Campbell's Honey

Its been a very busy Nov here in  Alamo Palms RV Park, where we take our winter holiday from Campbell's Honey. We are situated in South Texas just 20 minutes from the border with Mexico. Alamo is a suburb of McAllen Texas on Hwy 83. We spend 5 months each winter  resting up from our summer exertions with the honeybees,.

This season the mobile home was in need of paint and some touching up so we decided to get it covered with vinyl siding, (in lieu of paint) and new skirting around the bottom.

The pictures are before, during, and after the upgrade.

Its always warm here in Texas, and the natives are used to working in the heat. It was 85 F., sunny and hot on Thursday and Friday when the work was commenced and completed.

The  work was done by native  born Mexicans residing in TX.,  who spoke very little English.

When I asked the Foreman if the guys had papers to legally reside in the US., he assured me they did.

The job was done quickly, efficiently, reasonably, and we are happy with the work

This was a cool sunny day in late October,just the perfect day for combining soy beans on Campbells Farm.

Peter was operating the machine and I took the opportunity to ride with him, and check out the automatic features on the combine.

The summer has been cool and wet; not the perfect weather for soy beans, but the crop was better than expected.

We watched the automatic dial fluctuate between 30, and 50 bushels per acre as we traveled across the field. The high sandy points were showing 50 bushels, while the lower damper areas were producing 30 bushels. The high areas of lighter soil dried, and warmed quickly, giving the bean plants a better chance.

The huge green machine has a 20 foot wide header, (cuts a 20' swath) and brags a GPS system which can steer the machine hands off. All the operator has to do is know how to work the dials, and stay awake.

Next season this field will be seeded down to a Clover crop, which will provide the honeybees with nectar for Clover Honey, and supply hay  for the Black Angus Cattle in the winter.

There have always been cattle raised on Campbell's Farm, and today we moved some newly acquired animals to a different pasture on the other side of Percy Creek. It was all new to these Black Angus, because they were raised in Alberta Canada, and were sold from there, because of drought and a lack of winter feed in that Province. They are gentle creatures and went where they were supposed to go with very little problem.

We started the drive at 8.am Sunday morning, and  succeeded in moving them on the road without interfering with the normal traffic.  They were a bit hesitant about crossing the bridge over the water, but they all crowded together in the middle, and soon were safely across.

Once in the new pasture, they ran around checking out the electric fence to see just how much freedom they had. Cattle are like everyone else; no matter how much they are given, they will always be looking for more.

There was a touch of frost on the ground, but that didn't hinder the cattle from grazing. For them it's the dressing on the salad.

Questions or Comments welcome.

The weather is chilly, the leaves are almost gone from the trees, and the bees have a winter's supply of honey in the brood-chambers. Mid October is the time we pack up the bees for the long cold winter, which usually means deep snow, and temperatures down to -25 C. The snow is beneficial, in that it acts as insulation which helps to moderate hive temperatures, but too much cold, especially with a wind, can freeze the bees, or chill them to the point of  starvation, in a brood-chamber filled with honey.

Winter packing at Campbell's Honey has evolved from a wrapping of Tar Paper and straw for insulation thirty years ago, to a heavy commercial black plastic bag which we pull down over the hive, and a piece of carpet cut to fit under the top cover of the colony.

The Black plastic attracts heat in the the sunshine, which warms the bees and enables them to move within the cluster to the next frame of honey which is their food. Although there is little or no insulation value in the plastic bag, it stops the wind, and traps the heat. The piece of carpet goes on top of the plastic bag and under the outer hive cover. A ventilation hole in the plastic bag at the top of the hive allows the moisture to escape. For every lb. of honey that the bees consume there is an equal amount of water given off. When this condensation is trapped in the hive it condenses on the hive top and drips down, thereby causing certain death to the bees.

Today  before we packed, we were pulling the  two mite strips which were inserted between the frames of the upper brood chamber 47 days ago for control of Varroa Mites.

This concludes the  honeybee manipulations, and medications, for this year.

Questions or Comments Welcomed.

The home of Campbell's Honey is a Centennial Farm, situated on Campbell Rd. in Northumberland County, Ontario Canada.

My Great Grandfather was born in Scotland in the mid 1800's, and as a young man was involved in a sexual misadventure which caused his embarrassed parents to place him on board ship with a one-way ticket to the new world. George Campbell arrived in Canada and worked for 2 years  to save enough money to send for his wife-to-be and young child. After their marriage they had several more children, one of which was my Grandfather, Adam Campbell.

For a time after Adam married he farmed just north of lake Ontario in the Oak Hills. In the spring of 1905 he purchased the farm where we live today, and his second son Percy, was born in the farm-house in October of that year. Twenty eight years later, to the month, I was born to Percy and Ora Campbell, in the same room of the same farmhouse. >>

My father had a mixed farm with horses, pigs chickens and dairy cows. After I married in 1955 I took over the farm and soon had a herd of pure-bred Aberdeen Angus cattle.

It was only after my brother and oldest son began to keep a few hives of honeybees for a hobby, that I became interested.  They had a few colonies and were having so much fun. So I bought some too, and then we were all in the honey business together. That was about thirty years ago, and although we miss my brother, who passed away a few years ago, we are still having fun keeping honeybees and making some of the best honey in the world.

Beeswax is a natural secretion of honeybees in the hive,  for the purpose of building honeycomb.

As with all things in life, there is a cost involved. One pound of beeswax as produced in the hive, takes eight pounds of honey to manufacture. Young bees make wax by eating large amounts of honey, and then extruding fresh beeswax from pores in their stomach. Without this construction material, the colony would have no place to store their honey.

Before we extract the honey from the comb,  the wooden frames must first go through the uncapping machine to cut off the wax cappings.

Wax cappings are to  honeycomb, as lids are to jars. As the wax cappings are cut from the honeycomb, they drop into an auger below the tray, and are pushed (along with  a small amount of honey) into  the wax spinner where the honey is separated from the wax by a large centrifuge. After several hours of operation the spinner is unloaded , and the dry wax is stored in metal drums until time to render the wax.

At rendering time we wheel the drums filled with dry wax cappings into the boiler-room where we have a large tank partially filled with steam-heated water. The drums of wax cappings are dumped, and shovelled into the hot water where they are melted into a liquid and boiled for about 2 hours. The wax is clarified by boiling, and the impurities, which are called "slumgum,"  settle to the bottom. The wax is then skimmed off and molded in plastic trays and small pails.

One barrel of dry wax cappings will make a hundred pounds of solid wax blocks. There's always a demand for clean bright blocks of molded beeswax. This year we have already sold our beeswax, even before it is entirely rendered.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency inspectors arrived this week for an annual tour of our premises. Their inspection takes over an hour as they scrutinize all procedures, practises, and processes used in the pursuit of our honey business. All applications of chemicals used for medication purposes on the bees in the apiary are closely monitored with respect to their proper use and duration, as well as any chemicals that are used for the eradication of honey house pests such as rodents, wax moth, and other insects.

All  procedures associated with the keeping of bees must be documented on a daily basis as well as records relating to the cleaning and maintenance of  honey-house equipment, and floors.  Personal Cleanliness is a high piority, as well as insuring that no personal jewellery, or  hair, contaminant the product .

The finished product must be tracable right back to the beeyard in which it was produced, so that if a  problem arises it can be identified and remedied.

The Inspectors walk around the premise checking for  such hazards as fire,  improper storage of equipment which could lead to rodent  or wax moth infestations, and other unsightly spaces.

Once they have covered these areas they take samples of honey from the sales room which are tested to insure purity of the product.

Comments are welcomed.

Some of the most stimulating taste sensations present in this area of Ontario are, Chocolate from the World's Finest Chocolate Factory in nearby Campbellford, and Maple Syrup produced at Sandy Flats Sugar Bush just down the road,  but the most salubrious local delight that's often imitated, but never replicated, is the all natural sweet flavour experience of pure Canadian honey, fresh from the bees.

For almost 30 years we have been taking pride in the production of our unique, naturally flavored honey. Where many honey operations mix all their honey into one product, we take the time and trouble to sort the flavors by taste, color, locality, and beeyard.

Our honeyhouse sales room opens with white honey from spring flowers in the first week of August. When the Purple Loosestrife honey is harvested, usually in mid August, we fill a separate tank in the sales room, and add it to our inventory. By this time we also have Creamed White honey available on the shelves. Then in early September, we have Fall White, and Buckwheat Honey in the tanks, and on the table in our containers.

You can bring your own honey containers. Our customers are encouraged to save money by bringing their own honey containers to be refilled,  and to purchase a year's supply of honey at a time, thus saving money and helping the environment. This idea has caught on, and we have many customers who bring their own honey pails to be  filled with large amounts, and different flavors of Campbell's Honey.

For the most part people are entranced with the salivary delights of sampling the different honey flavors. A possible exception are those, city born and bred, who have never tasted honey from the source.

Buckwheat Honey is dark and strong, with just a hint of the absurd. When I meet someone who is obviously unfamiliar with the flavor, I laughingly suggest (as she raises the sample spoon to her mouth) that she, "won't like it!" Sometimes I am wrong, but its always good fun, on a busy day in the sales room of Campbell's Honeyhouse.

The Honeyhouse is a Hive of activity in September.

Customers bring their pails and come for miles for their favorite flavor. Some like it strong and dark, others like it  mild and light, but all love the sweet sticky taste of Campbell's Honey.

Everyone has a job, and no matter what it is, by the end of a day you will have honey in your hair, on your clothes and all over your body.. The air is filled with honey whipped  up by the high velocity of the rotating extractor as it spins the frames in the process of freeing the honey from the wax combs.

Peter wheels  a pallet of honey into the extracting room. This honey has been dried overnight at a temperature of 83 F. to make it warm enough to spin out  and leave the wax combs dry.

He wheels it around and leaves it at the hoist ready for John to put the individual frames through the uncapping machine and into the tray where it will travel along  a chain to be pushed into the extractor.

The Extractor is controlled by compressed air. The huge stainless cover raises by itself when a small  lever is toggled. After the cover opens more compressed air pushes a load of full frames in, while the previous load is pushed out.

Every 15 minutes a fresh load of frames are transferred in and out of the extractor. The honey runs out of extractor into a heated tank, where the small pieces of wax rise to the top and the honey is pumped from under this, into the final strainer.

This picture shows the Extractor full, with the cover still up. Peter prepares to give the carriage a spin before lowering the cover. The empty frames from  the previous load  are waiting to be boxed in supers, and transferred into the storage area.

Its a busy job that begins at 8 am and extends to12 noon. By that time, we need to barrel the honey off, and do the cleanup.  The floor must be washed, and the machinery wiped down before we can start again the following morning.

We were honored this week by a visit from friends, who for five months each year, live next-door to us in Texas USA, where we take our winter holiday. Dale and Betty Fawcett left Texas in June/09,  have been on a tour of the Eastern USA and Canada, and have included us in their itinerary on their trip back home, via Niagara Falls.

Dale is a gifted photographer and Betty,( like the magicians helper) is shown in the picture as an adept hang-glider pilot extraordinaire.

Our local community has many interesting, and progressive businesses which we were able to showcase for our  guests.  First we went to Campbellford, and visited the Empire Cheese Factory which is the only farmer owned Cheese Factory left in Ontario.  At The Worlds Finest Chocolate  factory and store,  we bought mouth-watering, chocolate covered almonds at a reasonable price. Dinner was at  Apollo's Restaurant where we dined sumptuously on sirloin strip steak, on a bed of Greek Salad.

After we finished work the next day we went to The Sandy Flats Sugar Bush, where the owners, George Potter and his wife Alice entertained us with a tour of the premise and tastes of Maple Sugar, and Maple Syrup. George is a Premier Maple Syrup Producer who has won numerous awards for his Maple Syrup, at local fairs, and at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto.

On another evening we had a Corn Roast dinner here at Campbell's Honey. We boasted that our locally grown sweet corn was second to none in the world, and our guests were in accord.  (The next picture shows the Fawcetts tasting honey samples in the sales room - bottom picture is their Travel-Trailer parked in our front yard.)

Dale and Betty understood that we were working in a window of opportunity, and graciously waited each day until we finished extracting, and closed up the sales room in the honeyhouse.  Then we  were able to relax and enjoy each other's company.

Thanks to them for being such good friends. We truly enjoyed their visit!

Comments welcomed.