The Giggling Groves

2025 Honey Harvest. Just under
25 gallons of honey = ~300 lbs (136 Kgs).
I noticed that the frames pulled earlier in the season had a darker/more amber color than frames pulled later on/ more recent.
My guess is that the Lindens (Basswoods) blooms mark the end of our honey flow and the flowers produce a lighter (color only) honey.
I am looking forward to seeing if there is actually any difference in the final bottled honey or not.
Next up: Making Mead (honey wine) using all the honey washed off of the wax capping. And then melting down the wax cappings into bees wax pucks for later uses.
Trying to not a waste a drop of all the hard work that the ladies put in for us every season!!!

🪣 I joined the from !

No fogging. No sprays. No harm to bees 🐝 , butterflies 🦋, fireflies, birds 🐦‍⬛, or kids.

Stop the bite. Save the buzz.

Learn how: MosquitoBucketChallenge.org

Getting one 🥚 closer to a 🌈 dozen.

Starting some fun indeterminate tomatoes!!! These ones like to vine out and produce over and over again.

We are also trying out some biodegradable seedling bags. Fill them halfway with our soil mix, then plant the seed. Once the tomato plants grow taller, we will fill the rest of the bag with more soil, and the tomatoes grow more roots from where it was covered. Making a stronger plant!!!

The biodegradable bags will hopefully will allow us to reduce the amount of plastic used each season and have the added benefit of “air pruning” the roots of seedlings, lessening transplant shock!!!!

Ruby-throated hummingbirds are making their way back!

New skills being unlocked: Grafting Fruit Trees!!!

We are excited to graft of these apple & pear scions into our existing trees.

Apple scions
• Pink lady
• Gala
• Sweet 16
• Fuji
• SnowSweet

Pear scions
• Parker Pear
• Clapp’s Favorite Pear
• Sure Crop Pear

Planting a garden here on the Front Range of CO?

helping out with some very useful information!!!

Starting some tomatoes! These are going to be fun!!! The top two are our experimenting to see which ones will be best for pate/ jarring here in our climate. the Rebel Starfighter Prime just look fun!!! We will be selling these seedlings in the spring! So make sure you share this post with anyone that would be interested in local plant seedlings. And remember, we are a “Pay What You Can” business model: we suggest a price but if you need them, they are there for the taking!!!

First egg (black copper maran) of our 2025 season!

Bring out your dead (bees)! Some people might be shocked with the amount of dead bees in front of their hives during the winter. However, it is a good sign and means that there are alive bees to drag them out!!! Counterintuitive like a lot of things in beekeeping. All part of the natural cycle of beekeeping here in Colorado.

We got an early start on germinating our pepper seeds this year (and with really good success)! Read for more info:

We are trying some new varieties:
• Leysa - super sweet with thick flesh for the kids!
• Shish*to - great for grilling!
• Sugar Rush Peach - sweet/tropical flavor with seeds that bring smokey complex heat.
• Txorixero - for making Paprika, pronounced: cho-dee-share-doe.

Dr. Seuss looking sunflowers. These have been fun to grow in the garden this year.