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Quail Ridge Honey

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Center Point, IA
Quail Ridge Honey

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Center Point, Iowa

10/02/2026

Fall 🍁 It’s that time of year when bee season starts to slow down.

The extractor has been cleaned and put away, the honey has been bottled, and the busiest part of the season is behind us. But there is still plenty of work to do before these girls are ready for an Iowa winter.

My bees have just finished 20 days of treatment to help protect them from Varroa mites, one of the biggest threats to honeybees. This weekend I’ll check the weight of every hive to make sure they have enough honey stored to get them through winter.

This time of year, the girls aren’t quite as gentle as they are during the summer either. And I really can’t blame them. They know winter is coming, and they become quite protective of what they have worked so hard to store. The honey inside their hive is their food supply and what will sustain them for months.

My job now is to make sure they go into winter healthy, disease-free, dry, protected from predators and the elements, and with plenty of food. Over the next month, mouse guards will go on, the hives will be insulated, and I’ll do everything I can to set each colony up for success.

I get asked all the time what happens to the bees during winter. One of my favorite facts is that honeybees don’t hibernate. Inside those quiet boxes, the hive is very much alive. The bees cluster tightly around their queen and vibrate their flight muscles to create heat, keeping the center of that cluster incredibly warm even when the Iowa temperatures outside are bitterly cold. The queen will stay at 95 to 100° throughout the winter.

There is something amazing about knowing that while everything outside looks quiet and still, thousands of bees are inside working together to survive until spring.

I’ve also decided that 10 hives is the perfect number for us.

I’ve thought about expanding many times. We continue to sell through our honey faster than I can keep up with, and I am incredibly grateful for that. There’s definitely an opportunity to make Quail Ridge Honey bigger.

But I don’t think I want bigger.

I want to keep doing this because I love it, not because it has become another job. I want to look forward to opening a hive. I want extracting honey to still feel exciting. I want to know my colonies well and enjoy this little piece of life that started simply because I fell in love with bees.

So, 10 hives it is.

Enough to keep me busy. Enough to provide a whole lot of honey. And just enough to keep this something I truly love.

Now it’s time to finish preparing the girls for winter and trust that we’ve done everything we can to see all 10 hives come alive again next spring 🐝

09/23/2026

Update: officially sold out for the season! Thank you!! 🖤🐝💛

It’s hard to believe, but what you see is all I have left! 🍯

This year was an exciting jump for me as two different retailers purchased honey from me in bulk 💛

Pretty soon the sign will be pulled and my little front porch honey stand will be put away until next year 🐝 Stop by and pick up what you’d like, before I’m all sold out!

09/13/2026

We’re now offering three different sizes of Quail Ridge Honey, while supplies last 🐝

🍯 3 lb squeeze bottle - $28
🍯 1½ lb glass pint jar - $15
🍯 1 lb squeeze bottle - $10

All of the honey has officially been taken off the hives and extracted for the season. This is our late-summer honey, and you’ll notice it’s a little darker in color with a deeper, more robust flavor. 🤎

I truly can’t believe how quickly we’ve gone through honey this year! We’ve bottled well over 300 pounds, and as the warm temperatures slow down, so will we. 🐝

Our stand will be stocked as honey is available. If you stop by and don’t see the size you’re looking for, please reach out!

Thank you SO much for supporting our little honey business, our bees, and your local beekeeper. Every single bottle means more than you know. 💛🍯

09/12/2026

🐝 Nothing in the hive goes to waste. 🍯

These are wax cappings, the tiny “lids” bees place over individual cells of finished honey. And the process behind them is pretty incredible.

Did you know bees make the wax AND build the honeycomb themselves? Each hexagonal cell is carefully constructed from beeswax.

Worker bees forage for nectar, bring it back to the hive, and deposit it into individual cells. Through an amazing process of enzyme activity and evaporation, they transform that nectar into honey. When the honey has reached the right moisture level and the bees decide it’s ready for storage, they seal each cell with a thin layer of wax.

That little wax lid is the capping.

When we harvest honey, we remove those cappings so the honey can be extracted from the comb. But I don’t throw them away!

I take the fresh cappings back to the bees and let them clean them up, removing every last bit of honey they can. Then I bring the wax back to the shop, where I’ll melt and filter it twice before pouring the clean beeswax into a mold.

And eventually, it goes right back to the bees. ♻️🐝

I’ll use that beeswax to coat empty frames that don’t have established comb yet. When spring arrives, that familiar wax gives the bees a great starting point for drawing out brand-new comb.

Made by the bees → harvested by the beekeeper → cleaned by the bees → processed → given right back to the hive.

The longer I keep bees, the more fascinating they become. There is an entire world happening inside a hive that most of us never get to see.

As fall settles in and winter approaches, it’s a great time to start learning if you’ve ever been curious about beekeeping. Read, ask questions, find a local beekeeper, attend a bee club meeting, because there is so much to learn before that first hive arrives in the spring. 🐝💛

09/04/2026

Ever wonder what a full hive sounds like? 🐝

It’s amazing. They’re not mad. They’re not threatening. They’re simply peaceful and busy.

There’s no wind in this video- what you’re hearing and feeling is the vibration of thousands of honeybees working together.

One of those simple things that makes me smile. 🍯🐝

09/03/2026

🍯🐝 Beekeeper Special 🐝🍯

Fresh from my hives right here in Center Point! 💛

This honey was extracted last night and is fresh off the comb - it truly doesn’t get much fresher or more local than that!

Bring me an empty quart jar with a lid, and take it home filled with 3 pounds of local Center Point honey for just $27!

🍯 1 quart = 3 pounds
💵 $27 per quart
🫙 Bring your own clean quart jar + lid
🐝 Local Center Point honey

Buying by the quart saves you a few dollars and is a great way to stock up on honey for your pantry. Perfect for baking, sweetening coffee or tea, drizzling over toast, or eating straight off the spoon. 😉

Available today through this weekend only, or while supplies last.

From my bees, to the comb, to your jar. 🐝🍯💛

08/31/2026

Fun fact… 🐝🍯

Honeybees are incredible little cleanup crews, and they work amazingly fast!

Everything in this photo is sticky with honey. Spun-out frames, empty honey buckets, tools, boxes, and a tub full of wax cappings.

After extracting, I set it all out and let the bees go to work. I’m essentially feeding all of those leftover honey “scraps” right back to them. In no time, they clean up every last bit and leave everything completely dry with no sticky mess.

They even clean and dry down my wax cappings, which I can then melt and save to use on their frames again in the spring.

The bees get the leftover honey, I get clean equipment and dry wax to reuse, and nothing goes to waste. Pretty amazing what thousands of tiny workers can accomplish! 🐝🍯

08/29/2026

I am so excited to share that you can now find our honey on the shelves at Apple Creek Coffee Company in Center Point! 🍯🐝

Stop in for coffee, smoothies, ice cream, and so much more—and grab a bottle of local honey while you’re there!

There’s something pretty special about local businesses supporting local businesses. 💛

Thank you, Apple Creek, and thank YOU for continuing to support your local beekeeper! 🐝🍯

08/26/2026

A local reporter happened to find one of my posts in our community Facebook group advertising my honey and reached out to ask if she could write an article about me and my bees. 🐝🍯

It was such a fun conversation! I loved her curiosity about beekeeping and seeing how fascinated she was by all the little things that go into caring for bees and producing honey.

I was finally able to pick up a copy of the article today and wanted to share it!

What a fun and unexpected little moment in this journey 💛🐝

08/22/2026

On our first night of extracting we had lots of visitors from the neighborhood, and it was awesome! We were able to show the kids where honey came from and how we extract it. Some of the braver kids tasted some beeswax with honey. Might be my new favorite past time with beekeeping 🖤🐝💛

Address

Center Point, IA
52213

Telephone

(319)8230687

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