Honey
To have a successful Orchard you must have pollinators. With some encouragement and help from a local artist, Debbie Elmer, Z-Orchard is now in the business of raising bees. This venture has proven to be the most interesting for the Orchard.
The bee yard is officially called an Apiary. Beginning in 2013, with 2 hives, the operation expanded to 6 hives in 2014, to 10 hives in 2015, and 15 hives in 2016. Z-Orchard honey is all sold as raw honey. This means that it is extracted from the hives, strained through filters, but not heated.
This raw honey will crystallize in varied amount of time, depending on the plants they bees collected nectar from. You can use crystallized honey, or liquefy by heating water to 150 degrees, remove from heat and place honey container in water. Do not refrigerate honey.
Explore our videos below to learn more about the bees and honey at Z-Orchard.
A special “Thank You” to all of our beekeeping friends who have helped us to make our bee yard successful
“To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee, and revery.
The revery alone will do, if bees are few.”
-Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems“The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.”
-Henry David Thoreau“I don’t like to hear cut and dried sermons. No—when I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.”
-Abraham Lincoln“No bees, no honey; no work, no money.”
-Anonymous“I am fascinated by the interactions between bees.
I am fascinated by the interactions between beekeepers.”
-Marla Spivak, Bee Lab, Unv. MN.“How doth does the little busy bee improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day from each and every flower”
-Isaac Watts, Poet and Hymn Writer, (1674–1748)Honey Videos
Watch as full frames of honey are harvested directly from an active honey bee hive at Z-Orchard (7:45)
Learn about the basic differences in the color of honey. (2:10)
Fresh honey! See how it is removed from the frame before being filtered for bottling. (1:11)
Tour the honeybee hive from top to bottom.(12:38)
Listen to a chat with the beekeeper at Z-Orchard as he extracts honey. (10:35)