Runamuk Acres Conservation Farm
Soil-first farming, building health from the ground up!
With the kids back in school, and the first blush of color spreading across the forest canopy, it’s time to think once again about winterizing the farm, garden or homestead. As a life-long Maine resident, I’ve seen my share of hard winters and can imagine what it might be like for newcomers to the northern…
Much of society dreads the coming of winter with its frigid temperatures, long dark nights and back-breaking shoveling—yet farmers and homesteaders alike breathe a sigh of relief that the frantic pace of the growing season is behind us. Sure–winter means shoveling walk-ways and thawing frozen water buckets for livestock—but it also means quiet time, and…
As the rush of spring and early summer wanes, the beekeepers’ attention turns toward the up-coming cold months. Getting your honeybee colonies through the winter–especially one such as those we experience here in Maine–is perhaps the second most challenging thing a beekeeper will face (the first being coping with varroa mites). Wintering beehives is very…
The last few days have been bee-days for me here at Runamuk. I’ve been more hands-off with the bees this year, which is odd for me, but good for the bees I think. However when I began to see bees crawling down the driveway with shriveled and deformed wings, I knew something was wrong in…
What’s a beekeeper to do during the winter? Those–like me–who hold such passion and adoration for their honeybees–for whom there is no better feeling in all the world than watching these busy girls coming and going, carrying pollen and nectar to the hive; for whom opening the hive, viewing the larvae-grubs in their cells, or…
We’re finally moved in at the new homestead and the family is settling back into our familiar routines. With my kitchen unpacked, I am at long last able to get back to my typical Sunday baking habit–admittedly, homemaking (cooking, baking, cleaning, etc.) is not my most favorite of activities, but baking my own breads really…
Now that the balmy days of summer are behind us, and the time to tuck in for the long cold of winter has come–I like to play around with growing different foods inside my house. The gardening season may be over, but providing fresh and nutritious foods for family meals is a never-ending task, and…
There are a good number of beekeepers who object to feeding bees sugar. And I completely understand their objections. Sugar is essentially the equivalent of feeding your bees a steady diet of twinkies. It causes a number of health issues. Add to that the fact that mainstream sugar is produced from genetically modified sugar beets,…
I miss my bees during the winter. The long cold and snowy months when a beekeeper can’t go out to play with her bees are hard for me. But yesterday was a gorgeous January day–sunny and relatively warm (for January), and I was feeling energized after helping a local prune her beautiful apple tree. So…
I was downright giddy as I left the house just as the sun was coming up Saturday morning. The only vehicles on the road seemed to belong to men dressed in hunter orange, and I imagine that my excitement at going to my first-ever beekeeper’s conference surpassed their’s at a prospective day of hunting. It…