beekeeping
Honey harvest
Dec
Well, it’s not much, but we did get some honey from the girls this year. Unfortunately, the hive couldn’t recover from an early summer swarm and a second swarm later in the summer. We tried to re-queen (you can buy a queen on the internet for $20), but for whatever reason, it didn’t work and our hive population dwindled even further. It was clear that it was not going to survive when the girls were not coming back with pollen and the drone numbers were quite high….so, we will try to work with our bee mentor to catch a new swarm next spring and start over. We took out the top box and harvested the honey from it. We took all the comb, broke it up and put it through a couple of colanders to separate it from the wax. Our final strain was through cheese cloth. Below is a picture of the harvest. It smells and tastes like flowers! While it’s not much, I managed to make about half a dozen cute gift jars for holiday presents for family. Thank you bees for the sweet memories that you have provided and for helping to pollinate our crops at the farm!
The honey looks delicious. I am going to take the beginning beekeeper class in February. I find the whole bee culture fascinating. Merry Christmas!
Hope you have a great Christmas too, Chris. Bees are fascinating creatures…we just love to watch them come back to the hive with pollen. Super cool!
Thank you that I was one of the lucky family members to receive honey!
Of course, Diane! Hope you enjoy it….hopefully in the future, the gift of honey will be more than a small sample jar. Much love to you guys!
Nice job A&E, I can taste it through the screen! Each season we learn a little more of their secrets.
~md
Thanks, Mike…indeed, we have much to learn!