Early Spring Honey Harvest

Last fall we had one new hive of bees we started in the Spring that produced like gangbusters!  We harvested nearly 36 lbs of honey in the fall and we left a frame partially full of honey for them to over-winter with, but unfortunately the hive didn't survive.  It's our second hive loss in two years, and as new bee keepers it's been disappointing and somewhat discouraging for sure.  

Our first hive did well its first year, and over-wintered successfully.  However, in the Spring the hive decided they needed a new queen and she apparently didn't like our setup so she swarmed with the colony.  We didn't actually realize this until after the fact because we weren't watching the hive well enough to see that they were producing a new queen.  We might have been able to prevent the swarming had we watched more closely.

Our second hive didn't survive Winter because I left too many frames on the hive and they couldn't stay warm.  We should have winterized the hive better and removed another frame or two to consolidate the hive.  Frustrating to say the least, and a costly learning experience.  We haven't given up though.

Another thing we learned from this last experience is that it's a good idea to have some honey harvest for the Spring rather than sell or use it all in the Fall.  We'll see if we can work that into our normal harvesting practice.

This past weekend, we harvested about 25 lbs of honey from the frames that were left behind.  We'll clean and prep the foundations and frames for two new packages of bees for hives we're starting back up this Spring.  Fingers crossed we improve our bee keeping skills to maintain some hives for a least a few years successfully for a change. 

Fresh Beef

We've harvested our second steer on the farm on April 1st (522 lbs hanging weight), we're working on getting into a cycle of harvesting two steers a year, one approximately every six months.  We're selling half of the steer, which helps us cover our processing costs, and utilizing the other half for ourselves and extended family.  This time our cut order included a prime rib roast and ~5 lbs of jerky slices to make ourselves.

We use Farmer's Helper out of Harrisburg, Oregon for mobile slaughter and processing.  They're simply the best to work with in our opinion; they're reliable, honest, work quickly, and do an excellent job with the cut-n-wrap.  Mobile slaughter allows the steer to be dispatched without stress of being hauled in a trailer somewhere, and we can be there when it goes down. 

How do we finish our beef?  Well, we don't grain finish since we prefer leaner beef and a healthier meat product.  In our opinion grass fed is simply better for the steer and our diet.  We get our hay locally from a nearby farmer, so the grass fields they harvest are nearby to our own pastures where our beef graze on spring grass.  We know what's in the bales and how the hay was grown.

We also harvest at 18 months regardless of steer size, it's about the quality of the meat rather than quantity.  We're not in the production beef cattle ranching business, we're simply homesteaders producing our own meat the best we can.

Our next steer harvest will be in December on the 2nd, and we'll have a half beef to sell.  It sells by hanging weight per pound, plus processing fees (kill fee and sort fee, cut-n-wrap we include in our price per lb).  As an example, a 1/4 beef from steer of 506 lbs hanging weight would cost $443.70 (126.5 lbs x $3.30/lb + $16.25 kill fee + $10 sort fee).  The actual amount of meat from the 1/4 will be around 100 lbs (less the trimmings).  Let us know if you're interested in a 1/2 or 1/4, if available.