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NorCal Nectar

NorCal Nectar Journal

Raw honey, honey sticks & beekeeping

Buying guides, serving maths, recipes and hive management — written to answer one question at a time, with the sources shown.

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Each hub collects the articles for one subject and links to the product they are about.

Raw Honey

What raw honey actually is, how to tell it apart from filtered supermarket honey, and how Northern California wildflower honey tastes through the season.

Honey Sticks

Serving sizes, pack maths, age safety, and how honey sticks work for tea, lunchboxes, events and businesses.

Recipes

Cooking, baking, drinks and infusions that use raw honey as an ingredient rather than a garnish.

Beekeeping

Hive management, seasonal timing, pests, equipment and California regulations — written for first- and second-year beekeepers.

3 articles · page 1 of 1

Beekeeping & Sustainability

How to Build and Bait a Swarm Trap: Catch Free Bees This Spring

Catching a swarm is the cheapest way to add a colony to your apiary — a single trap can replace a $250 package or a $200 nuc with a few dollars of plywood and a vial of lemongrass oil. This guide covers proven swarm trap dimensions, the right bait combination, exact placement height and direction, when to deploy in spring, and how to transfer caught bees into a permanent hive without losing the queen.

21 min read

Beekeeping & Sustainability

Honey Bee Swarm Season: Why Bees Swarm, What to Do, and How to Catch One

Every spring, millions of honey bee colonies split in half and take flight. Swarming is the natural way bees reproduce at the colony level, yet it remains one of the most misunderstood events in beekeeping. This guide covers the biology behind swarming, the seasonal timeline, what homeowners and beekeepers should do when a swarm appears, and step-by-step instructions for capturing one.

15 min read

Beekeeping & Sustainability

How to Help Bees at Home (Without Becoming a Beekeeper)

Beekeeping & Sustainability

How to Help Bees at Home (Without Becoming a Beekeeper)

You do not need a hive, a bee suit, or a backyard to help bees. Native bee populations are declining -- 34.7% of U.S. species face extinction risk -- and the most impactful actions happen at home: planting native flowers, eliminating pesticides, and leaving nesting habitat undisturbed. Here are 10 things you can do this week.

15 min read

Shop while you read

Every guide above points at one of these.

Raw California Honey

Unfiltered wildflower honey in 16, 32 and 64 oz.

Pure Honey Sticks

One teaspoon of raw honey per sealed straw. Seven pack sizes, 10 to 1000.

The Complete Beekeeper Course

Eight written modules on Northern California beekeeping.

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