Summer Message

The bees are doing great. The hives are strong and have made enough honey for harvesting about three weeks early! May was extremely hot and June was extremely rainy which was a blessing to replenish water supplies. Nuc production this year was the biggest ever. We produced 25 nucs for our own yard and 5 nucs to offer for sale, a first for Leo's Honey House.

Varroa mite counts in June were good. Hopefully this is a reflection of all the work we beekeepers do to try to keep mites under control. Cathy shared these techniques at a beekeeping class offered by the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Steuben County.

There is once again a good supply of Spring Wildflower and Locust honey at the Honey house. Give us a call or find us at one of the area farmers markets for a fresh jar of honey. We will offer nucs for sale until the end of June. After that we will take orders for next year. The bees are working on the Basswood honey right now and it will be ready to harvest in mid July.

Wow! What a harvest this year. The bees were very generous and worked hard for us! Mite checks in August were good and the overall health of the bee yard feels good. So far we have had a lot of mild weather and even some unseasonably warm weather allowing the bees to fly late in the year. However there aren't many blooms left to visit!

There are currently 3 nucs in the bee yard that we will again try to overwinter in the basement. We won't move them until much colder weather hits.

In the meantime, try some of this years Autumn wildflower and Knotweed honey! You can find our honey table at the Corning Winter Farmers' Market and at the Painted Post Farmers' Market. For more details check out the Facebook pages!