About

About the honeybees

Here at Brushwood Farm, we love our honeybees. The hives are managed using ‘small cell’ techniques in place of chemical treatments for Varroa mites. This method uses wax foundation that is 4.9 mm across, rather than the 5.4 mm of standard foundation. This produces smaller bees, which interrupts the synchronization between the bees and mites life cycles so that the bee larvae matures a day sooner than the mites. We don’t use preventative antibiotics either, because we manage the bees for robust health and disease resistance . Our farm is located with flying distance of 11,000 acres of state gamelands, where abundant multiflora rose, black locust, asters, maples and goldenrod provide pollen and nectar. We plant white clover and buckwheat as a supplemental nectar source.

About the goats

Currently, we don’t have any goats here at Brushwood Farm. We’re fortunate to have Twin Maples goat dairy nearby, a family owned herd that is inspected by the state of Pennsylvania for raw milk sales. With so many ongoing farm projects, we don’t have time for twice daily milking, so the fine folks at Twin Maples provide the goat’s milk used in our soaps. The dairy is located on Route 25 between Millersburg and Berrysburg, PA, if you are looking for a source of raw goat’s milk.

About the poultry

We have a small flock of assorted heritage breed chickens, including Salmon Faverolles, cuckoo Marans, light Brahmas, gold-laced Wyandottes, blue Orpingtons, Ameraucanas and few Jersey Giants. Our free range eggs are for sale at the Pomfret Street farmers market in Carlisle, PA from May through October. The market is on Saturday morning from 8-12. For bio-security reasons, we do not have on-farm sales available.