Paradise in the Pines - Apiary and Honey Sales

08/30/2026

OK, bee friends!
I’m tackling the BIG THREE of bee bodily functions today.
That’s right… we’re talking p**p, p*e, and yes — even farts. Let’s GO!
🐝Bee P**p
Bees digest nectar, pollen, and honey.
What comes out is bee p**p — usually a yellow or brown splat that:
-Has a distinct smell and texture
-Is often seen on hive exteriors, cars, or windows
Comes out during cleansing flights (because bees never p**p in the hive — they’re total clean freaks!)
🐝Bee P*e
Do bees p*e? Yes, but not like humans.
-Their bodies filter waste through something called Malpighian tubules (essentially bee kidneys!)
-They excrete uric acid (semi-solid p*e)
-It comes out the same place as p**p — yep, the back end
So… bee p*e and p**p are kind of a combo deal.
🐝Bee Farts
Yep, it’s real. Bees can fart — but don’t expect to hear or smell it.
-Bees produce gas as they digest nectar and pollen
-That gas exits right along with everything else
-It’s definitely not loud or smelly (they're tiny, and they eat sugar all day!)
Alright friends!! Now that we’ve officially cleared the air on all things related to our sweet honeybees’ bathroom habits the topic is (for now) put to rest.

*pictures do not belong to Bee Haven.

08/27/2026

When do drones get booted out of the hive, and where do all those bodies actually go?

As we head into late summer and autumn—typically stretching from August through October depending on the local flow—the colony starts tightening things up.
Day length shortens, forage dries up, and the mating season wraps up.

Since drones don’t forage, can't defend the hive, and eat a massive amount of honey resources, the workers view them as dead weight when preparing to hunker down for winter.
They cut off their protein supply, chew at their wings and legs, and forcefully heave them out into the cold.

That being said it’s always fascinating because you rarely walk out to a carpet of dead bees in front of the boxes.
Thousands of chunky drones disappear practically overnight,
but they don't pile up on the landing board for a few good reasons:

🐝Scavengers Clean House Fast: The second a weakened or evicted drone hits the ground, it’s a protein-packed meal.
Ants, yellow jackets, wasps, mice, and birds patrol the apiary yard and clear those bodies away with astonishing sp*ed.

🐝Getting Kicked Out and Scattered: Workers don’t just drop them right on the doorstep; they drag and harass them away from the entrance, or the rejected drones fly off and lack the energy to make it back. They end up scattered across the grass and brush surrounding the apiary.

🐝Dying Off Little by Little: While it feels sudden, the eviction happens bit by bit over a couple of weeks. Workers stop feeding them first, so they weaken and die off gradually, letting scavengers keep pace so a massive mountain of bees never accumulates
Bee Haven 2026
🐝Drifting: Desperate drones often try to drift into neighboring hives looking for a warm welcome, only to be rejected and killed away from their home colony entirely.

Worker bees kicking out the drones may seem a little harsh, but honeybees do this to increase their chances of surviving the long winter.


These pictures do not belong to Bee Haven

08/21/2026

What Makes a Good Quality Drone?

A high-quality drone needs:

🐝Excellent Nutrition: Plenty of incoming pollen and nectar while he is developing.
🐝Perfect Temperatures: A strong colony that can keep the brood nest warm and stable.
🐝The Right Space: Being raised in a proper-sized drone cell, rather than being crammed into a smaller worker cell.
🐝Proper Care: Being well-nurtured by nurse bees through all stages of his development.
🐝Good Genetics: Being created by a healthy, mated queen bee (as opposed to a struggling laying worker).

When we look at this criteria, a drone emerging in the middle of summer checks all of these boxes perfectly. The forage is blooming, the weather is warm, and the hive is thriving.

How Long Does a Drone Remain Fertile?
But here is where timing matters! After emerging, a young drone takes about 12 days to fully mature, go on his orientation flights, and get his reproductive system ready.
A drone generally stays at his peak fertility for a fairly short window—typically when he is between 10 and 21 days old. Once he hits that sweet spot in his second to third week of life, he is at his absolute best.
Yes, as the drone ages past 28 days or so, his s***m quality and overall vigor start to decline, and his seminal fluid can actually become too thick for successful mating.

So, What About the older drones?
So to answer this: if the person is talking about the age of a single drone, YES—as the drone ages, his fertility decreases.

However, in the late season, the queen and worker bees can still raise great quality drones as long as the colony has the nutrition, numbers, and environment they need!
If forage dries up and the weather cools down drastically, a colony might cut back on production or kick the older boys out to save resources. But that doesn't mean late-season drones are automatically bad.
That being said... I still have drone brood in my hives right now!.
Bee Haven 2026

When the weather turns cold, usually in October, the workers will kick out all the drones in order to save precious resources for the winter. New drones will be made in spring.

08/16/2026

What the Heck Is Raw Honey Anyway?

What is all the fuss is about raw honey, and is all honey raw straight out of the box?

While every single drop of honey starts off raw right inside the hive, what happens to it after extraction makes all the world of difference. Let’s break it down!

Raw Honey vs. Regular Store-Bought Honey
🐝Raw Honey: This is honey in its absolute purest form—straight from the hive frames to the extractor, strained just enough to catch stray beeswax bits and propolis, and then bottled directly.
It never gets heated (pasteurized) and never gets ultra-filtered. Because of that, it holds onto all of its natural pollen, live enzymes, and rich antioxidants. Bonus: real raw honey will crystallize and turn solid over time, which is actually the ultimate sign of purity!

🐝Commercial Honey: Most of those perfectly clear, pourable bottles sitting on standard grocery store shelves have gone through a lot of processing. It usually gets heated up to high temperatures to kill off natural yeasts and prevent it from ever crystallizing. Then it's pushed through ultra-fine pressure filters, which strips out nearly all the beneficial pollen grains. It gives it a longer shelf life on a shelf, but leaves behind a lot of the good stuff.

Are There Bee Parts in It?!
It is the question everyone wonders when they first picture honey coming straight out of a bustling hive!

The short answer is no, you won't find actual bee parts floating around in your honey jar. But the longer, more honest answer is that tiny microscopic traces can sometimes be found if you look under a lab microscope!

Even though raw honey isn't heavily processed, beekeepers don't just dump uncleaned honeycomb straight into a jar:
🐝The Extraction Process: When we spin honey out of the frames using an extractor, it flows out through a series of strainers or mesh screens designed to catch larger bits of beeswax, stray propolis, and any accidental debris.

🐝What Remains: By the time it makes it into your bottling bucket, it is smooth, golden, and completely free of any noticeable fragments. While you won't find legs or wings, raw honey does contain microscopic pollen grains and tiny traces of propolis and enzymes—which is actually how scientists can test a jar to see what flowers the bees were visiting!

🐝Why It’s Worth the Hype
Keeping the Good Stuff Alive: Heating honey above hive temperatures destroys those delicate live enzymes and natural compounds the bees worked so hard to make.

🐝Embracing the Crystallization: A lot of folks see a jar of honey turning cloudy or grainy and think it has gone bad. Not true at all! Real honey just wants to return to its solid state. A quick, gentle warm-up in some warm water brings it right back to liquid if you prefer it that way.

At the end of the day, raw honey is just pure, honest honey—wonderfully pure, full of natural goodness, and completely free of any creepy-crawlies straight from the bees to your pantry!

08/08/2026

08/03/2026

People often think a beehive is just a peaceful, happy little city, but the truth is it’s a fast-paced, high-stakes environment where the colony’s survival comes first.
It’s not "drama" like we have—it’s just business. If a bee isn't pulling her weight or if something threatens the hive, the girls don't mess around.

Here is how they keep things running:
🐝The "Police" Force: Only the queen should be laying eggs. If a worker bee starts laying her own, the other bees will hunt those eggs down and remove them. Sometimes they even go after the worker herself to set her straight!

🐝The Queen's Power Struggle : When it’s time for a new queen to take over, she doesn't wait for a vote. She goes on a mission to find any rivals and take them out. In this colony, there’s only room for one queen.

🐝No Slackers Allowed: You might think a bee could just take a nap whenever she wants, but not in this hive! If a worker bee is found "sleeping" on the job too much, the other bees will actually grab her and nudge or "notch" her to get her moving again. Everyone has a job to do, and the colony doesn't have time for loafers.

🐝The Big Drone Kick-out: Come fall, the drones (the boys) are essentially dead weight. They don’t forage or defend the hive, so when food gets tight, the workers get tough. They bite them, drag them out, and lock the doors. It’s hard to watch, but it’s how the colony saves their winter stores.

🐝Cleaning House: If the bees spot brood that’s sick or infested with mites, they’ll uncap the cell and pull it out immediately. It’s called "hygienic behavior," and it’s one of the smartest ways they keep the whole colony healthy.

🐝The Queen’s Retirement: The queen runs the show through her pheromones, which act like a signal to the whole hive that she’s healthy and in charge. But when those signals start to fade, the workers know it immediately. They can sense when she’s getting old or "sick," and they don’t hesitate to start "supersedure"—they’ll begin raising a new queen to take her place so the colony doesn't skip a beat.
Bee haven 2026
It might look harsh to us, but it’s all about the greater good. My Bee Haven bees are a fascinating, hardworking bunch—and they definitely don’t let anyone slide!

07/19/2026

What the heck do the bees do with all of Water?

While water isn't an ingredient in honey, it is absolutely essential to the process of managing the hive.

Here is how:
🐝Cooling the Hive: When it gets hot, the bees bring water back to the hive and spread it over the brood combs. Other bees stand there and fan their wings, creating an air-conditioning effect. This keeps the hive from overheating, which is critical for the brood.

🐝Thinning Food: Sometimes stored honey gets too thick or crystallizes. The bees will mix it with water to thin it out so it is easier to feed to the larvae.
Bee Haven 2026
🐝Staying Hydrated: Just like any living thing, the bees need to drink to stay healthy, especially when they are working hard.

When I see them busy at the water source, I know the colony is working hard to keep things steady inside.

07/07/2026

My girls keeping themselves busy.♥️

07/06/2026

My bees working at MI Lavender Patch Farms.🐝

06/30/2026

What are Africanized bees?
let's chat about these hotheads for a minute!

You’ve probably heard the term “killer bees” before. It’s a pretty dramatic nickname, but the reality is a bit more complicated.
Understanding how they operate is just good hive management and keeps everyone safe.

What the heck are they?
Africanized bees are a hybrid between African honey bees and European honey bees. They were brought to Brazil in the 1950s to try and boost honey production, but some swarms escaped and started moving north, finally crossing into the southern U.S. around 1990.

Why Are They So Feared?
A lot of people think their venom is worse, but that's a myth. Their venom is exactly the same as a standard European honey bee. The difference is purely their attitude. They are incredibly defensive.
If you stir them up, they will:
-Defend their hives in massive numbers.
-Chase you down for up to a quarter-mile if they think you're a threat.
-Swarm constantly and completely pack up and leave the hive (absconding) at the slightest bit of stress.

Where Do They Live?
They are big fans of warm climates, so their spread usually slows way down or stops when they hit colder northern regions.
Right now, you mainly find them established in southern U.S. states like Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, and California, as well as Mexico and Central America.

How Do They Differ From Our European Bees?
-They have a hair-trigger reaction to any disturbance around the hive.
-They swarm and abscond way more frequently.
-They start foraging earlier in the morning and stay closer to home.
-They can be highly productive, but they usually form smaller colonies.

Can They Be Managed?
Yes, but it takes an experienced hand and zero shortcuts. Beekeepers who operate in Africanized territory have to adapt by wearing full gear every time, limiting how long they keep hives open, and constantly requeening with certified, gentle European queens to keep the hive's temperament down.

The Big Risk: Open Mating
This is a crucial point for anyone trying to raise queens in those areas. If you let your virgin queens open mate naturally where Africanized bees are present, they are highly likely to mate with Africanized drones.

When that happens, your next generation turns into an aggressive, unmanageable hive that swarms constantly and poses a major risk to your neighbors or livestock. If you live in an area where these hotheads are known to reside, you really want to avoid open mating altogether. Instead, look at using completely isolated mating yards, instrumentally inseminated queens, or buying marked queens from a trusted, gentle source.

What to Do If You Encounter a Hot Swarm or Hive:
-Do not swat at them and do not panic.
-Run in a straight line immediately and cover your face.
-Get inside a house or a closed vehicle as fast as you can.
-Never try to handle or remove a wild colony like this yourself—call a professional pest control service or an experienced local removal specialist.
Bee Haven 2026
At the end of the day, Africanized bees are tough survivors with unique genetics. They deserve a lot of respect and very careful management.
Staying educated and keeping our hives gentle is how we keep this hobby safe and fun for everyone.