Sticky Yellow Reward Time

 

Honey Harvest is sometimes a stressful time of the year. Lets face it, the beekeeper comes in and starts stealing their hard work, their summertime effort and quite frankly their life savings.  This is the stuff that is supposed to get them through the winter.  Without knowing what kind of a Fall we are going to have, for me, it is always a gamble on how much to take.

Supers waiting to be harvested

Some bekeepers just take it all and will feed their bees sugar and or corn syurp. I don't believe in that. I try to take what is extra and at least leave a super or two (deeps) for the winter. I think my Carniolans could easily make it through a winter on one deep full of honey. But the Italians and Minesota's probably not.

 

Wax Cappings from the frames                                    Here is our little extractor

              Almost half way fulll of Honey!                   Just stick your finger in and taste!

Our harvest this year was around 16 gallons.  That is not as much as last year but we had two issues this year.  I lost a queen and in the process split one of my hives so now we are at 4.  During that process we lost about 45 days of harvesting.  That really slowed things down.  The other issues is that it was not the best year.  Many beekeepers this year had a smaller harvest.  I just hope that we have a calm fall so that the bees can buildup and get ready for winter.

A poem On Bees

"Bees fly,
They fly and die and try and try,
To satisfy there queen.
For she is all they care about,
She's what they live for, fly for, die for.
And then when winter comes around once again they die for her,
But this time they don't fly.
This time they squeeze so tight into a ball all day and night,
And who is in the middle?
There queen.
So like I said they live and die, the fly and squeeze and live there life.
Would I could I be a bee? Would I could I live and die, squeeze and fly all for the
Queen?
A bee could.
A bee would."
-Colors

Angry Bees or Lazy Beekeeper?

I will let you be the judge on that.  Last year I was certain that by smoking my bees less that I was not disrupting the hive as much and that by not being so intrusive that they were happier and less aggressive.

I have decided that is NOT the fact.  I had two hives last year (Carniolans) that I would RARELY if ever smoke.  Even when I stole honey from them I would simply brush them off and be on my way.  Sure, I would have headbutting and a few angry bees but no direct attacks (I will explain that later) or viciousness.

This last time out to the farm hives I packed my smoker and bundled up ready for an all out war.  I was convinced that I had the angriest hives in the west!  Let me explain why.  I have never seen a honeybee directly attack me without a warning.  Usually the warning consists of Angy buzzing around the bee keepers head or head butting.  Continual bouncing into the bee keepers veil and hat.  This year I have been stung twice by a vicious little bee that gave no warning and headed directly for my hand or arm slamming his stinger into anything that would take hold.  (I have not been stung through a glove before but if they are mad enough they can!) The viciousness therein is best described by what I lovingly call "Bum Bouncing".  The bee bounces his little rump around until the BARB TIPPED VENOM PRODUCING WEAPON OF MINI-DESTRUCTION grabs and holds.  When I saw this I couldn't believe my eyes!  They were on the war path and I was the target.  I have to admit that I was almost in a panic but mostly very upset that I had a few hives from the devil himself.

Well I was not going to chance this again so with sweats on over my slacks and a nice pair of Gloves and my smoker BOOMING with smoke with a small campfire going on inside I went for the hive. 

It is amazing what smoke will do!  They were Calm, gentle and ignored us entirely!  I still prefer not to smoke but I think I will have to from here on with my ungentle giants.  The name I gave one of them really fits - BRUNHILDA 

So here it is mid JUNE and I have just barely added the first medium honey super.  That is exciting but it seems like a slower year.  I just looked back at a few older blogs and it appears that we are still on schedule for a package of new bees.  But the hive in the backyard should be exploding and it is not.

I lost my queen and just recently placed a swarm cell in the hive to see if a new queen will take over.

Spliting the hive

A few weeks ago we split the hive in the back yard so know we have two little hives back there! We are still looking for a queen but other then that they are doing great! The first hive we have out there is are brand new beekeeper who comes out every once-and-a-while but the BRAND NEW HIVE dose not belong to anyone yet! 
   Mr. Beekeeper keeps getting stung there is a hole in his glove so that makes it even easier to get stung he has gotten stung 3 or 4 times know better not make those bees mad ;)
   Happy bee keeping!