Honey Caramels...yum! Merry Blogmas #4

By the time this comes out, it will only be a couple days until Christmas. I had big plans now that we are newly retired, that i would be more organized then ever. I would slowly decorate the house in early December, the gifts would already be bought and wrapped and the Christmas menu would be sorted out and planned. None of that happened. Here it is 5 days away and i am scrambling. At least i got my families box mailed off but that was about all i managed to get done.
But today, i have made headway, got the tree up and decorated, gifts are wrapped (most anyways), and I got the trees along the road on our property decorated with big red balls.
Then i remembered i wanted to make a batch of honey caramels. I had found a new recipe and wanted to try. They were pretty darn good and who doesn't love sweets at Christmas...so here it is.

Honey Caramels

3/4 cup cream, 1 cup honey, 6 Tbs butter and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

In a heavy pot, add the honey and cream and bring to a boil,

you will need to boil it about 10 to 15 minutes until the temperature reaches 275F

Once up to temperature, remove from heat and add in the butter and vanilla. Stir well then pour into a 9x13 greased pan.

The good stuff

Cook until the temperature reaches 275F

Once up to temperature, add butter and vanilla, stir and pour into buttered pan

                                       

Once cool, cut into pieces and wrap in paper. Keep in fridge.

You can fancy them up with laying pecans down on the pan add the caramel then put some melted chocolate on top to make turtles.
Anyways i better go and finish off the last of the things on my list. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and may 2020 bee a great year.

These are a few of my favorite things.....Blogmas #3

These are a few of my favorite things, to do with Beekeeping.

You Tube Channels
Although there are lots of beekeeping videos on You Tube, these are my 2 favorites. One  of them lives in Tennessee the other in Manitoba 

Kamon Reynolds- Tennessee's Bees
I have been watching and following Kamon for quite some time. Although he is located in Tennessee and has a totally different climate then us, for me, that is only one part of beekeeping. He is so good at explaining things and can easily laugh at himself....no big ego there!
He takes a practical approach to beekeeping and has a great sense of humor. He posts new videos almost every day.

a Canadian Beekeeper's Blog
This is Ian Stepplers channel and he is located in Manitoba. He too is a awesome speaker and although he is what i would call a commercial beekeeper (along as a farmer), he is very passionate about his bees. What i really like about him is that he really cares about his bees and talks about them like us hobby beekeepers do.
Kamon often mentions Ian in his videos so its nice to know a guy who has 400 hives and a guy who has 1200 hives have a lot in common. I was so lucky to be able to  meet and listen to Ian speak this year at the BCHP's conference.

My favorite beekeeping chore
I am not sure i can only pick one but here goes

I love to go and just sit out at the hives with a cuppa and listen to the constant hum. I love the feel of when  a bee lands on our bare arm and walks around. It does feel pretty neat. (not sure that is considered a chore though)

I love the smell when you crack open a hive in the summer during the nectar flow.

But one of my favorite things to do is......dealing with the wax. Not sure why i like this so much but maybe its the smell. The smell that reminds me of when my Grampa first gave me a bowl full of beeswax.  Ummm ok so that wasn't just one thing.........

My Favorite beekeeping tool
Ummm that may be a tough one to narrow down to one.
I love my  J-tool.
I love my 5 gallon bucket with tool bag on it. It holds all my beekeeping tools and supplies.

But i think the #1 tool would be....the meter to test my electric fence, so i don't shock myself with 2.5 Joules of power on the inside of my leg crawling thru the fence (ouch)

Well thats it for now. Merry Blogmas everyone.

Telling the Bees.....Blogmas #2

It is said, if you tell your bees about the deaths in your family and kept them up to date on all family happenings, in return this would prevent terrible losses to happen with your bees. It was important to sit outside the hives and discuss things, not unlike you do to the bartender at the pub or your hair dresser.
So the other day we thought perhaps it was time to go have a chat with our bees. We have had a couple tough years with our bees, so we would try anything. So armed with a lawn chair and cup of coffee we brought them up to speed on what was happening in our world. I am hoping this prevents them from dying off during the winter. It was worth a try and besides there is something quite relaxing about sitting listening to the constant hum of a happy hive. (even though it was -15C and the plastic lawn chair was cold on the arse)

Having a chat with the bees

A Strange Tradition

There was a time when almost every rural British family who kept bees followed a strange tradition. Whenever there was a death in the family, someone had to go out to the hives and tell the bees of the terrible loss that had befallen the family. Failing to do so often resulted in further losses such as the bees leaving the hive, or not producing enough honey or even dying. Traditionally, the bees were kept abreast of not only deaths but all important family matters including births, marriages, and long absence due to journeys. If the bees were not told, all sorts of calamities were thought to happen. This peculiar custom is known as “telling the bees”.

Merry Blogmas everyone

Let it snow Let it snow Let it snow

Welcome to my very first Blogmas. I will be attempting to write a post once a week until Christmas. Not too much happening with the bees right now. But i will be writing about the winter, some honey recipes. some photos and other bee related "stuff". So here we go.......

I know...some of you will think i am crazy but i love snow. Always have....always will.  There is something really magical about it, (in my mind anyways). I can never be sad if its snowing.
Monday night (Dec 2) was our first snow warning of the winter.  And it began before we went to bed. I had to stop the urge to get up every hour and look out the door. But i wasn't disappointed when i got up and saw it was still snowing. All i wanted to do was curl up on the couch with a blanket and a good book. But instead we spent the day putting wall boards up in the loft but took lots of coffee breaks so we could sit and stare out the window.
The next day i thought i should wander over and make sure the snow hadn't piled up in front the hives. While crawling thru the electric fence, it dawned on my the last of the bears were probably denned up by now so tomorrow we are taking in the battery for the winter. The entrances were fine so i just cleaned up a bit and left.  With all the snow the spirit of Christmas is starting to set in.  In my next Blog i may make some Honey Fudge or some Honey Sponge toffee. I think it may also be time to start to decorate