The Pickled Prepper
Two 8-ounce bottles of freshly harvested honey sitting on top of a box of two-dozen one-pound jars.

The Spring Honey Harvest is Complete

We finished extracting, filtering and bottling honey. Now we need to add labels and deliver it to our local retailers and customers.
A honeybee in flight.

Busy Bees and the Honey Harvest

Summer is busy on the homestead. We have to take advantage of the warm weather to grow and harvest what food we can in a limited time.
This was a state of the art pistol in the late 1990s and featured an early (and large) red dot. Pete got it out of the safe for the first time in years.

No Lawyers, Just Guns and Honey

What's Pete been doing? Shooting guns, cleaning guns, and keeping bees. Both shooting and beekeeping are good hobbies for preppers to adopt.
A sign warning people not to trespass because bees sting.

Big Bee News as the Harvest Nears

Pete is trying not to count his eggs before they hatch, but all indications point to a large spring honey harvest. And that's just part of the news.
This frame from a new split shows the queen is doing a good job laying eggs.

Checking in with My Bees and the New Queen

Our apiary grows and we may gain a second bee yard to allow for further expansion. I'm running low on equipment, too.
After the queen bee returns from her mating flight, she never leaves again unless the hive swarms.

Growing my Apiary the Natural Way

You can buy bees, or you can help your hives reproduce, expanding your bee yard or apiary at no cost. it just takes time and patience.
honey jars filled after our recent harvest.

The Honey Harvest is In

The honey harvest is behind us. It was fun but sticky work and yielded 200 pounds of two different colors of honey.
This homemade feeder is designed to allow bees to open feed on pollen substitute without letting it get rained on or blown away by heavy wind.

Making a Bee Resupply Run Across the State

It's getting close to honey harvest time, and time to help our bee colonies get prepared for the long, cold winter.
Lots of bees

Lots of Bees, Not Much Honey

I have plenty of bees, but little honey. We are all waiting for something to bloom besides wildflowers and clover so the honey flow can start.
A bee smoker

A Tough Year so far for Bees and Honey

The honey season is off to a slow start thanks to a cool and wet spring, but things are beginning to look up on the homestead.