Rhodes Apiary and Homestead

Rhodes Apiary and Homestead Beekeeping, Homesteading, Native Gardening in Suburbia

Cheers and Happy Mother's Day to all the other Queen Bees out there 🐝 I hope every mother out there got to enjoy her day...
05/12/2024

Cheers and Happy Mother's Day to all the other Queen Bees out there 🐝 I hope every mother out there got to enjoy her day even if it was just a few moments to herself reminding herself how amazing, loved and needed she is to her world ❤️

And hats off to those queen honey bees...I mean she literally has thousands of bees who depend on her and who she keeps in line every day...I don't know how she does it 🤣 (OK I do she has some strong pheromones but still 🤷🏼‍♀️)

Now I will enjoy my delicious cocktail, The Bee's Knees, made with our own honey and my favorite Barr Hill gin.....soooo good 😋 And yes I totally toasted our bees, because I'm a dork like that 😂

Our swarm from yesterday! We were able to collect it successfully, and it is now at its new home at my aunt's house. I'm...
05/02/2024

Our swarm from yesterday! We were able to collect it successfully, and it is now at its new home at my aunt's house.

I'm bummed I didn't get pictures or video of us getting the swarm out of the tree, but it took both of us to do it. The 4th picture is our handy swarm collector we used that we made out of a bucket, extension pole, and duct tape 🤣 Our bees like to swarm way up high! One of these years, it would be so kind of them to just swarm somewhere easier to reach 🤣

We currently keep 2 hives at our house and 2 at my aunt's house. Beekeeping runs in our family. Both my mom and aunt have been beekeepers for about 14 years now, we are on year 6 of our beekeeping journey ❤️🐝

Warm days like today mean it's smoothie season in our house. This is one of my favorite and easiest lunches for the girl...
04/28/2024

Warm days like today mean it's smoothie season in our house. This is one of my favorite and easiest lunches for the girls over the summer, and Michael and I love them as well. They are so refreshing and packed full of so many nutrients. Today's smoothie was an Acai smoothie.

1 packet Acai
1 cup Blueberries 🫐
1 banana 🍌
About 1/2 cup almond or h**p milk 🥛
2 Tbsp of our bees very delicious honey 🍯

Happy Earth Day 🌎 💓 We are just enjoying this beautiful day from our favorite corner of our garden this time of year. It...
04/22/2024

Happy Earth Day 🌎 💓

We are just enjoying this beautiful day from our favorite corner of our garden this time of year. It is when our Eastern redbud is in bloom. We planted it 4 years ago during the COVID pandemic. We did a lot of planting that spring 🤣 I wish I had a good picture of what it looked like the first year...basically like a stick in the ground, lol. It is amazing how much it has grown. The bees love this tree when in bloom, honey bees, mason bees, and bumble bees are always all over it 🐝🌸

Just wanted to share this on here that if you are on IG to head on over and follow our new IG page Rhodes Apiary.
04/22/2024

Just wanted to share this on here that if you are on IG to head on over and follow our new IG page Rhodes Apiary.

Checked our new hive to make sure our queen is laying. She is doing a great job. We saw a lot of eggs, larvae, and cappe...
04/21/2024

Checked our new hive to make sure our queen is laying. She is doing a great job. We saw a lot of eggs, larvae, and capped brood (pupae state of developement).

We are very excited about this! The picture on the left is of a Pawpaw flower bud from last week, and the picture on the...
04/20/2024

We are very excited about this! The picture on the left is of a Pawpaw flower bud from last week, and the picture on the right is the opened flower today 🌸 We planted Pawpaw trees 4 years ago, this is the first year we have flowers....which means....we might actually get Pawpaws this year 🤞🏻

Pawpaws are the largest NATIVE fruit grown in PA. They don't have the longest shelf life which is why you aren't going to find them at large chain grocery stores. They taste like a combination of a banana and mango. FUN FACT...Pawpaw trees are pollinated by FLIES not Bees.

I think these are the coolest trees ever not only for their fruit but for the beautiful Zebra Swallotails butterflies they attract 🦋

Checked our new hive today to make sure our queen was released from her cage. There she is! The girls have named her Pin...
04/13/2024

Checked our new hive today to make sure our queen was released from her cage. There she is! The girls have named her Pinkey 🤷🏼‍♀️ I always enjoy trying to find our queens when we are in the hive, it's just like a good old game of Where's Waldo? 🤣

We installed a new package of bees today! We are down to 2 hives and would like to get back up to 4 this year. We purcha...
04/07/2024

We installed a new package of bees today! We are down to 2 hives and would like to get back up to 4 this year. We purchased a package of bees and installed them today. Fingers crossed we will catch a swarm this month that will get us back up to 4 hives.

Always amazed at how honey can come in different colors and flavors. The left is from our extraction in 2022 and the rig...
01/21/2024

Always amazed at how honey can come in different colors and flavors. The left is from our extraction in 2022 and the right is from our extraction in 2023. The color all depends on what food source the bees are using. Personally I love the very light honeys which is what we have for sale right now. It's delicious 😋

Also just for a heads up and we hate to do it but we have increased our prices for 2024, darn inflation 🤨 They are as follows...

1lb Jar - $10
2lb Jar - $19
5lb Jar - $45

Let us know if you need any honey to get you through this cold and flu season ❤️🍯

Meet Flower 🐝🌼 She is our newest Queen Bee!Today we did something new and made a hive queenright. Remember a few weeks a...
05/25/2023

Meet Flower 🐝🌼 She is our newest Queen Bee!

Today we did something new and made a hive queenright.

Remember a few weeks ago when we posted about that crazy swarm we caught...well we were never quite sure we had the queen. Now that a few weeks have gone by and we have not seen any eggs or new larvae we felt pretty confident we didn't have the queen or perhaps she was sick/injured when we caught her.

So today Michael drove to a fellow member of the York County Beekeeper Associations apiary and bought a new queen!

Then this afternoon we introduced her to the hive. We could tell the bees accepted her because they were trying to take care of her and fanning her pheromones around. If the bees would have rejected her they would have tried to sting/kill her!

Now in about 5 days we will go in and make sure she has emerged from her cage. There is a piece ofsugar candy in the hole and the bees will eat their way through so she can get out.

You can see in the one picture she is marked with a red dot, this will help us identify her easier and know that she was introduced this year to the hive.

P.S. Penny named her Flower ❤️🐝🌼

Address

York, PA

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Rhodes Apiary and Homestead posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Featured

Share