A Slower Pace: Cattle, Bees, and New Ventures at Berryton Home Farm
This week at Berryton Home Farm, a slower pace has allowed us to reflect and plan deliberately, ensuring each task strengthens our regenerative ranch. With time to think, we’ve moved our cattle to a rented off-site pasture, taken delivery of migratory lids for our beehives, begun processing wax for hive health and crafts, and received exciting interest in our farm photographs for office art. These efforts, rooted in regenerative principles, keep our land and community thriving.
We’re relocating our cattle to a local rented pasture lush with Brome and Eastern Gamma grass, ideal for their growth. This move gives our main pasture a critical rest, targeting at least 65 days between grazes to regenerate root structures and fully recover above-ground leaves. This practice, inspired by regenerative grazing pioneers, rebuilds soil health without synthetic inputs, ensuring our land remains vital for future seasons. The cattle’s trampling and manure on the off-site pasture will enrich that soil too, extending our regenerative impact beyond our own fields. I value this careful rotation, which mirrors the timeless cycles of land stewardship I grew up admiring back in England and again, up in Virginia and across in Missouri.
For our bees, we’ve been using the new bottling valve that we added to our bottling tank making the process of filling our jars with local, raw honey easier and cleaner! We also received migratory lids yesterday, a practical upgrade for our hives. Happily, while I was unpacking them, a couple new to our farm chose that time to visit.
Welcome Jeremy and Jennifer, I hope that you are reading this as your first Journal post!
These low-profile lids (roofs) reduce components, simplify maintenance, and allow feeding without removing the roof, protecting the weather-sensitive inner cover from rain or harsh elements. This efficiency keeps our hives healthy and our bees strong for winter, aligning with our lean approach to beekeeping. The lids make tasks like checking syrup levels less disruptive, preserving colony stability as temperatures drop. They are also even easier for the hive transportation that we do for local orchard owners and the re-homing of our yearly swarms.
This week we also started melting and capping wax from honeycombs and old brood frames used for rearing bees. This dark wax, rich with the hive’s history, is cleaned and used to re-coat frame foundations, encouraging bees to draw out clean, healthy comb. This process supports hive vitality, reducing disease risks and ensuring robust colonies. The surplus cappings wax is premium and will be transformed into candles and Christmas decorations, turning a byproduct into something beautiful for our customers. With friends and family helping, this work feels like a bridge between tradition and innovation, connecting our farm to the rhythms of the seasons.
In an unexpected turn, a local business has expressed interest in purchasing some of our farm photographs for office art. Images of our rolling pastures, buzzing hives, and grazing cattle capture the essence of regenerative farming, resonating with those who value land stewardship and the Kansas countryside. This opportunity could share our story beyond Topeka, blending art with our mission to nurture the earth. It’s a reminder that even in a slower week, new possibilities emerge when we pause to reflect.
This unhurried time has let us refine our systems—cattle rotations, hive upgrades, wax processing, and emerging ventures—while staying true to our regenerative ethos. The cattle enrich the soil, the bees pollinate the pastures, and every task builds a cycle that sustains our farm and community. We’re grateful for your support, which fuels this work. Visit www.berrytonhomefarm.com/farm-store for our latest honey and pasture-raised chicken. Sign up for our newsletter for updates on winter prep and potential photo sales. If you’re in Topeka, call to visit—see the pastures, hives, and the land we’re preserving together.