Honey Production
We bring our bees to SE Texas every November to escape the brutal cold of Minnesota’s winters. The bees have a tough time surviving a southern winter now. In February we start to raise queen bees for sale and to replace the old queens in each hive. We make our divisions in March and early April. The bees are too weak at this point to make a lot of honey at this time in Texas. But they make enough to grow rapidly. We try and time the size of the hives we make up, with the start of our main honey flow (Basswood trees), which bloom around the 4th of July for 10-14 days. We need a population of 50,000-60,000 bees in each colony to make a decent crop of honey. One bee will produce about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in its life. A strong hive will have to fly 55,000 miles and visit 2 million flowers to make just one pound of honey. So, if we make the hives too weak in Texas, or they take a pesticide hit, they won’t make an average crop of honey (approx. 100 lbs. per colony). If we make them up too strong, too early, or the honey flow starts later in July, they will swarm and will make us half a crop. Not good. We basically work all year for a 10–14-day window to make our crop. We Demaree all 2,000 colonies in mid-June. This allows us to have massive populations with minimal swarming issues. To bring the bees back to Minnesota requires 4 semi-trucks. We time the arrival of the bees with the emergence of the first dandelions of spring. This way they have no interruption in brood rearing. The hives get set out into about 90 bee yards in Ottertail, Becker, Hubbard, Clay, and Wilkin counties up here in NW Minnesota. Most of the yards are solar fenced to keep out the bears. We run a radius of 50-75 miles from our farm north of Perham, MN. We must go where the flowers are. We produce Basswood honey, Wildflower honey, Clover honey, Buckwheat honey, and occasionally Sunflower Honey. Each type of honey has its own flavor and characteristics. We add no flavorings. The type of honey is determined by the plants present in each area. Keep in mind a bee can only forage 5 miles. Therefore, if there are no basswood trees for several miles, but there is a lot of sweet clover and alfalfa like out in the open prairies, the honey is deemed to be clover honey. Likewise, around the lakes where there are lots of basswood trees, and very little clover and alfalfa (due to decline in dairy farms), the honey has predominant flavor of basswood. Pollen analysis has shown that our basswood honey is typically 65-85% basswood. The honey harvest starts in the last few days of July, once the honey is ripened and capped over at under 18.4 % moisture content. We have a 60-frame automatic extracting line. We can extract 15-25 barrels a day depending on how many people are working. It Takes us 5-6 weeks, working Monday through Saturday to get done before the honey crystalizes in the comb.The extracting season wraps up in Mid-September. We prepare the bees for fall and winter and transport back down to Texas, to start the next season all over again.
BASSWOOD HONEY Basswood or linden honey, comes from the blossoms of the basswood tree. It is a beautifully light-colored honey. It has a fragrant floral smell to it, tastes clean and crisp contains mild citrusy notes, with a nice hint of mint at the end. It is excellent on toast or fresh bread. It pairs well with sharp cheese. (I love sharp cheddar with an apple and basswood honey). It is fantastic in tea due to its minty flavor. I have made some beautiful mead with it as well. It seems to offset bitter fruits like cranberry and chokecherry. If clover is too sweet for you, or you are a native Minnesotan, this would probably be your favorite. 80% of the honey we produce is basswood. Minnesota is famous for its basswood honey. If you’re a Minnesotan, this is the honey you grew up on as a kid. Out of state tourists stock up on our basswood honey while on vacation. You can’t find good basswood honey outside of MN, WI, MI, NY, and VT. The following towns we produce our basswood honey around are:Ottertail, Perham, Vergas, Pelican Rapids, Lake Park, Detroit Lakes, Frazee, Wolf Lake, Butler, New York Mills, and Deer Creek.
WILDFLOWER HONEY Our wildflower honey is usually a little darker than our basswood honey. For sure, it’ll have a more golden color or reddish tint to it. It has a bolder taste than basswood honey, but without the slight citrusy and minty taste. It is very mild. It’s a great all-around honey that is not sickeningly sweet. It works well with cooking and baking. And is good for toast, bread, P&J sandwiches, and biscuits. I like to use it in my mead recipes when I want to add more body or robustness than simple sweetness to my batch. It works well with any fruit you can think of to make wine. Our wildflower locations are in Eastern Becker and Hubbard Counties. We have hives placed around Ponsford, Snellman, Osage, Smoky Hills S.F., Two Inlets S.F., south of Itasca State Park, Park Rapids, Nevis, Dorset, and Akeley Minnesota.
CLOVER Clover honey encompasses the plants in the legume family. Most of our clover species in our neck of the woods are yellow sweet clover, white sweet clover, alfalfa, birds-foot trefoil, Dutch white clover, alsike clover, purple and white prairie clover, and sometimes we’ll see some vetch. We produce about a semi-load of very premium white clover honey each year. Our clover honey is not water white like out in the Dakotas, but closer to our basswood in color. Very light. Very mild but can be sickening sweet. If you have a huge, sweet tooth, this is the honey for you. Or maybe you just want to add pure sweetness to something without any other flavors getting in the way. It is awesome on vanilla ice cream with salted sunflower seeds. It works very well for cooking and baking. It is usually the favorite of kids. I use it a lot in fruit meads as it won’t overpower the fruit I’m using. It doesn’t add anything interesting, other than just being sweet. Our clover locations are out on the prairies where there are very few trees. Certainly, no basswood trees. We are out in Clay, and Wilkin counties along the shorelines of ancient Lake Aggassiz or down in the old lakebed along flood control and buffer strip systems. The towns out here we are near include Rollag, Barnesville, Breckenridge, Tintah, and Wendell Minnesota. BUCKWHEAT HONEY Our buckwheat yards are located around the south side of Ottertail Lake just south of the town of Ottertail. Bees absolutely love buckwheat. We’ve had them fly 6 miles to get to it, 3 miles of that distance was over open water. When the fields are in bloom, they look like snow covered fields. The blossoms are stark white. The wax the bees cap the honey with is a brilliant white, but the buckwheat honey itself is very dark. The best stuff is black as a cup of coffee. The buckwheat honey smells like buckwheat pancakes. Our entire building smells like breakfast when we bring it in. People have a love it or hate it reaction to tasting buckwheat honey for the first time. It is strong and robust. It is good on hot biscuits with butter. Some people like to add it tp their coffee with a lot of cream (tastes like a snickers bar). It is very good on a delicate vanilla ice cream like Breyers. The coldness of the ice cream makes the honey taste like caramel. Where buckwheat honey really shines is in cooking and grilling. Use it to make marinades and sauces. Add a few tablespoons to your baked beans, it’ll put them over the top. I’ve used it in meads. It’s probably better in a chocolate mead. However, I haven’t had too many people like the buckwheat aftertaste left in your mouth. Buckwheat honey is very high in antioxidants, and excellent to use as a natural cough suppression. It is very sticky and will stick to the back of your throat longer than other honeys. SUNFLOWER HONEY We don’t make sunflower honey every year. At least not pure enough. Only oilseed varieties yield nectar. The big rangy confectionary plants do not. Some oilseed fields will not yield a drop of honey at all, though they are a few hundred acres in size. It seems that whenever scientists start messing with plant genetics, the nectar secretion gene gets shut down. This is also true with the buckwheat plant. The old standard time-tested varieties yield a lot of honey. The newer hybrids yield half of what we used to get.Sunflower honey has a beautiful golden color and is the color of honey that you think of in your mind’s eye. It is tangy, it is zesty, yet delicate. It makes you salivate. It is fantastic on peanut butter sandwiches, crackers, and ice cream. It is fantastic with wine and cheese. It makes beautiful mead. Especially, when making a mead from apples. The creamed honey we make from it is crazy good.
CREAMED HONEY We get many compliments on our creamed honey. There are many tricks involved in making it smooth. Basically, we stir in 10% sugared honey, fill the tubs, and store them at 57 deg. Fahrenheit for 10-14 days. 57 degrees is the optimum temp for honey to sugar. The further removed from this temp (hotter or cooler) the slower the honey will crystallize and set-up. Honey will not freeze. In fact, you can store it in your freezer to keep it fresh as the day you bought it. It will not sugar in your freezer. Take it out and place on the counter at room temp for an hour or 2 and it will squeeze or pour out again. Honey is one of the thickest and heaviest liquids known to man. It weighs 12 pounds to the gallon. BEESWAX They say it takes 7-8 pounds of honey for the bees to turn into a pound of wax. We produce 4,000 pounds a season, depending on how fat the frames are filled out with honey. The color of the wax varies from yellow to gold and has beautiful natural honey and bee scent to it. It makes wonderful candles, lip balms, salves, and lotions. Beeswax melts at 160F vs 120F compared to soy and paraffin. Thus, it will burn longer, brighter, and cleaner. Beeswax candles won’t smoke while you burn them.
BASSWOOD HONEY Basswood or linden honey, comes from the blossoms of the basswood tree. It is a beautifully light-colored honey. It has a fragrant floral smell to it, tastes clean and crisp contains mild citrusy notes, with a nice hint of mint at the end. It is excellent on toast or fresh bread. It pairs well with sharp cheese. (I love sharp cheddar with an apple and basswood honey). It is fantastic in tea due to its minty flavor. I have made some beautiful mead with it as well. It seems to offset bitter fruits like cranberry and chokecherry. If clover is too sweet for you, or you are a native Minnesotan, this would probably be your favorite. 80% of the honey we produce is basswood. Minnesota is famous for its basswood honey. If you’re a Minnesotan, this is the honey you grew up on as a kid. Out of state tourists stock up on our basswood honey while on vacation. You can’t find good basswood honey outside of MN, WI, MI, NY, and VT. The following towns we produce our basswood honey around are:Ottertail, Perham, Vergas, Pelican Rapids, Lake Park, Detroit Lakes, Frazee, Wolf Lake, Butler, New York Mills, and Deer Creek.
WILDFLOWER HONEY Our wildflower honey is usually a little darker than our basswood honey. For sure, it’ll have a more golden color or reddish tint to it. It has a bolder taste than basswood honey, but without the slight citrusy and minty taste. It is very mild. It’s a great all-around honey that is not sickeningly sweet. It works well with cooking and baking. And is good for toast, bread, P&J sandwiches, and biscuits. I like to use it in my mead recipes when I want to add more body or robustness than simple sweetness to my batch. It works well with any fruit you can think of to make wine. Our wildflower locations are in Eastern Becker and Hubbard Counties. We have hives placed around Ponsford, Snellman, Osage, Smoky Hills S.F., Two Inlets S.F., south of Itasca State Park, Park Rapids, Nevis, Dorset, and Akeley Minnesota.
CLOVER Clover honey encompasses the plants in the legume family. Most of our clover species in our neck of the woods are yellow sweet clover, white sweet clover, alfalfa, birds-foot trefoil, Dutch white clover, alsike clover, purple and white prairie clover, and sometimes we’ll see some vetch. We produce about a semi-load of very premium white clover honey each year. Our clover honey is not water white like out in the Dakotas, but closer to our basswood in color. Very light. Very mild but can be sickening sweet. If you have a huge, sweet tooth, this is the honey for you. Or maybe you just want to add pure sweetness to something without any other flavors getting in the way. It is awesome on vanilla ice cream with salted sunflower seeds. It works very well for cooking and baking. It is usually the favorite of kids. I use it a lot in fruit meads as it won’t overpower the fruit I’m using. It doesn’t add anything interesting, other than just being sweet. Our clover locations are out on the prairies where there are very few trees. Certainly, no basswood trees. We are out in Clay, and Wilkin counties along the shorelines of ancient Lake Aggassiz or down in the old lakebed along flood control and buffer strip systems. The towns out here we are near include Rollag, Barnesville, Breckenridge, Tintah, and Wendell Minnesota. BUCKWHEAT HONEY Our buckwheat yards are located around the south side of Ottertail Lake just south of the town of Ottertail. Bees absolutely love buckwheat. We’ve had them fly 6 miles to get to it, 3 miles of that distance was over open water. When the fields are in bloom, they look like snow covered fields. The blossoms are stark white. The wax the bees cap the honey with is a brilliant white, but the buckwheat honey itself is very dark. The best stuff is black as a cup of coffee. The buckwheat honey smells like buckwheat pancakes. Our entire building smells like breakfast when we bring it in. People have a love it or hate it reaction to tasting buckwheat honey for the first time. It is strong and robust. It is good on hot biscuits with butter. Some people like to add it tp their coffee with a lot of cream (tastes like a snickers bar). It is very good on a delicate vanilla ice cream like Breyers. The coldness of the ice cream makes the honey taste like caramel. Where buckwheat honey really shines is in cooking and grilling. Use it to make marinades and sauces. Add a few tablespoons to your baked beans, it’ll put them over the top. I’ve used it in meads. It’s probably better in a chocolate mead. However, I haven’t had too many people like the buckwheat aftertaste left in your mouth. Buckwheat honey is very high in antioxidants, and excellent to use as a natural cough suppression. It is very sticky and will stick to the back of your throat longer than other honeys. SUNFLOWER HONEY We don’t make sunflower honey every year. At least not pure enough. Only oilseed varieties yield nectar. The big rangy confectionary plants do not. Some oilseed fields will not yield a drop of honey at all, though they are a few hundred acres in size. It seems that whenever scientists start messing with plant genetics, the nectar secretion gene gets shut down. This is also true with the buckwheat plant. The old standard time-tested varieties yield a lot of honey. The newer hybrids yield half of what we used to get.Sunflower honey has a beautiful golden color and is the color of honey that you think of in your mind’s eye. It is tangy, it is zesty, yet delicate. It makes you salivate. It is fantastic on peanut butter sandwiches, crackers, and ice cream. It is fantastic with wine and cheese. It makes beautiful mead. Especially, when making a mead from apples. The creamed honey we make from it is crazy good.
CREAMED HONEY We get many compliments on our creamed honey. There are many tricks involved in making it smooth. Basically, we stir in 10% sugared honey, fill the tubs, and store them at 57 deg. Fahrenheit for 10-14 days. 57 degrees is the optimum temp for honey to sugar. The further removed from this temp (hotter or cooler) the slower the honey will crystallize and set-up. Honey will not freeze. In fact, you can store it in your freezer to keep it fresh as the day you bought it. It will not sugar in your freezer. Take it out and place on the counter at room temp for an hour or 2 and it will squeeze or pour out again. Honey is one of the thickest and heaviest liquids known to man. It weighs 12 pounds to the gallon. BEESWAX They say it takes 7-8 pounds of honey for the bees to turn into a pound of wax. We produce 4,000 pounds a season, depending on how fat the frames are filled out with honey. The color of the wax varies from yellow to gold and has beautiful natural honey and bee scent to it. It makes wonderful candles, lip balms, salves, and lotions. Beeswax melts at 160F vs 120F compared to soy and paraffin. Thus, it will burn longer, brighter, and cleaner. Beeswax candles won’t smoke while you burn them.