason why they need to be protected and understood. 🖤

10/20/2023

Our first batch of Wild Honey!
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All dressed up and ready to go, we’ve got a limited amount of jars to sell locally if anyone is interested. Straight honey from our hive, nothing added, 100% pure.
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-1lb. Jar $11
-0.5lb. Jar $6
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Online ordering is not available this season, but stay tuned and follow for info on our new projects as they evolve!!

Address

Goshen, NY
10924

Telephone

+18453135343

Website

http://honeyandsmokeny.com/

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