Day 62- First honey

We decided it was time to 'tax' the bees. We took two frames, one with all capped honey and one with 90% capped honey and a little pollen. We took these from the stronger hive only.

I got my first bee sting on the tip of my finger, Ana had her first sting last visit when a bee was caught in the folds of her suit.

Since we have only two frames to process and we don't have an extractor, we used a simple 'scrape with a spatula' method. It was a hot afternoon in the shed and the honey was quite runny. Although this method uses very simple tools I did mange to wreck both

We collected the honey and wax in a cloth and hang it for around an hour for the honey to drain through.

Extracting honey

The two frames yielded approx 2.6 kg of honey. It should be a mixture of clover, manuka, kanuka and eucalyptus as well as other species.
I am very happy with the honey and it has a 'smokey' after taste.

First ever honey

Day 52 - adding the third brood box

Time to add the third 3/4 brood box. The stronger hive seems very ready for it, the weaker could wait a while but easier to do both together.

Hard at work

We did not bother going into the bottom boxes on this visit but did look through the top box. All looked good, lots of capped brood and our first sight of some drone brood.
Ana had trouble turning the frames over to inspect especially those with a lot of honey, the weight is just a little much. Having full depth frames would be even worse.

Lots of flowering still going on so it will be interesting to see what they get up to this week.

Day 43 The height of summer

A hot day today 30+ degrees Celsius. Luckily we were in the bee suits for a short time. I feel for someone dealing to hundreds of hives in this heat.

Time to check the progress of the new boxes on the hives. On a warm afternoon lots of bees should out foraging so a little easier to access the hive.

Ana opened the beta (weaker) hive first and first impressions were good, lots of new activity. All but the outer 2 or 3 frames with some drawn comb.

Frame of foundation being drawn into comb

Some fresh honey and nectar in some cells. Noticed some cells with, I assume, pollen with a purplish hint to it. Would have been good to have someone experienced with bees right about then.

The bottom box was also looking good, much more active than last visit.
Ana found the queen easily.

Queen bee in the centre of the photo

On to the alpha hive

The alpha (stronger) hive was still visibly stronger, but the difference with the weaker hive was not so obvious as previous visits.
They still have a couple of frames to draw in the top box but I think I will add another box to each hive next visit.

Lots of capped honey in the top box

I thought I should taste some honey so dug my finger in to a frame and took a finger full and into the mouth. I momentarily forgot the veil and ended up with honey and wax dripping from the mesh.
Laughs all round...
Deftly sucking it through the mesh ensured I was able to taste it all the same. Jolly nice too.

Original nuc frame, honey around edge.

The frame, above, is one of the original nuc frames. Has a little capped honey lower left corner otherwise pretty full of brood.