Part 2

A frame of capped honey, not quite full but it will have to do.

Uncapping with with a needle sharp comb as Aman taught me to do last weekend, it's a fiddly process but worth the effort, it means more wax stays on the frame and will be less work for the bees next year.

An uncapped frame ready to be spun out.

The amber nectar, slowing pouring into the straining sieve.

2011's final harvest (Part 1)

It's now approaching midday as I sit on my sofa updating my blog, while the last of the honey strains through the sieves, the garden is a complete no go zone as some very busy ladies are salvaging the surplus honey and putting in the brood box, well hope they are, more of that later. Now where was I? Ok yes, drinking Darjeeling first flush, honey jars in dishwasher, washing on and watching The Lake House with Sandra Bullock, (mmm) and wow what a house too, could seriously live there, who said men can't multitask!! :-)

Ok where to start!!

I've decided today is the day to take what honey I can and then get the bees to move the rest back into the brood box for the winter.

As you can see I only managed to get three more frames and they were cut comb frames, but hey will try spinning them out, bet the whole lot honey and comb ends up in the bottom of the spinner!

These are the frames not quite ready, that I have left out for the bees to take back into the hive.

Well here goes..............

Last squeeze

Off to Bournemouth in a bit to decorate Robyn's room at uni, but before I go will put the clearing board back in the hive and have one last go tomorrow to squeeze some honey out or collect a bit more honey comb.

Then not too sure really what to do, do I leave the super on for the winter or put the frames outside the entrance so that the bees can move it all back into the hive but in doing so move it to the brood box so it is closer to them in those cold months? Having seen how quickly they moved the residue of last weekends extraction inside I'm tempted to do the later and then put a feed on before finally treating them for varroa.

Bee Clean

Busy bees collecting all the honey left in the extractor and in the honeycomb, they will take this all back inside the hive and fill the honey comb again, who knows I might get to extract it this year, if not they can use it to get them through the winter.

1st harvest is in

With the help of Aman the first harvest is in, not all of the frames were ready, I think my mistake was putting a second super on too soon so the bees worked on both and didn't finish filling or capping either.

Of the 10 frames in a super 6 were ready to harvest and only one frame of honeycomb. These 6 frames produced 16 lbs of honey, so my guess is that a full super should produce 27 lbs.

It's a pretty messy process, but don't think we wasted too much. Aman's previous experience keeping bees in Afghanistan came in very handy with him teaching me how to uncap the frames so as not to damage the wax too much.

We made a few mistakes spinning out the honey and damaged the foundation on a couple of frames, but it went quite well for a first attempt.

Today's the day

Today's the day, honey will be harvested, not feeling overly confident all seems very scary, the thought of all that work by the bees and it could be undone by me messing it up!

I put the clearing board in yesterday morning, a really hope the bees have all moved down into the brood box and my supers are clear of bees!

Ok well here goes.................

Honey, propolis and things

Well the ladies still haven't quite got the honey capped off in the supers for me to harvest, fingers crossed next week, well come hell or high water I will attempt to harvest next weekend, the season is getting late and I want them to be able to stock up again for the winter.

But at least I spotted the queen this time, I was beginning to get a bit worried especially as I hadn't seen too much pollen being flown in.

ok now propolis, bees make this from tree saps, honey and pollen to glue up the hive and fillholes, this is suppose to be really good stuff, a natural antibiotic, good for burns and loads of things, I collected this lump from the hive today, but just how on earth do you make it into something you can use for medical purposes, I'm guessing an evening on google coming up!

Honey not quite ready yet

The morning started out wet, but with the sun appearing wanted to check on how the ladies had been doing with the honey. Still not quite ready, guess will be another week or two yet.

But the jar labels have arrived so I think I now have everything ready for my first harvest :-)

I've retired to my bees in this mad world!!!

Had a few days off to watch cricket, today was going to be a no cricket day, but so far just been watching mad scenes on the news!

So thought would risk cutting the grass and then inspecting the bees, I'm not about to start cutting the grass in my bee suit to avoid that next sting! I was going ok until I felt some movement by my ear, getting closer to going into my ear, thinking quick i stuck my finger in my ear and retreated to the bathroom to get it out of my hair, sure enough there she was on my ear, that was close, I've had an ant in my ear, but a bee!!! Grass was finished without further event.

Hive inspection went well, think a few weeks from now I will be harvesting my first honey :-), one young lady did manage to sting my right thumb through my marigolds, no will see if I am allergic to bee stings! This time its my right thumb so I will be useless if it swells up like last time!!

So what to do with the rest of the day, the choices are to make a candle out of

this bees wax I have collected or some more work

on that skep I started what must be ages ago!

Bees and rain

We had very heavy rain earlier this evening and just by chance looked out at the bees and saw them behaving very strangely, I always thought bees didn't like flying in the rain but they were everywhere, they didn't look to happy! I know it doesn't look like it in the clip but it was hammering down, so much so that I thought I had ruined my camera, but it did eventually come back to life:-)