Mountain View Honey

I’ve been thinking about putting a beehive in my backyard, but I don’t really know much about the subject, so I asked my buddy, Mike Kasperzak, to show me his hives and tell me about the process of collecting honey. 

After we got all zipped up in the bee suits, we headed out to his hives. Mike brought along his hive-smoker to keep the bees calm. He told me a little about how the colony is organized, what kinds of tasks each bee performs, and how they forage and attend to the queen bee nonstop. 

It was fascinating, and I think I decided that I don’t want to try to do it myself… I just want to know where I can buy honey and I appreciate Mike taking me on a tour of his hives. It’s really pretty involved, and it’s not cheap, and you would have to constantly battle ants. It's not for me. 

I’m sharing the photos of Mike as he was telling me all about the bees. You can tell by looking at him that he was having fun showing me his hobby and he’s really quite passionate about it. I love seeing people doing what makes them happy. 

Mike’s honey is for sale at the Milk Pail Market on California Street. One of the photos (above) is of Mike’s honey. I think Milk Pail would sell way more of his honey if the label said “Mike Kasperzak’s Honey” as opposed to “Local Honey, Produced in Mountain View” because everyone knows “Former Mayor Mike Kasperzak.” If it were up to me to sell it, I would use the cute label that I created (also in the photos above). 

I met Kendal Sager at a pop-up art event. Here’s a link to her website. She offers beekeeping classes, and she also sells honey and other items that she makes with her honey and beeswax. Mike know Kendal, as they’re both part of the bee community.

I have a whole new appreciation for local honey now that I got a better look at the process. Yes, local honey costs more than the stuff you can find in a big grocery store, but it’s totally worth it and what a great gift item to get (or give) as a souvenir from Mountain View.