Seven Hills Honey

Seven Hills Honey Small batch raw artisan honey, never heated or filtered.Each batch of honey is kept pure from each location the bees are located at. Michael Metz-Beekeeper

Urban, basswood, wildflower, clover, alfalfa and buckwheat honeys available. Part of the local foods movement is the ability to track the food on your table directly to a local grower. It is our vision that this page will take that to a new level. This page will allow people to follow us beginning at the stage where our hives are mere stacks of lumber. People can then join us in the journey of ass

embly to painting and placement of the hives, installation of the bees, maintenance and observation of the hives, harvesting of the honey, bottling and packaging of the honey and the production of other bee-products. It will enable people to watch their honey being made, and in the future, allow customers to look back and see what went into their jar of honey or their tube of lip balm. It provides a new appreciation for what goes into each bottle and opportunity for conversations/answers from those making the product and tending to the bees. In addition, times will be updated for opportunities to observe us in action in the hives, and if desired, the opportunity to get hands-on with the bees. This is going to be a learning experience for all involved, as this will be our inaugural year as Langstroth beekeepers. We have a top bar hive at our home for pollination and as a hobby, leaving all of the honey that they produced for the bees to eat through winter. So, get ready to learn all you ever wanted to (and more!) about honeybees and the honey-making process.

Good Day!Making the rounds to half of the bee yards finally today with this cooler weather to do inspections and add hon...
06/14/2026

Good Day!

Making the rounds to half of the bee yards finally today with this cooler weather to do inspections and add honey boxes where needed and...what do I spy with my little eye??

New residents!! Not sure when they took up residency. Capped brood already so it's been over a week. And they didn't come from my 3 hives at that Grafton yard.
They unfortunately went into a stack of 7 boxes. So it took about 45-60 minutes to sort thru all the frames and knock them down to 2 deeps.
Their brood chamber was only on about 6 frames in one deep but they were spread out dumping nectar in 4. 😬
Thankful it was not 85 degrees today. I would have probably just left them for another day.
Ticks were terrible. Found 3 so far. 2 on me one on my jacket. So check yourself over if you are in the woods or grass on these windy days.
Didn't take any pics while sorting them out. They were a bit spicy. Not happy about being bothered.
The queen from Mequon cutout is gorgeous. They are settling in nicely. Tending to their brood i gave them back and they already cleaned out their house. Huge colony. They received a honey box today as well.
Swarm #2 from Whitefish Bay way given a honey box as well. Lots of brood in both the deeps they had. In 2 weeks thousands of new bees will bee hatching out.

It was great to see so many of you at market yesterday. Fun to bee back!!

Bee seeing you!!
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Good Morning!!Today we kick off the Port Washington Farmer's Market. 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. every Saturday now thru Oc...
06/13/2026

Good Morning!!

Today we kick off the Port Washington Farmer's Market. 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. every Saturday now thru October!! Only weekend off is Fish Days weekend. Always look forward to the summer Market but sacrificing every Saturday can be tough.
And I get to see many of you every week!

My prices have not increased since 2021. But obviously production costs have. As of now I will bee holding at these prices until I see how much bottling cost goes up. I have discontinued a few of my jars due to such high increases.
Gotta go!

Hope to bee seeing you!
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Good day! At least for some. Thoughts and prayers to victims of yesterday's horrible storms. Indiana is a bit of my seco...
06/12/2026

Good day! At least for some. Thoughts and prayers to victims of yesterday's horrible storms. Indiana is a bit of my second home with working down there over the last 36 years. Kouts Indiana was one of the places I delivered bees to in the Spring. Hoping Jake's Feed did not get hit. Horrible damage.

Cutout. Salem WI
Yes, you read that correctly. 71 mile trip to dig these girls out of an old horse barn converted into a living space.
Spray insulation was a real pain. Very tough to easily remove. Portions that were 6, 8 inches thick were not breakable even with knife cutting. The girls took up residence about 3 to 4 weeks ago. Plenty of brood, none hatching yet. Interior drywall was cold so my infrared did not pick them up. From outside there was absolutely nothing either. Even the old stethoscope trick didn't help. So I went old school and stuck my eye up to whole and watched where they headed. Removed the boards, fought the Styrofoam and cleaned them out bit by bit.
I don't normally go this far for bees but the owner asked nicely and since I don't know anyone doing removals down there I decided to do it.
Just about 3 hours of driving with both trips. So it was a haul.
Now the comb was all fresh, however there was remnants of huge hive that was at one time hanging on the outside of the building. Probably 3 to 5 years ago. I forgot to take a picture of that but it was massive.
Did not see the queen but the colony could smell her in the vac box. I don't usually worry when I don't see clues that I missed her. All brood was returned. And the honey comb was placed on top under the cover. They will transfer it downstairs in coming week or so.

First Port Farmer's Market tomorrow starting at 8:30 a.m. but I don't mind if anyone comes early.
Bee seeing you!!!!
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Good day.Cut out Mequon.I took 3 calls in about 40 minutes on Tuesday for removals. 🫤 This one had just moved in earlier...
06/11/2026

Good day.

Cut out Mequon.

I took 3 calls in about 40 minutes on Tuesday for removals. 🫤 This one had just moved in earlier that day. Entered thru a hole from a squirrel. Some of you think they are cute and fluffy tailed. Hate to break it to you..they are rats with a fluffy tail. 🤣This nesting material was years in the making. Layers of crap, grass, plastic, whatever they can carry into the hole.🤢
After trying to figure out best access with least damage underneath the hive was chosen. I knew it would be gross, and it lived right up to it.
This colony is huge. So many bees. After I cleared the comb it took me well over an hour to suck up bees. They just kept coming. Foragers. Thousands hiding behind cracks. Very time consuming.
I got them set up at Cedarburg yard. Got them in with a bit of thunder in the distance. Luckily no rain yet though. The were put in 2 deeps. They need the room. Feed was provided and hopefully the queen made it with no injuries. I was vacuuming blind up in a corner. I was as gentle as i could bee but you just never can tell.
This was one of those jobs that you cannot wait to get cleaned up and know the job is over.
Market on Saturday in Port!

Bee seeing you!
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Good day....Awaiting an incoming swarm.These girls were sniffing around the empty honey boxes yesterday. Trying to get u...
06/08/2026

Good day....

Awaiting an incoming swarm.

These girls were sniffing around the empty honey boxes yesterday. Trying to get under the tarp. 😡😡 They would love to set up home in pure, fresh honeycomb that has never had brood laid in it.
So this morning I set up the whit and gray boxes. Fully furnished with new frames, older drawn out comb and 3 frames of honey just to make it even more attractive.
Hoping they will come drop in today sometime. I think they came from North Port yard. I went thru that one overwintered hive yesterday and could not find the queen. Lots of bees though and I had several virgin queens that were hatching out as I pulled frames.
So there is a swarm in a tree somewhere around Port today. 🫤 I am pretty confident they will find my box i have set up for them.

Will bee keeping you updated.

As soon as they come I will let them settle in and take them to the Lakeshore location.

Bee seeing you this weekend at Port Farmer's Market! First one of the year!
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Happy Friday to you all.On today's episode of Rescue Bee11 I did my first cutout of the season. Back to Whitefish Bay. D...
05/29/2026

Happy Friday to you all.
On today's episode of Rescue Bee11 I did my first cutout of the season. Back to Whitefish Bay. Down the block from the two previous swarms. Not sure exactly what day they moved in but best guess is 7-10 days. They built quite alot of comb in that time.
It was a pretty easy extraction. It was not drywall but OSB (strand board). Removed the screws and pulled them off. Colony was right there.
Vacuum bees, remove comb, repeat. Replaced panels and plugged up hole from outside.
I placed them right next to Swarm #1. So it will bee like an old family reunion. Once they start chatting and figure out the same beekeeper caught them it might get kinda ugly for me. 🤣
Hoping there will not bee any more cutouts this year. But it is early in season. Time will tell.
Have a great weekend. Bee seeing you!
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Good Day!Free to a good home. Quiet fawn. Requires milk. Doesn't like dogs. It's mama needs to find another yard to keep...
05/28/2026

Good Day!

Free to a good home. Quiet fawn. Requires milk. Doesn't like dogs.
It's mama needs to find another yard to keep her baby. My backyard is far from suitable. 🤣 My boy has never pulled so hard on the leash as he did this time.
If it is the same mama as last couple years she is a mean one. Being charged late at night and being cornered is not fun. 🤣

I don't think this is the one that was spotted(pardon the pun) by the church yesterday as this little one is much smaller.

Bee seeing you!

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Good Day! How about this fantastic weather! Heat with no humidity! Great days for hive work. It's still warm but not un...
05/27/2026

Good Day! How about this fantastic weather! Heat with no humidity!
Great days for hive work. It's still warm but not unbearable.
The hives that I found queenless yesterday, I decided to requeen in a faster way. The hive I split the other day had plenty of queen cells that are really far along. Hoping they hatch in 7 to 10 days. Maybe sooner.
That will allow the hive to hopefully recover faster to produce honey. These were new packages so as of now its about a $300 loss. Hard to say if they can recover losses or not. Lost many workers due to pesticide poisoning.
Those peanut looking things are queen cells. The workers prepare an elongated vertical cell and if the colony plans on swarming the queen will lay an egg in the cell and then the workers jam that cell full of royal jelly. A regular queen egg transforms in to a queen instead of a worker.
Hopefully these will take. If i have overpopulated hives I may steal brood and workers to give these a boost. Unfortunately these hives are at my furthest away hives so time and fuel cost definitely come into play.
This was about 70 minutes driving and total of about 30 min work time.

Bee seeing you!
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Good Evening All!Spent the better part of the day chasing out to hives putting the second honey boxes on them.i think i ...
05/27/2026

Good Evening All!

Spent the better part of the day chasing out to hives putting the second honey boxes on them.i think i placed 42 boxes on about 37 hives. Now not many really immediately needed them but we are to have some really dry weather for the next week. Along with that the hives I went into will have thousands of baby bees hatching out withing 2 weeks so they will need space.

I unfortunately found at least 2 with dead or missing queens so I am having to let them requeen themselves. I took frame of fresh eggs out of the other 2 hives at that yard but that could take up to 2.5 weeks for queens to hatch out. I may steal some queen cells from the hive I split the other day. There was about 10 or more in there. It would give the other hives a much faster boost of recovery.

The other picture of the grass is dead bees. Poisoned bees to bee exact. I have been seeing this alot this year. Not sure what the bees are getting into but it is not good. Angel Tello had bees stumbling out the front of his hive about 2 or 3 weeks ago. These bees were at Fillmore yard. The yard that had missing queens also had pile of dead out front as well..so it was most likely related.
Lastly. Not sure what is going on in Whitefish Bay but I got a call from an owner that has bees in the garage wall. This house is only about 250 address numbers south of the swarm tree house. So maybe 10 to 15 house away maybe?
I will bee taking that on in the next couple days. Not sure which day yet. I have been trying to cut back on doing cut outs. But unfortunately there is few of us who do removals. Doing deconstruction work in the heat in a bee suit has honestly become tougher as I get older. 🤣
Passing the torch has been basically impossible since most people don't want to do it either.
Will figure out which day I will do it probably by tomorrow. I need to get my equipment set up and readied. I am not sure if I even did any last year. I know I passed on quite a few though.
Bee seeing you!🐝

Today, we remember and express our deepest gratitude for the brave men and women who gave everything for our freedom. Fr...
05/25/2026

Today, we remember and express our deepest gratitude for the brave men and women who gave everything for our freedom. Freedom isn't free.

Swarm #2...again..Whitefish Bay. Same place as 10 days ago.
This was yesterday. The day started out with dropping honey boxes on hives and a couple inspections. I found one overwintered hive with a couple swarm cells so I split them up. Queen was located and moved to a new box and then relocated to Saukville yard.
While there is checked on swarm #1. The queen is a beauty! The colony took all the sugar feed in the pail and have already drawn out 3 of the 6 sides of the new frames. Swarms are usually ready to build comb, so I try to give them new frames to draw out.
Just as I was heading to next yard I got a text from the homeowner that I got the swarm from. Ironic. She says I have another swarm in the same tree. Now that is odd. What are the chances? I waited for pics and decided this was best to use vac system to suck them into hive.
The bees were clustered in two spots. Which was odd as well. Hoping there is not 2 queens but I put them in one box. My guess is they went to the outside branch, queen got tired and fell to ground. Then they moved her to the trunk. A couple of neighbor kids came with their moms and watched the whole process. No fear from those kids.
The bees were set up at Lion's Den yard and given a bucket of sugar feed. I will check them in a few days. Hoping they will work out as well.
Some keeper in Whitefish Bay or Fox Point lost two colonies now. That results in lower honey production as the bees don't always work as hard while a queen is being razed and there is a lull in eggs being laid. That period is about 5 weeks til new queen is laying eggs again.
That is all for now.

Bee seeing you.
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Address

136 E Van Buren Street
Port Washington, WI
53074

Telephone

+12625737802

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