Where did the entire year go? The summer? How is it already fall?
These questions are all running through my head right now. We started extracting last weekend to fill our initial orders. We only removed one box from the hives so we have plenty left yet to extract, but we are waiting for the arrival of our new honey house!
This past February, we received an award from AgStar (now Compeer) for our work with our honey business, commitment to community, and sharing our story. Along with this, came a cash award. We debated a long time about what we should use it for. Ultimately, we chose to purchase a new honey house.
Our honey house is coming from a company called Pro-Shed. We went to their workshop, were given a tour of their space, toured various sizes and shapes of buildings, and then finally sat down with a salesman to go over options and what we were looking for. We had it custom built to include a few things like a porch for when we have tours (yes, tours of the honey house will be in the future!), extra windows, ramps for boxes going in and out, and more.
Our honey house will be a permanent home for our extractor, bottling tank, and other extraction supplies. We have storage built in in the top to house extra bottles and other supplies. We will be installing a sink, cupboards and a workspace area in the future as well. We are still working on a permanent location on the farm. We thought by now our barn would be gone, but waiting on permits can take forever. So it might get pushed back to next year with a temporary spot for the honey house in the meantime.
Our hopes is to not only use it ourselves, but also rent it out to other local beekeepers who need a place to extract that isn’t their garage or kitchen, complete with all the supplies they could need.
Also, new this year, you will be able to find our honey in several retail locations. Our first location announcement is Montgomery Orchard located on Hwy 99 in Montgomery. This place is such a fun place to go from the corn maze to pick your own apples, hard cider and entertainment, it is one of our favorite stops every fall!
Keep watching our Facebook page for updates as we patiently await our honey house and have more honey available!