Celebrating National Honey Bee Day

The third Saturday in August is National Honey Bee Day, a day to celebrate honey bees and beekeepers!

Here are a few ways you can help the honey bees:

  1. Plant bee-friendly flowers and flowering herbs in your garden and yard. Check out the Xerces Society website to search native, pollinator-friendly plants for your state.
  2. Let the weeds grow – you may not like them, but bees love them! Reduce the use of pesticides to treat your lawn or garden while flowers are in bloom. Acetic acid concentrations above 10% are toxic to bees and other beneficial insects. The Xerces Society recommends applying organic pesticides at night to reduce exposure to beneficial insects, which are mostly active during the day. 
  3. Bees are thirsty. Put a shallow basin of fresh water with marbles or rocks in it for the bees to land on outside your home.
  4. Donate to an organization dedicated to helping protect and promote honey bees and other pollinators. We recommend Project Apis m. who fund research and directs strategic efforts focused on practical solutions improving honey bee health and vitality and Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, an international nonprofit organization that protects the natural world through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitats.
  5. Support beekeepers by purchasing honey! Learn more about the Casa Quirk honey bees.
2022 Hive Check

Thank you for your support!

2023 Honey is Here! 🎉

The wait is over, we have 2023 honey available! You can see all available options on the Order Form.

The first honey harvest of the season is always a beautiful light gold as the bees forage nectar from the earliest spring blooms in our area. We notice a darker color later in the year when the summer and early fall blooms arrive. You can see the difference in the 2022 harvest comparison. Right is the second summer harvest and left is the third.

Continue reading “2023 Honey is Here! 🎉”

2023 Honey Season Opens July 1st

Happy Summer Solstice! We are excited to announce the opening of our 2023 honey season beginning July 1st.

Updates

  • We are accepting a limited number of pre-orders via our website for the 2023 honey season.
  • We have eliminated single-use plastic containers from our inventory.

New Products

Mini Jar size

We will be offering 2oz honey jars with small dippers this year, perfect for sampling, gifting or as party favors. If you would like to place an order for more than 10, please contact us in advance to ensure we have stock.

Bulk honey

We will be offering limited amounts of bulk honey at $10/lb. Customer must provide a clean, glass container with lid.

2023 Products

Offerings
4in square honeycomb$25
24oz honey jar – *bestseller*$18
10oz honey jar with honeycomb chunk – *Coming in August*$13
2oz mini jar with small wooden dipper – *new*$5
Bulk honey – *new*$10/lb
1.5oz Pure beeswax candle$5
Regular wooden dipper $1

Announcing “Busy Bea’s Honey Stand” Pop-up Coming Soon!

The pop-up honey stand will open on our Casa Quirk front porch on Saturday, July 15 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Order your honey in advance for pick up at the Honey Stand or browse our available products during your visit. Cash or Venmo accepted. We will be collecting loose change donations for Project Apis m., a 501(c)(5) nonprofit organization that funds research for improving honey bee health and vitality.

We anticipate another harvest in August and will offer honey and honeycomb until we are sold out. If you would like to purchase jars or comb as holiday gifts, honey does not expire. Simply keep it in a sealed container (glass recommended) away from direct sunlight.

Today we pause in gratitude and give thanks for the bees and thanks to the Sun for sustaining life on Earth.

And thank you to our Casa Quirk friends for your continued support!

This post has been updated 7/2/23 with corrected dates and prices.

It’s World Bee Day! Meet the Casa Quirk Bees

Photo (c) Casa Quirk

Italian Honey Bee Facts

  • Most popular bee in North America
  • Gentle disposition – friendly!
  • Prolific honey producers
  • Come in 3 varieties: leather-yellow, bright yellow and lemon yellow
  • Very tidy and keep a clean hive
  • Can be fragile in harsh winters
  • Sometimes get lost or disoriented
  • Very adaptive and do well all over the world!

Honey Bees in North America

Since 1622 the story most often told about honey bees in North America is that they were first brought to the continent by colonizers. Interestingly, in 2009 a honey bee was discovered in the fossil record revealing that North America did in fact have honey bees… about 14 MILLION years ago. Something happened to the bees over time here in North America, however, today we NEED BEES! Honey bees are essential to the pollination of wild and native plants AND we rely on them to pollinate over 100 crops in the USA.

While there are many different kinds of bees who make honey, the Italian Honey Bee is the most popular in North America and here at Casa Quirk we have 3 hives that are home to tens of thousands of bees. We are located next to large natural prairies and clover fields with plenty of floral variety available for collection. The bee pictured above was collecting dandelion pollen from our yard in early spring – there were plenty of dandelions to visit this year! The color of honey is largely dependent on the flowers the bees visit, usually the lighter the color the more mild the flavor. Darker honey will have a more intense flavor.

Learn more about honey bees and how they get their “jobs”!

This post uses material from the following sources:

The Honorable Harvest

In this season of gratitude, we focus on giving thanks. At Casa Quirk we say thanks to the bees, thanks to the hens, and thanks to Pachamama 🌀, Mother Nature 🌿, for all her gifts this year!

This year we are also thinking and talking more about the Honorable Harvest, a powerful passage in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book, Braiding Sweetgrass. The principals and practices of the Honorable Harvest require constant awareness of the reciprocal relationship between all living things. Conscious consumption, accountably, and gratitude.

This Indigenous wisdom is how we ensure the natural world continues to exist for generations to come.

Casa Quirk is located on the traditional and ancestral land of the Peoria, Potawatomi, Miami, Sioux, Ho-Chunk, Kaskaskia, and Kickapoo peoples. This area holds great historical, spiritual, and personal significance for its original stewards. The last original peoples who lived in DuPage were forcibly moved west in 1833 and were never allotted the land, payment, or survival supplies that they were promised. We acknowledge their connection to this land as past, current, and future caretakers and give thanks for the opportunity to live, work, and learn in their traditional homeland.

Thank you to all who have supported our efforts to run a small business this year. We are looking forward to 2023!

Casa Quirk at August 6 Maker’s Market in Wheaton

Stop by to say hi at the Wheaton Nurseries & Garden Center’s Makers Market in Wheaton from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. We’ll be there with tons of honey and original wood creations from the Quirkshop!

FREE ADMISSION!! 🕙10am-2pm ➡️WHEATON NURSERIES
•••626 e Roosevelt Rd•••••Wheaton 60189•••
***🚨Enter our Giveaway today during our Wheaton Makers Market Event 🚨

•Shop 25+ Local Vendors 🛍
•FREE Face Painting 🎨
•Slow cooked in a smoker onsight BBQ 🍖
•Sno Problem Sno Cones 🍧
•LIVE MUSIC 🎶 by Dillion Riley & Katie Kostner 🎵🎶
•Tons of SALES throughout the nursery!!

2022 Honey is now available

After a slow and rainy start to the 2022 season, the Casa Quirk bees are enjoying the summer. We have first harvest honey available to order via casaquirk.com

This year we added 2 hives to our existing hive and split our largest for a total of 4! Three are located in Glen Ellyn and one in Palatine. We also experienced our first swarm in the spring which we were not able to capture. You can see a few photos below from the first part of the season.

Casa Quirk at Wheaton Nurseries Mistletoe Market!

We are so excited to be vendors at the Wheaton Nurseries Mistletoe Market on Roosevelt this Sunday 11/21 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

We’ll be bringing the last of our 2021 honey and a few woodworking projects from the Quirkshop!

See below for everything the nursery has planned!

• The Grinch (roaming Santa’s House)
•Adorable Goats 🐐 @hickory.grove
•Live Christmas 🎶 @dillonrileymusic
•Sip hot cocoa from @joendoughco ☕️
•Snack on roasted nuts @nutstogochi
• #shoplocal 50 vendors from right here!
•Knitted Goods, Candles, Crystals, Chocolates, Home Decor, Baby Items, Art, & More!
• Fire Pit Burning 🔥
•Christmas lights twinkling ✨
•Photo Ops Galore 📸
•Food Trucks 🚛
•Browse our New Gift Shop 🎁
•Christmas Trees, Greenery, Wreaths, Roping, Swags, White Birch, & More! 🌲