A Season on the Farm: Spring to Harvest
Beekeeping runs on the calendar the flowers set, not the one on our wall. Here's roughly how a season unfolds on our farm, hive by hive.
Early spring: waking up
The first warm days, we check every hive to see how the colony made it through winter — how much honey is left in the frames, whether the queen is laying well. Weak hives get extra care; nothing gets harvested yet.
Late spring: the meadow opens up
Once the wildflowers really get going, the hives fill fast. This is when we add extra boxes to give the bees room to store the surplus, and when the lightest, most floral honey of the year starts building up.
Midsummer: the main harvest
We pull frames only once they're capped — a sign the honey has cured to the right moisture. Extraction happens the same day: frames go straight from the hive to the extractor to the jar, with nothing sitting around in between.
Late summer into fall: leaving enough behind
As the bloom slows, we stop harvesting and start making sure each hive has enough stores of its own to make it through winter. Whatever we don't take is theirs to keep — that's the rule we don't break.
By the time the last frame comes off the extractor, we're already thinking about next spring.