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valley_hives

@valley_hives

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🍯 Raw unpasteurized wildflower honey
📍 Laurentian Valley, ON
🍁 Woman owned and operated
🌻 Beekeeping life with a bit of other rural living snapshots

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It’s Fall Cleanup

This time of year is all about cleaning and putting things away for the winter. As a small-scale beekeeper with just 20 honey supers and 200 frames to scrape down and maintain, this little operation took me two full days!

So, what exactly are we cleaning?

🍯 Sticky honey residue on all the extraction equipment
🐝 Wax particles and burr comb left behind
✨ The magical, medicinal miracle that is propolis; sticky gum that is on all the nooks and crannies
🦋 Wax moths that have already started settling into the abandoned frames
💛 And, sadly, a few bees who didn’t make it through the extraction process

It’s a messy and sticky, but an important part of caring for our equipment and getting everything ready for another season. Plus the smell of wax and propolis cannot be beat.

Today, everything gets tucked away for the winter.

And while the bees settle in for the colder months, I’m already dreaming of the 2027 honey harvest!

#beekeeping #honey #apiarylife taken in Laurentian Valley by @valley_hives

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an hour ago

O P E N

Happy Thanksgiving weekend! The Farmstand is open today from 9am until dusk (or sold out).

Take a country drive out for fresh flowers and local honey from @valley_hives 🤎

Self serve cash and etransfer

710 Walford Road by @valley_hives

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7 days ago

A little bee magic after honey harvest. 🔊

When we harvest honey, there’s always a bit left behind. It’s on everything; sticky boxes, pails, spatulas.

Thankfully, the bees are more than happy to help clean up.

These five boxes were freshly spun out and still coated in honey when I set them back out. Within seconds, the bees were investigating, and before long they were busy cleaning every last drop.

They carry that honey back to their hives, where they can add it to their winter stores. What looks like a sticky mess to us is a treasure to them.

There is a more frantic buzz in the yard this time of year as they try to collect everything they can during the last few warm moments. They are even visiting the dahlias!

Now we don’t have a sticky mess to clean and the bees get the chance to reclaim the leftover honey for themselves.

#honeybee #ontariohomestead #ontariohoney taken in Laurentian Valley by @valley_hives

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12 days ago

And just like that, another honey harvest season is wrapped up.

This year was a year of rebuilding. After a hard winter loss that left us with just 1 of 10 hives, we started over. Building back with a swarm, nucleus cells, walk-away splits, and splits with bred queens.

We grew from that one surviving hive to 7, and eventually came back down to 6. That’s beekeeping: the ever-changing pulse of the hives, with seasons of growth and seasons of shrinkage, ebbing and flowing in ways that are sometimes within our control and sometimes not.

Those 6 producing hives gifted us about 450 lbs of honey this year.

For comparison, last year 8 producing hives gave us almost 900 lbs!

Every year is different. Every season has something to teach us. And as I close out this one, I’m already looking forward to what next year will bring.

Here’s to the bees, the blooms, the lessons, and another season in the books.

Thanks for joining me this summer! Don’t worry, there’s more to come from Valley Hives 💛

#beekeeperlife🐝 #nucleushive #ontariohoney taken in Laurentian Valley by @valley_hives

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24 days ago

Last weekend, Mum and I spent two days soaking up back-to-back workshops at the third annual Ontario Women’s Bee Camp.

Mum focused her time on learning new tricks to bring you the best salves, candles and other honey-inspired treats, while I dove into talks on bee health, business and equipment.

What an incredible weekend of learning, making new friends, sharing ideas and, of course, tasting plenty of delicious honey!

We’re so excited to put everything we learned into practice in the year ahead and bring you even more good things from the hive.

#womenbeekeepers #ontariohoney taken in Port Severn by @valley_hives

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a month ago

Our girls have been working hard, bringing in the last of the season’s honey. Last week, I took off the final honey supers and queen excluders.

It’s always a bittersweet time for me. There’s a sense of accomplishment knowing we made it through another summer, but also a little sadness as the hives are prepared to be tucked away until April.

Now, the colony’s focus shifts from growth to survival. The bees begin reducing the number of mouths they need to feed; worker and drone numbers decline, and the queen gradually slows her egg laying.

The worker bees emerging now are different from their summer sisters. These “winter bees” have a different physiology that allows them to live much longer and conserve resources, helping the colony survive the long winter ahead.

For now, the girls are settling in, and I’m grateful for another season in the apiary.

(Yes I forgot to whipper-snip before this video)

#beekeeping #honeybee #bees taken in Laurentian Valley by @valley_hives

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a month ago

Each year around our wedding anniversary, we pull out an old box of mementos and spend some time reminiscing about the good things gone by.

This year, I came across our engagement photos from 2021 with a written insert inside. We had been in our new home for just over a year, full of hopes and plans for what life might become.

Reading it now, five years later, I couldn’t help but smile.

I think we really nailed it.

📸 Hubby’s first time in a suit, 2020
#familytradition #supportwomeninbusiness taken in Laurentian Valley by @valley_hives

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a month ago

Wow, 125 followers!

When I started this account nine months ago, I had no idea what it would become. I’m certainly not an expert in technology or social media, but I do have something I’m passionate about and wanted to share with more people in my local community.

So, let me introduce myself! My name is Morgan, and I’m the founder of Valley Hives. While I may be the face behind this page, Valley Hives is far from a one-woman operation. My family is an integral part of its success, and I couldn’t do it without them.

I have deep roots in Laurentian Valley and throughout the Ottawa Valley, and I’m proud to produce and share local honey and hive products with the community I call home. I believe strongly in the healing power of honeybees and their by-products, whether that healing is physical, emotional, or spiritual.

Through this page, I hope to share not only my honey and other products, but also fascinating facts, traditions, and lore surrounding one of nature’s most remarkable creatures: the honeybee.

Outside of beekeeping, I work full-time and am always pursuing a new side quest or adventure, so life is rarely dull around here!

Whether you’re here for the bees, the honey, or simply out of curiosity, welcome. Thank you for following along and helping build this little community. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re interested in products, events, or just chatting. I’m so happy to have you here and can’t wait to continue sharing the journey with you all.💛

📸 @heronhillfarm

#womenbeekeepers #supportlocal #family taken in Laurentian Valley by @valley_hives

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2 months ago

Honeybees typically forage 2 to 3 kilometres from their hive. They can travel upwards of 10 kilometres if needed.

@laurentianflowerfarm is approximately 5.5km as the bee flies from our Home Yard so you never know, if you buys some flowers and honey at their Farm Stand you could be taking home two parts of the same story 💛🖤

#ontariohoney #laurentianvalley #womenbeekeepers #supportlocal taken in Laurentian Valley by @valley_hives

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2 months ago

FREE FLOWERS

I leave for three days and the flower garden explodes!

With a honey purchase this week you’ll receive one of my complimentary dahlias (or gladiolus). Pick up outside of Pembroke.

This weekend see more lovely flowers and honey at @laurentianflowerfarm grand opening! See their page for more details.

#womensupportingwomen #womenbeekeepers #ottawavalley taken in Laurentian Valley by @valley_hives

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2 months ago

A few years ago I bought a nucleus cell from southern Ontario. The seller was so kind she threw in some dahlia bulbs. I didn’t know what those were or how to plant them. Fast forward to today, these bulbs are sending up blooms as tall as me and some as big has my hand!

The honeybees don’t care for them at all but they are so pretty I won’t stop growing them and sharing the bulbs.

#supportlocal #randomactsofkindness #honeybee #ontariohoney taken in Laurentian Valley by @valley_hives

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2 months ago

That sweet sweet moment of capping off the first jar.

At Valley Hives each jar is filled with hand spun, filtered, and jarred honey.

#handmadewithlove #localhoney #supportsmallbusiness #womeninbeekeeping by @valley_hives

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2 months ago