We had over thousand visitors a couple of weeks ago and they decided to stay. Four bee hives were delivered from a wonderful farm owned by Hamilton Armstrong from Fayetteville, NY. Mr. Armstrong has been a beekeeper for over 70 years and had to make the difficult decision to have someone else care for his bees. With the help of another beekeeper, Richard Linck we have been educating ourselves on what it takes to maintain and care for the hives. We are very excited with the prospect of having buckwheat, goldenrod and lavender honey.
I have the suit, helmet and gloves, now all I need is to get over my fear of getting stung. From what I understand bee stings are believed by some to reduce arthritis symptoms. The chemicals in bee venom are thought to reduce inflammation. As we move forward with our process I hope to keep our followers updated.
There are about 20,000 different species of bees in the world. Bees live in colonies and there are three types of bees in each colony. There is the queen bee, the worker bee and the drone. The worker bee and the queen bee are both female, but only the queen bee can reproduce. All drones are male. Worker bees clean the hive, collecting pollen and nectar to feed the colony and they take care of the offspring. The drone’s only job is to mate with the queen. The queen’s only job is to lay eggs.
To prepare the soil for next years planting of lavender we planted buckwheat. This will condition the soil and keep the weeds down. We are still deciding on how many and what varities to plant. The buckwheat is just starting to blossom and the bees love it.
Last weekend was very busy for us on the farm and at the Tomatofest in Auburn, NY. I got to see friends and make new ones at the festival while Gary handled the Loop the Lake bus tour on the farm sponsored by Cornell Cooperative Extention. The best part of preserving and maintaining this farm is educating the public on our sustainable farm for five generations.
And for one last time this season the last of the lavender to be harvested.
