I hope everyone is well.  I just finished watching the dragon dock the ISS.  It is good we have some good news to watch as our cities are burning around us and a pandemic is still rolling through our communities.  

A friend of mine lost their business last night.  Looted and burned.  She is one of the most giving and caring people I have ever met, and now she’s ruined.  Plus 15 people who were working for her are now unemployed.  I just don’t understand.  

The more that keeps going on, the more I look forward to owning a farm and just distance myself.  Beekeepers are kind of a solitary lot.

Soooo…remember when we hit about 100 backers and I promised everyone free lip balm?  Well, it’s still happening for all 403 backers.  Labels and the largest double boiler I’ve ever owned arrived yesterday.  I have all the bees wax, honey and other ingredients needed.  Just waiting on 500 tubes.   My daughter crafted the recipe years ago.  It is a huge hit Maine and Georgia.  

The one item that the whole kickstarter was created for arrived yesterday as well.  The chocolate tempering machine.  It’s just the right size and is going to be tested today.  

Other things on the todo list today is design lip balm labels, design two more honey labels and put on the web site.  Bottle honey for honey of the month club. And marshmallows.  So going to be a busy day.

A lot of stuff has arrived, so the production puzzle is starting to look complete.  Waiting on the tins, more chocolate, shipping boxes, etc.    

And today is the end of the month.  So any beeshirt orders that come today will be placed tonight.  Which is good, because the printer just sent me a 50% off coupon for today.  If you missed that update, the “Bought the farm” shirts are on the web site.

 Bee shirts Link 

The Scotsman shirt is now there too.

OK, can’t type anymore.  Too much to do.  I am off to the kitchen.  It is going to be a radiohead and Simon and Garfunkel kind of day.

Everyone please be safe.  Please stay away from the violence and the virus.  Protesting is our right, but destroying people’s livelyhoods is wrong.  It doesn’t solve the problem.

In fact, call someone today and tell them you love them.  We need more of that spread around than anything else.

Love George and Marley

The post May 31, honey, bees and marshmallows appeared first on Love of Honey.

 Philip asked the second part of that title a week ago.  I just saw his question yesterday.  It is a good question.

So lets back up a little.  We all know bees are very hard workers, they are very smart workers.  When a bee goes out to forage for nectar, pollen or water they use their internal GPS to mark where they find a bounty.    They then fly a bee line back to the hive.  Once in the hive they will do a bee dance to tell other bees where the nectar or pollen was found.  Depending on how convincing their dance is compared to the other bees, is where the decision is made for the rest of the bees to go.

So I said bees work smarter.  When searching for nectar, they prefer the easier to get nectar.  So on my moms property, there is tons of wild blackberries.  A super easy nectar flow for the bees.  So for a month 90% of what they go after is blackberry nectar.  They may mix in other flowers, but not enough to screw up the flavor.  This is also true for my raspberry, gallberry, knotweed, etc.

Another way we know what type honey we get is when we pollinate crops.  One crop I used to do was Maine wild blueberries.  As far as the eye could see was blueberry fields.  So the only flower the bees could visit was blueberry.  Orange and cranberry are harvested this way.

One of the trickier, and reasons it is more expensive, is tupelo honey.  Ogechee tupelo trees grow on the edges of swamps, rivers and marshes in SE Georgia and NE Florida.  Big giant massive trees.  Very cool.  They produce little green balls with tiny little flowers on it.  The nectar is green so the honey has a green tint.  It is the easiest flower for the bees to work while its blooming.  They wont touch other flowers.

To harvest tupelo, first you need to get near the swamps.  Get your bees in place.  Then as soon as you see the trees start to bloom, add honey supers.  You then monitor the bloom, and as soon as the flowers wain, you pull the honey.  Pure tupelo.  If you wait, the bees start adding gallberry or other flowers to the honey.  The photo is my last truck delivering empty honey supers in the swamp.  (Dodge made such a crappy truck it broke down monthly and almost killed my bee business a few years ago).

Now if you are in an area with a large variety of flowers, we just call it wildflower honey.  I hope that answers the question clearly.

I got good news from my friend in Florida.  He is sending me Orange Blossom, gallberry, and palmetto honey.  Those of you in the honey of the month club will enjoy them.

I am pricing labels today. These printers think their stickers are made of gold.

I’m sure if I ordered 10,000 of each I’d be ok. Growing pains. Everyone be safe.

George & Marley

The post How do bees know where to go and how do we know what type honey we get? appeared first on Love of Honey.

Today is an exciting day. Not really for me, but for our country. I hope everyone pauses what they are doing to watch the space launch. Lots of history being made today. We need some good news after all that has gone down in our country.

Yesterday I got the B&W of the “Bought the farm” Beeshirt.

I like it. Marley looks pretty good. I will let you know when they go online for sale. The colorized version arrives today.

The artist that made it is Ed Hose. She has a very fun/funny adult coloring book if you want a special gift. Just look her up on Amazon.

I spent the day working on bottle labels. I am going to have to give up the skept jars (The ones that look like old fashioned hives)

The new jars will actually hold an extra ounce of honey, have a wider mouth, and allows me a much larger area. After I got the artwork last night, a light bulb went off and I have an idea for the whole line of labels. I’ll miss those jars above, but too expensive to label with two labels. So buy them while they last!

So this is exciting:

Yep, my very first official world wide UPC code. It’s for the blackberry honey, This means I can walk into any store and sell my product. Progress.

Yesterday tins, shipping boxes, and other little items for the orders were ordered for the kickbackers. More progress.

Have a great Wednesday! Be safe, stay away from people. Go tell someone you love them today. And after that, watch a space launch!

George & Marley

The post Space launches, beeshirts and more! appeared first on Love of Honey.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend and is enjoying a nice memorial day.

I woke up and watched a video on Egyptian beekeeping.  Some pretty neat things they did.

Last week I perfected the caramel recipe. So in each 1lb box you will receive a couple of different caramel candies.

 I am going to have Honey caramel sprinkled with chocolate covered salt, and honey caramel covered in chocolate.  They will be added to the web site by weeks end.

 Packages are piling up to go out tomorrow with the USPS.  If you placed an order off the web site, you will get an email with your tracking number.
 

 Kickstarter sent me an email Friday saying the funds were on their way.  Probably see them tomorrow unless Amazon or the bank holds them.  (Kickstarter said that funds could be held for up to two weeks).  Once funds are in the bank, wheels go into overdrive.

So not all experiments go well.  I was watching another kickstarter sell turkish delights. Around midnight one night I decided to make a batch with honey.  They actually taste friggin amazing.  The problem is they absorb moister like crazy.  So I am working on that. 

And lastly, I backed another kickstarter.  Some game for my son.  And I learned my marketing and polishness here kind of sucks.  Their updates are all full of graphics and very well aligned text.  So I apologize I’m not so pretty.  But they did have a good idea I need to do.  Links….  So here is some links you might need, find interesting, share with your SO when you want more chocolate.  I don’t have all the social media, but I’m getting there.

Web Site:  Love of Honey Be sure to sign up for the newsletter on the bottom of the page

Facebook Company:  Love of Honey FB 

Twitter:  twitter (it has one follower, me lol)

Instagram:  Mine (so it’s my personal one, but mostly about bees.  every now and then my kids who are now grownups. 137 followers baby!  Just kidding.  My girl child has over 1,000 followers.  I evidently don’t get instagram

Well, thats it.  Have a great Monday.  I have a busy day of coffee, filling honey jars, and making chocolates.

Please stay safe.   Keep your distance.  You are loved.

The post Happy Memorial Day appeared first on Love of Honey.

I don’t know who comes up with these things.  It is also National Be a Millionaire Day.  National Juice Slush Day, National Pick Strawberries Day, National Quiche Lorraine Day. National Rescue Dog Day.

So I am going to combine all those.  I am going to make a quiche with strawberries while drinking a Slush, watch the bees with Marley, and dream of being rich.  Not really.  That’s too much for me.  Today is my Dad’s birthday.  He would have been 75.  I think I’ll just make one of his signature dishes tonight and remember the good times in Wyoming.

Marshmallow and chocolate production moving along.  Orders going out.  Still waiting on kickstarter to pay the bill.  Amazon hasn’t even deposited what was paid 10 days ago.  Banks drive me crazy.  

So last night I made a marshmallow with this amazing cacao powder.  Working on a couple a variations to make a honey marshmallow S’more.  Stay tuned.  

Once kickstarter pays, I am setting up SKUs.  Honey’s that you will see pop up on the web site will be Buckwheat, Raspberry, Blueberry, Knottweed, Cranberry, Orange Blossom, Blackberry, Gallberry, Clover,  and some blends. (I don’t know why I capitalized them)  More coming soon as harvests are done.  

I am making my honey subscription the best in the country.  Unfortunately no Tupelo this year.  It rained a lot and harvest was 4 barrels light at my friends apiary.  I am calling around to other folks I know, but everyone in SE Georgia has had rough spring.  Welcome to beekeeping.  I’ll write more about tupelo another day.

Have a great Wednesday!  Stay safe!  You are loved!

George

The post Happy World Bee Day – May 20th appeared first on Love of Honey.

People have been asking for an easy way to share the love of honey or honey covered chocolates. So yesterday I installed gift cards on the web site.

Super easy to use. Just add one to you cart, enter the email to the recipient and a message to them (only you can see), and we take care of the rest!

Gift cards come in a variety of denominations. Enjoy!

The post Gift Cards now available! appeared first on Love of Honey.

We had a great kickstarter campaign and all the wonderful people gave great feedback on what they wanted in future products.

I have added them to the shopping page. They include monthly and bimonthly subscriptions of honey and chocolates. I will be adding more ideas down the road.

Stay tuned for some great honey!

The post NEW PRODUCTS ADDED appeared first on Love of Honey.

Don’t miss out on our special kickstarter specials! Funded in 7 hours. Follow this link to find out more.

The post Over 200 backers! appeared first on Love of Honey.

I relaunched the kickstarter and it got funded in 7 hours. Thanks to everyone for theoir support!

Less than a week later we have reached the goal of the last kickstarter. So my kids and I will be busy in May making chocolate covered honey!

If you haven’t pledged yet, here is the link. Today’s update has a honey pound cake recipe! Check it out

The post Kickstarter is going well appeared first on Love of Honey.

Happy Saturday everyone! We had a surge of new pledges yesterday. Maybe we have an off chance of hitting our goal now. So thank you to the 75 of you craving chocolate covered honey!

I am playing in the kitchen this morning, tempering a pound of milk chocolate to be made into something new. Bill Withers is playing in the background. Such a great musician. I think my favorite song of his is “Use me”. Lenny Kravitz and Mick Jagger did a great cover of it in the 90s. Check it out. My second is Lovely Day. Great song to dance to with the kids in the kitchen during this lock down.

How is everyone holding up? I just finished week two of isolation. Just me and my Weimaraner watching the news and old movies and TV shows. Oh, and making chocolate covered honey products. I think that has helped me keep my sanity. There is just something about creating in the kitchen.

Everyone stay safe, keep your distance, and tell your family and friends you love them. Now go crank up Bill Withers in the kitchen. You will be happy you did.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/loveofhoney/love-of-honey-and-chocolate/

The post 75 backers now. Thank you appeared first on Love of Honey.

We hit 50 backers!  Thank you so much!  I hope everyone is staying safe and indoors.  

It has been drizzly here so I haven’t done much bee work. It has been a few days of cleaning and organizing, playing in the kitchen, watching the news, and as a bonus found all the episodes of Buck Rogers in the 25th century.  Brings back some childhood memories.

I have found a tin manufacturer to make what I want.  Of course they are shut down, but excited about creating our packaging when we get through this crisis.

On a happy note, my daughter has received two full scholarships to two different law schools. She is going to do environmental law. Makes her farmer of a dad proud. Pretty impressive for a 21 year old.  As of right now she is working her butt off at Kroger.  So be kind to your grocery workers.  They are our heros who don’t wear capes.

Yesterday I gave all of our samples away to medical workers.  Hopefully a bit of a lift to their day.  I have great respect for what they are doing.  Their hardest times are coming soon here in my state. 

So, once again, be safe.  Reach out to friends and loved ones.  It will make their day.

George

The post 50 Backers! appeared first on Love of Honey.

We continue to inch our way towards our goal.  Thank you to all the backers!

As you may be quarantined, here is a great honey bread to made for the family.  Super easy, and delicious!

The post Kickstarter update and Honey bread appeared first on Love of Honey.

Today I requested the 7 day extension on the kickstarter project they are giving to help out during the time of this crisis. It was approved.

Thank you to the 41 backers who believe in our project. I checked on our bees and they are doing well. This early spring has coerced the queens to lay more more eggs earlier than usual. Populations are growing at a nice pace for the spring nectar flow!

I have decided to go old school and package the honey in tins, much like chocolate from the 1920s. My question to you, would you be interested in the tins having a changing design over time? I think since this is 2020, I am going to go art deco with the first design. One of my favorite styles of art and architecture.

Tomorrow I will post photos of some new product ideas. I have been making honey caramel and working to not make it too hard or too soft. It tastes amazing either way, especially coated in dark chocolate!

Please, everyone stay safe and reduce your contact with other people. We will get through this together. You are amazing!

The post 40+ backers on Kickstarter! Thank you! appeared first on Love of Honey.

Bees tend to ignore whats going on in the world of politics. They are still working hard and gathering nectar, making sweet honey for us.

I am playing with some new ideas, working on packaging designs, and just enjoying the quiet time making chocolates.I am getting all sorts of emails from people who want money to promote the kickstarter. But with the stock market crashing, unemployment skyrocketing, and the world moving in pause mode, I am hesitant spending hard earned money on something that probably won’t work in these times.

I will continue to self promote. And if you can afford some sweet indulgence, thank you for pledging. We shall see what happens. We have weathered storms in the past, and will get through this one. I’m not going anywhere, so when we recover, your favorite chocolate covered honey, and other honey products will still be around.

Thank to the 31 backers we have now! You have lifted our spirits here letting us know we are onto something great!

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Happy Sunday! The kickstarter is still rolling. Thanks to all those who have supported it. Chocolate relieves stress. Honey relieves allergies and sore throats. We’ve got you covered!

The post Happy Sunday! appeared first on Love of Honey.

It was such good news to see we are selected as a project kickstarter loves! Thanks to the staff for selecting us! It means a lot! And that’s a lot of exclamations!

So yesterday I posted a riddle: What is it that has a Grandfather but no Father, has a Grandson but no Son?

The answer is a Drone bee (The male in the hive). A drone is produced by the queen by laying an unfertilized egg. Thus no father. But the queen has a father, so the drone has a grandfather. The drone then mates with a queen. She lays fertilized eggs from him, producing daughters only (so he has no sons). One of those may be a future queen, producing him grandsons.

There is one exception to this whole thing though. Can you tell me what it is? Answer tomorrow.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/loveofhoney/love-of-honey-and-chocolate/

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Thank you to everyone supporting our chocolate covered honey! We reached $1000 last night so we are 1/7th of our way to our goal! (Who says beekeepers can’t love math?)
I am headed off to work the bees today. Spring has come early and the bees are bringing in honey for 2020. So your chocolates will contain fresh honey from the hives. So exciting!
I’ll try and post some photos from today when I get back.
Yours truly,
George
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/loveofhoney/love-of-honey-and-chocolate

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