Jennings Apiaries

Hey All!

      This is Lauren Jennings, part owner of Jennings Apiaries! Aaron and I want to keep you updated on the latest with our business and ourselves. I will be writing a blog post once a month highlighting things I’m currently reading and interested in etc. Here we go!

What I’m wearing: Blundstone boots baby!

Aaron got me these for Christmas and I am very pleased with them! I needed a versatile leather boot that could go from the garden to casual everyday wear while still looking good! Great support, they keep you warm, and very easy to slip on and off. They cost $150 at the cheapest to $200 at the most and run a little big. That may seem a bit pricey but the quality will last you. Did I mention they are from Australia?! Leather boots are my thing and these are a good buy. Find it here

What I’m reading: Floret Farm’s Cut Flower Garden by Erin Benzakein

I LOVE fresh cut flowers and try to surround myself with their beauty often! One of the best ways to do that is trying to grow your own which is why I was SO excited to see Erin, owner of Floret Farm publish her book! She grows her flowers in WA state but includes lots of information that can be applied to other climates and growing zones. My favorite part is that she tells you about how many days to start your seeds before the first frost. Stunning images, informative info...I will be turning to this book again and plan to use it at a coffee table book as well! Highly suggest it for those who garden or interested in getting started! Hard copy on Amazon.com for $20.36 with Prime...A steal! Find it here

What I’m using: Broadfork gardening tool

S-T-O-K-E-D that my borrowing days are over and I finally have my own Broadfork! What is a broad fork you say? A broadfork is a handheld tool for breaking up soil in your garden. Using a tractor or walk-behind tiller are quick methods to break ground, but they do two things: 1. They disrupt the natural ecology of the soil by turning what’s underneath on top. Nature has it figured out- We don’t want to disturb the natural layers and beneficial systems already in place which leads to number two. 2. Large equipment compacts the soil, which is not good for baby roots while trying to start a garden. The Broadfork lifts soil, creating an ideal environment for delicate roots to form while still maintaining those precious ecological layers! Plus, it builds character and upper body strength...Win-win-win-win! Highly recommend this tool for beginning gardeners, backyard gardeners, and those interested in soil regeneration and sustainability! See time-lapse below to see in in action. If you are going to buy one, get a Meadow Creature. $200ish with shipping and best made. Find it here

What I’m excited about: My Spring garden!

Let me tell you, my seeds are ordered and my planner is FULL! For the first time, I’ve been really proactive with garden planning this year. My first Spring seeds will go in the greenhouse next week! I found a free app that has been helpful - Burpee Garden Planner. You create a profile and type in your zip code. Then you select what vegetables, herbs, or flowers you’d like to grow and it gives you a suggested start date for seeds and transplants! Granted, not every variety/type is present but they have a lot of the basics! Really helpful tool that is taking the guesswork out of it for me. Find it here

Learn from the man himself, Les Crowder. He is the author of Top bar Beekeeping: An Organic Approach and has been keeping bees for over 40 years. He was the state inspector and president of the New Mexico State Beekeepers.

This course will pick up from the basics of top bar beekeeping and discuss more advanced topics including queen breeding and more! This is a great opportunity to meet up with fellow top bar beekeepers in the area.

Class will be at 1pm on Saturday, June 17, 2017. The class will be held at My Happy Place Vintage shop at 2372 Farmerville Hwy (Hwy 33) in Ruston.

After 2 years with this website, we decided it was time to freshen up a bit. We looked at analytics for where visitors were actually going and are going to provide content that will be relevant for you and others.

We have also decided to change the blog/podcast/videos to a new name, Beekeeping Plain & Simple.  Bees and Such was fun and we learned a lot, but now we are ready to produce quality content that is close to our hearts. Which leads to...

Our new mission with the blog/podcast/videos is to provide information on simple techniques and methods that will allow more people to get into beekeeping. Beekeeping has literally changed our lives for the better and we want to share that!

We appreciate you for taking the time to read and share our blog, social media posts and the other goodies that are still in the works. If we can do anything to help you out, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.

All natural, cloth diaper safe!

Pure - Using only 5 all natural ingredients including our beeswax

Simple - We only use ingredients that are needed and nothing else. No fillers or artifical anything

Effective - Truly works to heal chapped, raw, sensitive baby skin. The ingredients have been used for hundreds of years for skin care.

Jennings Apiaries is on a mission to provide the best skin care using all natural ingredients and saving bees at the same time!

Hey everyone! We want to give you all a heads up about some upcoming changes and new material that we will be publishing.

Since the beginning of Jennings Apiaries, we have been passionate about education and honey bees. We love what we do and want to share that with any and all that may be interested!

Over the next few weeks we will be launching a YouTube channel, updating our podcast format and putting out more educational material through our social media on Facebook and Instagram.

4 Combs, Treatment Free Bees & 2017 Queen

Nucleus colonies, or "nucs", are a great way to start a hive with established combs for the best chances of survival and honey harvest!

These nucs will come with 4 combs full of brood, pollen and honey. It will also come with approximately 3 lbs of bees and a 2017 treatment free queen from our best stock. Very limited availability! 

Bees and Combs ONLY - You will still need a top bar hive to place them in. Free plans can be downloaded here

Made from Ozark Red Cedar

These are the top bar hives that we use ourselves! They are 30" long, which is the length that we have found perfect for our area! We based this length off of research conducted by Tom Seeley on the optimal volume for a honey bee hive.

The hive includes the box, top bars with wax foundation strips installed, stand, and weather proof lid that has a chalkboard surface on the bottom of it to keep notes right at the hive!

We have a very limited number of these hives available, so get one now!

Open mated, verified laying queens from the best non treated stocks we can source.

Our bees have only been treatment free. We have a wide variety of genetics that we have drawn from, mostly feral and survivor based stocks. Our lines descend from VSH breeders, BeeWeaver queens and Sam Comfort, with the rest coming from locally caught swarms.

These queens are open mated and we observe them for at least 4 weeks to make sure that their pattern is good. We do not mass produce queens and will replace any queen that doesn't perform.

I love top bar hives. They are simple, effective and efficient.

I have been using top bars in our beekeeping business for the past 4 seasons and spent the 2016 season converting my best stock into top bar hives exclusively. During the conversion process, I used top bar hive "supers" to get my bees in Langstroth boxes to build the combs I would need to expand my numbers. These short top bar hives have holes in the bottom to allow the bees to move up into the top bar box. I blocked the bottom entrance and forced the bees to go through the top bar entrances. Since bees abhor empty space, they quickly started drawing combs off of my bars and before I knew it I had 10 fully drawn combs to use.

I would then move some of the drawn combs once they had brood in them to a bigger top bar hive. Where we are located, small hive beetles can really take over a growing colony. To combat this, I built these much shorter than what is typically recommended. I halved Les Crowder's length and went with a 22" length box. The bees were able to maintain this space very well and kept the beetles to a minimum even during the prime beetle time of July and August.

I think that the 22" hive is still a bit too short for my "production" hives. This year I am building the full-size hives at 30". This gives them a volume that fits in with Tom Seeley's recent research covering the benefits of smaller hives for bee health. The standard length usually varies between 4'-5', but every time I've seen a top bar hive in that range locally, the hive beetles have decimated it.

I still have a need for smaller mating nucs and hives to start splits in, so my other length has now been adjusted to 12". This creates a top bar nuc situation and my plan is to use them for housing my queens that I will raise and sell this year. This size allows for 8 top bars, which will be easy to move to new yards.

Hey! I wanted to let anyone know that may be interested that we will be hosting beekeeping classes again this year!

The focus will now be entirely on top bar beehives and the pros and cons of using them. Our entire operation has switched over to top bar and we are obviously big proponents of using horizontal hives in general.

The classes will cover:

Basic Bee Biology

An overview of the superorganism that is a bee colony

Basics of constructing a top bar hive

Seasonal management for top bar hives

A hands-on look at a bee hive and its parts

Q&A with Aaron

The class will cost $25 and will last at least 3 hours, usually closer to 4. Water and some type of sweet yummies will be provided. We will also record audio of the class and have that available for folks to download at a later time. Space will be limited to 12 people. The location is still being worked out but will be in the Ruston area. The proceeds will go towards the Louisiana Bee Sanctuary, our effort to raise awareness and educate people about honey bees and other pollinators.

Dates will be: 3/25/17 9am - 12pm 4/15/17 9am - 12pm 5/13/17 9am - 12pm 6/17/17 9am - 12pm

The focus will now be entirely on top bar beehives and the pros and cons of using them. Our entire operation has switched over to top bar and we are obviously big proponents of using horizontal hives in general.

The classes will cover:

Basic Bee Biology

An overview of the superorganism that is a bee colony

Basics of constructing a top bar hive

Seasonal management for top bar hives

A hands-on look at a bee hive and its parts

Q&A with Aaron

The class will cost $25 and will last at least 3 hours, usually closer to 4. Water and some type of sweet yummies will be provided. We will also record audio of the class and have that available for folks to download at a later time. Space will be limited to 12 people. The lcoation is still being worked out but will be in the Ruston area.

Dates will be: 3/25/17 9am - 12pm 4/15/17 9am - 12pm 5/13/17 9am - 12pm 6/17/17 9am - 12pm

Honeybee necklaces are handmade with Jennings Apiaries all natural honeycomb and repurposed material. Each comb is as unique as a fingerprint, so every pendant is truly one of a kind.