Honey harvest

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!

Bay Branch Farm honey harvest - 2011
The new queen with some of her workers. The top is corked when shipped. We replaced the cork with a gum drop to allow the bees to eat the sugary treat and release the queen. By the time the gum drop is gone, the hive should accept the queen.
We pulled the top box off the hive and put the queen container in between two of the top bars.
Putting everything back together.

0 thoughts on “Honey harvest

  1. chris says:

    The honey looks delicious. I am going to take the beginning beekeeper class in February. I find the whole bee culture fascinating. Merry Christmas!

    • Annabel says:

      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!

    • Annabel says:

      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!