Clear labels!
After moving to a new house and moving some hives around, I'm back into crushing out fresh honey. Saturday the 27th of Feb will mark my return to the Mt Gambier Farmer's Market. I've done a lot in the past few months!
I've designed a new logo and clear labels for my jars - above you can see a prototype. The final labels will actually be in white, because the black image and text disappear into the honey as soon as you put something dark behind the jar (like your hand, for instance). The bee in my logo is one of my own - she was sitting on a comb of honey, not looking at me, but looking out across the field, and I thought it made a cute and memorable image.
I've also moved my hives away from some of my more remote locations. They were simply too difficult to get to for checkups, and the bees suffered when the weather was bad and I couldn't get to them. While I'd love to produce Manuka honey, I'll need to find a more accessible location with better year-round flowers and less wind. There simply wasn't enough food for the bees where I had them. Still lots of honey in most of my hives though, and I think I'll have a few hives to harvest before I need to stop for winter.
Finally, because I've moved to a new house, I have slowed down my box production considerably as I wait for my new woodworking shed to get built. The immediate result from this is that my ability to capture and re-house bees is somewhat curtailed due to a lack of housing!
I look forward to seeing people at the market again.