Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Hiatus!

Spring is a much-welcomed season in our household. The bees start buzzing with more activity, as do WE in our household.

Much-needed sorting, cleaning and preparing is currently occurring at McCarty Apiaries. We lost a hive this winter, but we are currently awaiting the arrival of a new one to accompany our remaining two. We hope to have a great year.

Production of products will resume soon...STAY TUNED!
Posted by No comments:

SWEET thoughts from our buyers...

"I just wanted to say I like your new site, the honey site :-) Also, we really LOVE the honey, it's so flavorful!! We can't wait to get more. What a blessing to have fresh honey from a local hive. Thank you!"
________________

"I love mine. It’s so silky and you continue to feel it on your lips for over an hour. As I said before, I kept it all to myself and am letting the kids use up the rest of Burt’s. I use lip balm practically 24-7. I’ve tried them all. And I can positively say I like yours absolute best."
_______________

"Have to tell you, I am loving my lip balm. I have one in my office and one in my purse. I even tried to sell it at my Manager meeting... I think you need to increase the price. It’s better than anything off the shelves."

________________

"Okay, I’m in love. I’ve been a user of Burt’s Bee’s Hand Balm for years and I like yours so much better—it’s less oily so I can wear it all day—not just at night. I also love the citrus scent."

BEE well...

BEE well...
as we share our hobby with you.

THE SKINNY ON BEESWAX

Beeswax is a byproduct of honey production. It makes wonderful lip balms, hand lotions, hand creams, moisturizers, in cosmetics, wood finishes, waxes, leather polishes; waterproofing products, and dental molds.
It is impervious to water and unaffected by mildew. It has a melting point of 143 to 148 degrees F. and should only be heated using a double boiler as it is flammable when subjected to fire and flames. It is pliable at 100 degrees F.

Beeswax is produced by the (female) worker honeybees. The wax is secreted from wax glands on the underside of the bee's abdomen and is molded into six-sided cells which are filled with honey, then capped with more wax. When honey is harvested, the top layer of wax that covers the cells, the cappings, must be removed from each hexagon-shaped cell.

Bees use their wax to "glue" together the wooden frames in their hive, and that must be scraped off so the frames can be separated. The beeswax, which contains some honey, bee parts, and other impurities, must be melted and filtered or strained.
Most beeswax is gold or yellow but can also be in shades of orange, brown, etc. The color of the wax is in most part determined by the type of plants the bees collect nectar from. Beeswax has a delightful, light fragrance of honey, flower nectar and pollen.
Beeswax makes superior, slow burning candles. Beeswax burns more beautifully than any other wax. It exudes a faint, natural fragrance of honey and pollen. When candles are made with the proper size of wicking, they are smokeless, dripless, and burn with a bright flame.

If you wonder why beeswax is so expensive, consider this: It has been estimated that bees must fly 150,000 miles to produce one pound of wax. Bees must eat about six pounds of honey to secrete a pound of wax. For every 100 pounds of honey a beekeeper harvests, only one to two pounds of beeswax are produced.