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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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Browse by topic

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.

2 articles · page 1 of 1

Beekeeping & Sustainability

How to Split a Beehive: The Complete Beginner's Guide to Making Increase

Beekeeping & Sustainability

How to Split a Beehive: The Complete Beginner's Guide to Making Increase

Splitting a beehive is the most reliable way to prevent swarms, multiply your colonies for free, and build the pattern-recognition skills that separate intermediate beekeepers from beginners. This guide walks you through five proven split methods, exact timing windows, the equipment you need, and a step-by-step field walkthrough — so your first split ends with two healthy colonies instead of two struggling ones.

20 min read

Beekeeping

Queen Rearing for Beginners: 5 Methods to Raise Your Own Queen Bees

Queen rearing is the single most useful skill a beekeeper can develop beyond basic colony management. This guide covers five proven methods -- from the simplest walk-away split to full Doolittle grafting -- with honest assessments of difficulty, equipment costs, and when to use each one.

22 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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