Homestead in the Hood

09/07/2026

Check out our new website for Homestead in the Hood Mercantile (hint, we now offer shipping!!)

We’re so excited to announce that shipping is now available for orders placed on the (much improved) website for our Mercantile. Just select “Shipping” at checkout to have your order shipped to your home. Placing an order helps support our business and over 30 other Colorado small businesses so we can keep serving you!

Click here for an update from Homestead in the Hood!

09/06/2026

Feeding the bees for winter.

We feed 2:1 (two parts sugar to water) this time of year in order to ensure the colonies are up “to weight” and have enough to make it through winter. Here’s a few numbers we live by.

🥶A colony will consume 1 deep frame of honey on average, every 2 weeks of winter. So take the first and last frost dates from the previous year to find out how many frames you need for your area.

🍯 One deep frame holds 7-9lbs of honey. 1gal of 2:1 makes roughly 10lbs. So calculate how many frames short you are of your target weight, then use this to estimate how many gallons of 2:1 this colony needs to be at that weight.

🪳O-1 mites is the number we are looking for in our mite washes this time of year. No longer is a count of 6/300 acceptable. Mites will quickly outpace the rate of birth for the bees this time of year. So get those counts as low as possible.

🪨 your top deep box should feel like a box of rocks. It should make you audibly “humph” when you pick it up and set it down. Maybe even need to use the buddy system? Perfect.

Questions? Let me know!

09/05/2026

Life has been a bit frantic lately.

But we are getting there. Healthy, but hungry hives. Honey supers off. Mite treatments are coming off, feeding going on, elusive queens finally getting marked and robbing season woes starting. Heat stroke still going on.

But we’re getting there.

09/03/2026

👋🏼💁🏽‍♂️🫶🏻

09/01/2026

Sarah: “Well, this will either make people never buy a candle from us again or they will appreciate seeing the process and buy a ton.”

Matt: “Makes me wanna vomit.”

08/30/2026

It’s been a ride. End is near, but still bam-a-laming along. 🎶

08/28/2026

Took a little birthday trip to the property.

08/27/2026

The season’s coming to a close. But not quite yet. There’s still lots of work that needs to be done.

08/21/2026

The bees have done a pretty rad job of introducing us to some wonderful people.