The Hall Hive

03/06/2026

Love my new bee canisters! I have actually been waiting on them since October. I cleaned a house that was being listed for sale and the lady said I could have them after it sold. Her regular cleaner (who I know personally) has had them since and I only recently crossed paths with him to get them. Yay! And boy oh boy was it some drama today in order to get them. Someone else (not someone in my home) threw them away after he left them for me and I had to fetch them from a trash bin down the road! I was not happy about that at all, but I waited this long for them and wasn't about to walk away from them. Fortunately they were in a bag right on top and there wasn't a bunch of yuck in there, so it's not like I had to go digging through a nasty dumpster for them. 🤣

I'm other news... Why has Instagram gotten so terrible lately? The edits don't work worth a flip, the song selections are so limited anymore, and they've now limited hashtags to 5. So lame.

11/21/2025

On a mission to heal my step dad. We have researched until our brains melted and have him on numerous protocols. He has been battling colon cancer (with mets to his liver) since his diagnosis in March. He has his ups and downs, his good news and his not so great news, some days are great and some days are entirely rest, but he's hanging in there. We got our shipment of true Essiac tea from Canada and finished brewing and canning the first batch today. It's good for a zillion other things, but it's ability to fight cancer is said to be top notch.

09/10/2025

Happy birthday little bee!

I just happened to see her chewing her way out so I grabbed my phone. So neat!


https://www.instagram.com/reel/DObl2SQEcMM/?igsh=MXgzeWVoeWQ3cGJseg==

08/20/2025

The propolis on the steering wheel and smelling like a campfire are especially accurate! And of course, being a gardener, the first and last frost dates are etched in my head anyway. 🤣

08/06/2025

The entire process of going from honey frames to bottled honey ready to sell! Beekeeping, extracting honey, and getting it ready to sell has a lot of steps and takes days! I whittled it down to 43 seconds. 🤣

In previous years I would hand distress the front and back edges of the labels with paint, and I enjoyed it because I'm am an art nut, but it took a significant amount of time. So this year I went into my drawing app and created the distressed look. I also had the cricut machine cut the hole punches instead of manually doing that. Now, instead of taking an entire day to make labels, it takes me about 30 minutes to do all of them! Plus attaching, but still.

Now that have that all done and the labels are attached, the official "It's ready!" email will be going out this evening!


https://www.instagram.com/reel/DM_tFEcumSi/?igsh=MW9vNmVqbjJscmZ6dg==

08/04/2025

Honey extracting this weekend! Unfortunately the (literal) constant rain for months on end this year had a hugely negative impact on the honey flow, so theres only a fraction of what there normally is... But at least I did get some. Tomorrow l'm working on the labels and bottling the last of it, then I will be sending out the newsletter with information.

I could seriously watch honey flowing all day. I've tried to take a gazillion videos and photos and it's one of those things that's cool, but way more fascinating in person. The way it looks like lava just melting into itself is so neat.


https://www.instagram.com/reel/DM7BkHTOvPQ/?igsh=eWk3bWdnMWV0NnFp

08/01/2025

Before buying honey from me, a lot of
people have asked, "How long does honey
stay good?" and they're always surprised
when I say, "It can last forever!" They've
even found edible honey in Egyptian tombs! Honey is the only known food that never expires. Fermentation is the only way it will spoil. As long as the moisture content is less than 20% (18% or less being optimal), it will not spoil. With a good sealing lid and proper storage, it will last beyond your lifetime!

Now, crystallization is different. That's
when the liquid honey starts to form actual
sugar crystals. It is still perfectly safe to eat
though! If your honey crystalizes, slowly
warm it in water bath until it's a liquid again. Just be sure to not overheat it, as this destroys beneficial enzymes.

Check out The Hall Hive’s video.

07/12/2025

Very interesting, and honestly pretty shady. One comment provided even more interesting info...

"And a common practice for china to get their poisoned and banned honey with added hormones for bees, that are toxic to humans into the us, they sell it to places like India, Mexico and Brazil, that then import it to the US. So always buy local. It tells you the city and state the honey is from."

When someone asks us "is your honey organic?" I get excited. Excited to educate.
Did you know that the USDA has no standards to certify honey as organic?
Since the USDA has no standard for organic honey, not a single US beekeeper can legally label or tell consumers their honey is organic.
Now you're probably thinking... But Sara, I see organic honey all the time at grocery stores. 🤔
It's true. You do. And that USDA organic logo is a quick way to identify imported honey.
Since the USDA has no organic standards for honey, they recognizes organic certifications from other countries for honey imported into the United States. This means that honey labeled as "USDA Organic" is imported from countries like Brazil, Mexico, or India, which have their own organic certification standards for honey.
Another fun marketing ploy I often see ....
"US Grade A Honey"
At first glance you would probably think US honey. Wrong. It is just a scale to give a grade to the honey based on clarity, color, absence of defects, flavor, and aroma. If you turn to the back of the bottle, somewhere in tiny print it will say the origin of the honey. Usually Brazil or Argentina, places far away from the United States.
So what do you want to look for when buying honey? Raw, Unfiltered, and Local to your area (a 50 mile radius or less is ideal).
Honey jars on most grocery store shelves likely won't tell you if the honey is filtered, but if it is unfiltered and raw it will likely be displayed proudly.
What's the difference between filtered and unfiltered honey?
Filtered honey is heated and strained to remove particles like pollen and wax, resulting in a clear, smooth product. It will likely never crystallize and the enzymes nutrients have been destroyed. In some cases it is even "ultra filtered". Ultra-filtered honey removes the pollen. At that point is it even still considered honey? 😱

But I digress. Not all grocery honey is bad. Know your beekeeper. Buy small. Support local. Buy American honey. Do great things 🍯

06/28/2025

So excited! I doodled these a while back for my seed boxes and finally got to print them as stickers! I'm happy with how they turned out!
cute

06/27/2025

Almost every beekeeper I've heard from, personally and in the online groups, is having a terrible honey year. The constant rain for months hindered the growth of most nectar producing plants and prevented too many queens from being able to go on their mating flight. It's been a struggle in all areas of beekeeping this year. We've finally stopped raining every day, but now we have passed the summer solstice, and egg laying/nectar storing will slow down. I'm REALLY hoping a few things will bloom now that we are drying up a bit (although we do have potential rain this weekend) so we can get a tiny bit of honey this year. We'll see how it goes. I have 7 hives, and only 2 have any nectar stored at all. My timing will have to be perfect if I want any of it. They're still working on getting the moisture out so they can cap it, and one box is finally starting to be capped. I will have to diligently watch for when it's ready so they don't turn around and start eating it like they did last year. I will be lucky if I get much of anything at all this year! All the other beekeepers are singing the same song, sadly.

That being said, I took a couple of pictures of a capped frame during inspections earlier. The fresh wax is so pretty!

The first photo shows eggs and Bee Bread. When they store pollen they process it so it will stay good all throughout the winter to help them survive until next spring. Bees never work for "now". Everything they do is for the future of the colony. We haven't even hit the hot parts of summer yet and they're already way ahead, storing for winter. They're pretty fascinating.