Ouch!

A few days back Farmer Husband and I took the honey supers off the beehives.  We got 70 frames of beautiful, sweet, delicious golden honey from the hives. (About 240 pounds of honey!)  I'm still draining the wax cappings for our honey enjoyment but everything else in the extracting process has been completed.

Well.... almost.  An unexpected healing process has become necessary.

Yesterday afternoon, after I returned from some errands and responsibilities (and a fun lunch with a good friend!), I placed the now empty, but sticky and wet with honey supers on the Gator to return them to the bees for clean up.  The bees usually quickly fix the hexagonal wax compartments that were damaged in the extracting process, move the honey that was still on the frames, and then begin to collect more nectar for refilling.  Typically, the bees are mostly friendly and gentle (like the picture above).  Usually, putting the supers back on a hive is a relatively uneventful process.  One doesn't even need smoke.  You simply crack the top open, remove the telescoping cover and place the wet super on top.  Replace the cover making sure that the top entrance block is still in place and move on to the next.  Simple.

But yesterday it was quite warm (86 degrees).  But worse than the heat was the very sticky, oppressive humidity.  Perspiration was dripping down my back, my tummy, my nose... I s'pose I didn't smell too nice.  And perhaps the bees remembered that I (with the help of Farmer Husband) had just stolen all their early summer's work.  I'm not certain.  But what I am certain of was that one particular hive was most unwelcoming.

It was our biggest hive in the spring.  We split it three times.  But it was still big.  It produced almost a third of the honey that we extracted.  And we only had one super to put on top when we took their honey.  So imagine sixty thousand relatives in a big house.  All of a sudden the house becomes smaller.  The cupboards are bare.  The temperatures go up.  The humidity makes collecting food stores unpleasant.  And it's time for the house bees to make orientation flights around the hive.  Introduce a wet, smelly intruder who looks an awfully lot like the robber from two days ago.  What would you do? 

Yes... and they did.

As soon as I cracked open the hive the buzzing frequency changed.  That should have warned me.  And actually it did but I thought, "I'll just quickly put the super on and move to the next one.  They'll settle down as soon as they get more room and honey."

That's not quite what happened.  Recall that I didn't bring the smoker.  Usually the smoker masks the alarm pheromone that a bee would make.  That way, if a bee shouts "Intruder!" no one really knows or cares.  One alarmed bee is nothing.  Hundreds of alarmed bees is another thing...

They pelted my suit. Bounced off my bee net.  Curled up in a tight balls trying to get their stinger into some flesh.  Four of them penetrated my suit at the left knee.  The burning sensation of a bee sting is most unpleasant.  And it keeps going until you get the stinger(s) out.  So I needed to retreat.  Time to go get the smoker.

After walking three hundred yards away from this most unpleasant hive I discovered that I had at least forty stingers in my gloves, arms, legs and chest suit.  They were serious.  This intruder was not going to get access to the hive.  Thankfully, only the four had penetrated the suit. 

I got the stingers out without difficulty.  Redonned the bee suit and lit the smoker with some coals from the outdoor wood burning furnace.  I didn't want to go back to the hive. I was a bit scared.  I'm not used to bees purposefully defending their hive against me.  They are usually gentle. But I had to go back.  The lid was opened.  The empty super was on the ground next to them. And I needed to button the hive up.  So off I went.

I smoked all the stingers in my suit and gloves trying to mask the alarm pheromone.  I smoked the hive until it almost looked like a fire.  They were still upset but not as bad.  And I was able to relatively quickly get the hive placed back together.  I had only one hive to go.  They too were a little unfriendly but the smoker helped and I was quick to return to the house.  I peeled off the wet sweaty bee suit, drank about a half gallon of water and placed some 2.5% hydrocortisone that my Farmer Husband uses for poison ivy on my left knee.  Today, the knee is still a little red and puffy but will be just fine.  And the bees?  We're leaving them alone for awhile. 

Lesson learned?  When dealing with bees in hot humid temperatures who have just lost their dinner and part of their home.... use smoke.

Today's Journey Joy - protective bee suits!

Sweeter than honeycomb

It's late July. The bees have multiplied, increased, and become very productive.  They were split many times this spring to prevent them from swarming.  Swarming takes about half the bees from the hive as they try to find and establish a new home.  It's natural.  To leave the hive.  Go out into the big world.  It's how bees multiply hives.  Start afresh.  Unfortunately, swarms tend to be high in a tree.  And their timing is usually inconvenient.  Hot, humid, high in a tree.....The idea of half of a hive flying away is just so..... sad.   My wonderful husband usually has to don the beekeeping suit, get raised in the loader bucket, and recapture them. (I do the tractor loader raising.)

But this year we only had to do swarm retrieval once, very early in the season, as opposed to last year which felt like at least twenty times.  We made several smaller hives through the splits and apparently squelched the swarming instinct in our hives.  So much nicer. 

The hives were given lots of room to grow.  I also did not use queen excluders this year.  I was afraid that we would get lots of baby bees (brood) in the honey supers.  And in fact we did get a few.  But the excluder in the past seemed to keep the bees away or out of the honey supers (where they store their honey).  But by eliminating the excluders, giving the bees both a top and bottom entrance to enter their hives, and having lots of room... well, we didn't get any summer swarms.  And we got lots of honey.  In fact, this is our second harvest of the season.  And we should get a third in September.  That's definitely worth rejoicing.

Yesterday, around three in the afternoon, my wonderful farmer's husband and I harvested the honey supers from our hives.  Some of the hives were still too small to make extra honey. Thankfully, they have time to grow strong before winter.  But the big hives had plenty of full honey supers.  I used some Fisher's Bee Quick ( an almond smelling liquid that apparently the bees do not like) on a fume board to push the bees into the hive and out of the honey supers.  Then, if there were any stragglers in the super, Farmer Husband would gently blow them out of the super with a leaf blower.

We brought the honey filled supers to the house via the Gator and placed them in the basement where our honey extracting is set up.  It was dinner time when we finished bringing the honey downstairs.  So we started the dehumidifier, put a lid on the stacked supers, and ate tacos.  Today, I hope to extract the honey.  Until then, our house smells like golden sweet honey. Very pleasant.

It's hard to imagine anything sweeter than honey in the honeycomb....

"Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body." (Proverbs 16:24).

Honey is nutritious, sweet, and healthful.  Are my words?  Unfortunately, my words can be more like the bee than the honey.  Buzzing, busy, and biting (well, stinging....).   Ouch.

O, may my language, my choice of words and my tone be like honey today.  Sweet, sticky, warm and helpful. Not only will this be good for those I speak with today.... but sweet to my soul as well.

Honey.  Life sustaining.  Sweet and appealing.  Good for my soul.

Today's Journey Joy - Fresh warm honey and gracious words

Learning to Love Bees

I have to admit that when we decided to have bee hives on our farm I was quite apprehensive.  The idea of purposefully keeping stinging insects... well that just seemed a little crazy.  I don't like getting stung.  The area swells great big and my tummy feels nauseous. 

But I have come to appreciate these hard workers.  They gather pollen and nectar for their family (even if it is a very large one).  They clean house.  They babysit.  They guard.  They keep the hive warm in the winter and cool in the summer.  They are usually not aggressive towards others.  You mind your own business and they will mind theirs.

This year we started with eight hives that survived the winter.  We had the usual ten to twenty percent hive loss.  One simply died because it ran out of honey stores.  Another hive was just empty.  So as the spring temperatures warmed we split the bigger hives.  Some of them two or three times.  So now we have 15 hives (along with a swarm I collected and brought to a friend's farm). And as a result we have not been swinging in the trees chasing swarms.  We added many supers above the deeps and gave them a top and bottom entrance.  I am hoping that we did good work suppressing swarm activity and that it wasn't just a good year for "non-swarming".  But regardless, it has been a good year in the apiary.

I've been stung twice this year.  At the same time. It was my own fault.  The bees innocently climbed up my pant leg and when they couldn't get out they resorted to stinging.  Ouch!  But now I tuck my pant legs in my socks preventing that curious bee from investigating.  Last year I didn't get a single sting.  Well, not quite.  While I was weeding the green beans a teeny little native black bee was probably getting the salt off my back and when I stood up got trapped and stung me right on my gluteus!  Another ouch.  A pretty funny episode I'm sure.  Here's this lady weeding in a T-shirt and pants hitting her bottom and jumping all around.  Needless to say I now tuck my T-shirt in as well.

So I'm learning to love bees.... at least honey bees and big rumbly bumbles.  I'm still not too fond of wasps and hornets. But the others provide such great pollination and honey that I've developed a working and loving (?) relationship with them.  Perhaps it is a little nuts.  But it sure is amazing.  Now, when I see a honey bee flitting from flower to flower I stop and talk to her.  "Are you finding some good nectar my little one?" 

Perhaps I've spent too much time in the sun.... ☺

Today's Journey Joy - learning to love stinging insects

Spring Blossom Honey

To extract honey several sticky steps are needed. One first must get the honey frames off the hives.  Sometimes the bees don't seem to mind.  At other times they are very determined to keep the beekeeper (honey-taker?) out of the hive.  Spring time is usually an easy time.  The bees are happily flying from blooming flower to blooming flower and returning pollen and nectar to the hive.  Most of the 30-60,000 bees in a hive are out working.  Usually only a few guard bees are present plus a hivefull of new baby bees.

After the honey frames are taken into the house it is time for extracting.  This spring, as soon as the frames were off the hives, we started uncapping the honey frames.  When bees have completed the amazing process of turning nectar into honey they seal the hexagonal storage unit with wax.  (A process that my mom copied when canning jelly and jams with paraffin wax.) So before we can put the frames into the extractor the seal must be removed.  We use an uncapping knife.  It's basically a stainless steel knife that is electrically heated to smoothly and easily melt through the wax, cutting off the seal and revealing the sticky, warm and amazingly wonderful smelling honey.

The honey oozes out of the cells.  This year's spring honey was a light to medium color with a slightly fruity, light and delicious flavor.

The wax is discarded into the uncapping tank to drip and collect the honey that was in the wax. But the now glossy honey frame is ready for the spinning of the extractor. Yum.

The honey supers are then returned to the hives. Usually the bees are quite happy to get their wet sticky honey frames back.  They quickly clean them, repair the wax that was damaged, and begin to refill the frames. 

This weekend we hope to get our second harvest from the hives.  The clover has been blooming well.  The wonderful smell of honey is drifting from the hives as we drive by.  It will be good to get a midsummer harvest of honey. 

Today's Journey Joy - warm honey

Makin' Honey

I really enjoy watching the bees coming and going from their hive. It is amazing to me that a worker bee can go from flower to flower collecting pollen and nectar. Then, fly home, find the right hive, and drop off the "goods" just to go as quickly as she can to the next flower. Every bee has a role. The worker... well she does all the collecting. The house bee.... she maintains and cleans the house. She learns to take care of the young, clean the rooms and maintain a healthy environment. The guard bee... she makes sure that only the right bee gains entrance. If you are a bee from another hive, you will be rejected... probably stung. Drone bee... he inseminates the queen during a mating flight and then dies. He neither collects food or cleans house. And... the Queen bee... well there's only one of her. She really is royalty. Every bee in the hive is her daughter. And without her the hive would die.


By this time of year we have usually harvested the spring honey. But the bees did not cooperate this year. We had so many rainy days. And they don't like that. So they swarmed. Hard to make extra honey if half your working force goes elsewhere. So no spring honey.

But now the bees have settled down to business. They scurry the countryside looking for what is in bloom. Currently, the bees are flying in a south direction. All of them. From every hive the "bee line" is southerly. I wonder what is flowering that much. It would take a lot of blooms to satisfy 13 hives. But what is most important is how those blooms flavor the honey. In a week we will take what we can from the hives. Then we will put the supers back on the hives to get ready for the summer and fall honey for Labor Day weekend harvest. I can hardly wait for some honey.


Today's Journey Joy - watching bees

The one that got away

Well, that didn't work. Plan C that is. Plan A was to reach the swarm and get them in a hive. Unfortunately, Plan A was not to work because the swarm was thirty-something feet high. So, Plan B: Fling a rock up to the branch and suspend a drawn-out frame with honey next to them from a rope or line. Unfortunately, the bees didn't think that was such a good idea. They ate the honey and stayed in their swarm formation. So... Plan C: attach a 5 gallon bucket to a telescoping limb lopper, stand on / in the bucket of the tractor fully extended (14 feet) and cut the branch allowing the swarm to fall neatly into the bucket. Good idea. Unfortunately, easier said than done. The swarm was thirty something feet high. The tractor was 14 feet extended. My adventurous husband was a little over 6 feet high with extended arms. And the telescoping limb lopper... about 12 feet with a five gallon bucket taped to it. Total length: 32 feet. Guess what? The swarm was juuuussssttt out of reach. So jumping (a little) in the tractor bucket to bonk the limb and "catch" a bunch of flying bees became Plan D. Believe it or not he got some. We put them in a hive hoping we got the queen. Well.... next morning.... no bees in the hive.... and a new swarm formed in the trees. Guess they didn't like being bonked out of a tree and dumped into a hive box.

Well the new branch was lower. Yeah! We could get it. So I started making a level area for the new hive and in a different location. It probably took me about 20 minutes. Getting the ground level but slightly inclined forward... About 1 minute before I was done I heard the familiar sound. Yes, you guessed it. The humming and buzzing of thousands of bees flying. My swarm was swarming! Ah!!! Try, as I could, I attempted to chase them. They flew high into the sky and went north. Within 5 minutes they were out of my view. I hope they found a safe, dry place to live. It was the first swarm that got away.

But good news prevails. At the same time as we were retrieving the swarm with the bucket (or at least attempting to retrieve it) another swarm settled next to this swarm. Just out of reach again but somehow the bonking technique got the queen. We got a bunch of bees, put them in the box, closed the lid, and walked away. They are happy and buzzing today.

Four swarms; three caught. Tomorrow, weather permitting, I will put more honey supers on 2 or 3 of the hives. Next weekend (or perhaps the following) we will harvest the spring honey. I can hardly wait. My mouth is watering just thinking of that golden sweetness.

Today's Journey Joy: chasing swarms

Another Swarm...Way Up High

It has been raining for the past two or so days. I've been told that when that happens the bees have little to do but think about swarming. (Just a little anthropomorphism). Well, today is a bright seventy degree day. A gentle breeze and a pleasant change from the previous gray days.

As I was taking a morning stroll around the gardens to monitor the "weed factor" I walked over to the bee yard. The yard is now ten hives strong. Only one hive is a little week coming out of the winter. I looked up and down the trees bordering the yard. Way up high, about 30 feet or so, I noticed the typical "clump" of brown dangling bees from a box elder tree high up on some branches. There was no way the tractor could reach these bees. So time for "Plan B".

I read on the Beesource Forum that sometimes one can lure bees from their temporary branch by either resting a nuc box (a wooden box with 5 frames in my case), or just a frame of drawn out comb, close to their current swarm location. The goal is that the bees will be persuaded to leave their little branch and cluster on the provided frame. The frame would be slowly brought to the ground and then placed in a box. Great idea. So I grabbed my surveyors lime green line and some kind of blue metal bracket and attempted to throw the line above the branch where the bees were located. Unfortunately, I am no swinging mama and the weight went over an adjacent branch quite far from the one which was aimed. Oops. Worse, was the fact that the "weight" got caught up in the tree. Boy, I hope that blue bracket isn't important. It will be sometime before we will be able to get it down.

So then, I cut the line, found a roundish shaped rock (in hopes that "round" wouldn't get caught in branches... just in case my aim wasn't any better). After a couple of pathetic attempts I finally did get the line over the branch that the swarm was resting on. The little rock was removed and then I smothered some old honey on a frame of drawn out comb and hoisted it up the tree. That's what you see in the picture: A swarm to the right and my frame in the left.

I've never attempted a swarm collection in this fashion. I'll have to report again on whether it was successful. In the meantime I set up a nuc with lemongrass oil, drawn out frames, and a little honey near the garage. Maybe the bee scouts (no, not boy scouts) will find it and fly the group to it.

Today's Journey Joy: attempting new swarm collections

Humming Tree...Bzzzzzzzz

I look forward to it every year. Our humming tree. No, not a humming bird. A humming tree. Every year around this time (late May - early June) the tulip poplar tree breaks out in bloom. Traditionally, this tree is considered one of those "weed trees". Easy to grow, fast growing, and (relatively) short lived. The leaves resemble a combination of a maple and a poplar (at least in my opinion). It provides us with nice shade and a burst of yellow tulip-looking flowers every year.


Some years the tulips are "drowned" in the spring rains. They bloom for about one week and so, if it is the week where there is a lot of rain, the nectar in the flower is washed out or at least diluted.


But this year the rains have yet to ruin the flowers. And hence, the tree is a-buzz. A-buzz with happy, busy, honey-making, beautiful bees. You can stand under the tree and hear the humming. It is a low pitched, constant humming. In fact, my son, standing under the tree yesterday said, "It sounds like a whole hive up there!" Well, he's probably close to right. I would guess there are representatives from all of our ten hives up there.

It is predicted to rain tonight. And rain hard. Storms might even come. I sure hope the bees are working hard. The banquet table will be empty by morning.

Today's Journey Joy: listening to the humming of bees

First Swarm of 2009

Eight of our 11 hives survived the winter. Pretty good since it was one of the coldest winters on record. I had given them granulated sugar piled high on a cardboard pizza plate and placed in an empty super for emergency supply. Some needed it, others did not. I did a brief inspection about a week and a half ago. Many of the hives were strong and needed supering. So seven of the eight hives were given a box full of frames (some already drawn out) so that they could store their honey.

But one hive was acting a little weird earlier this week. On Sunday when my husband and I were walking back to the Morton building we noticed that at 10:00 in the morning there was an awful lot of activity around the buckfast hive (I only have one buckfast; all the others are Italians All stars). It looked like they were doing orientation flights. But that is usually done in mid to late afternoon. "But," I thought, "Maybe buckfasts do things differently." Alas, it is not so. They were "practicing". Practicing for the great move. You see, when bees feel that they do not have enough room to expand they swarm. The old queen takes a bunch of the bees and flies away to find a new home. That's how bee colonies reproduce. A very natural and effective way of expanding. Great for the bees. Not so great for the beekeeper. Less bees = less honey.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I went to the building again and noticed some bearding on the hive. I thought, "Odd... but maybe 84 degrees is hot for the hive. I will have to check their screen bottom board and make sure it is open." But I didn't get a chance. By the time I got to the building and got the tractor running (less than 5 minutes!) a great cloud of bees were dancing and flying and.... well, you guessed it..... swarming! It was amazing to watch. Bees everywhere. They reminded me of the flock of blackbirds migrating in the fall. They all flew together. Up and down; here and there. Flying to this tree and then to that tree. All I could do was watch and pray, "Please bees, land in a low branch." Fifteen minutes went by and then I saw it. They were congregating on a relatively (12 foot high) low branch of a walnut tree about 15 feet away from the hive they had recently departed. "Yeah!" I said. And quickly went to get my bee equipment: hive, frames, bee suit and limb cutter.

I parked the tractor right under the swarm. Lifted the bucket up and realized that although they were assessable, I would need another helper. I could climb the loader and snip the branch, but how then would I get back down? The branch and all the bees would probably weigh 25 pounds. I'm strong, but not that strong... especially when the 25 pounds could fly away. I would have to wait until my husband came home (One and a half hours later). ("Oh please, don't fly away!")

When he got home he quickly came to my aid. He re-leveled my spot for the prospective new hive and dressed up in his bee gear. I lifted him up to the branch in the loader and then climbed into the loader myself. He held the branch while I cut it. Then I gingerly climbed back into the tractor, gently lowered the bucket while rotating it so that I wouldn't dump my precious cargo(my husband!) and slowly drove the tractor to the new hive location (about 100 feet west and up the hill).

We had previously put a deep full of half drawn out comb and an empty deep with frames ready to go in at the location. My husband simply bonked the branch on the side of the deep and the majority of the bees "fell" into the hive. Some flew around...not too happy we disturbed them. But none were aggressive. They had just eaten. They had nothing to protect yet. No babies, no food stores. Just them. So they were very gentle. I've even heard that many people capture swarms without protective gear. I could believe that. I'm just not quite ready for that experience. The suit helps me. Keeps me calm.

We closed up the hive, put a couple of white cedar branches in front of the hive entrance so they would reorient to the new location and walked away. A successful capture.

I haven't checked on the new hive yet. I sure hope they are happy and have stayed put. I will need to go through the old hive and see if I need to break up the brood so that the hive will not swarm again. I'm happy we got this one. But prevention of swarms is a much better practice.... unless you like climbing trees.

Today's Journey Joy: capturing bee swarms

Tucked in

Two weeks ago, before the big first snows, I was able to tuck the bees in for the winter. We had a relatively warm day (45 -50 degrees) and sunny. The eleven hives needed some attention before the cold of winter arrived. I quickly opened each one, placed a medium empty super on the two deeps, placed a piece of newspaper or thin cardboard on the top of the frames and poured 4-5 cups of granulated sugar on the cardboard. This technique allows for excess humidity to be absorbed on the sugar and cardboard and gives the bees some food if their honey stores run low during the winter. The next time we have a break in the cold (about a couple months from now) I will check on them again and probably add more sugar to some. This technique worked very well last year - 100% survival rate into the spring. I'm hoping for at least 50%. Some of the hives don't look as strong as I would have liked them to be at the end of the summer.

I'm wishing today that I could be "tucked in." I am tired from the never-ending work... at least that's how it feels. Everyone seems to have desires for my time and energy. My plate is full.... but cracking under pressure. Too much is piled high and there are few energy stores to tap. I wish that the house was clean, the laundry done (including the ironing), the garage empty of the things that need to go back to the shed, the papers graded, the scores tabulated, the final exams given, and every student successful at the university. I wish that the Christmas program had every part assigned and all the music picked out and practiced. I wish that the senior pastor search committee was making some decisions. I wish that there was more time to play board games and do needlepoint. I wish I could find space for my new scroll saw. I wish that the chicken coop cleaned itself... perhaps my children's rooms as well. I wish....

The beehive appears restful. In fact much is going on in there... if only we could see it. The quietness of the outside activity is not reflective of the inside activity. The bees are busy keeping warm and dry. They must keep their numbers high enough in order to make it through the long cold winter. Occasionally, on a warm day a few will come out and fly. "Cleansing flights" they are called. But today when the snow blows and it is cold... well, they are bundled up into a cluster generating heat... surviving.

So like the bees I will generate heat and survive. My wish list does not get done by me writing. But it does get prioritized. I'm thankful for this journaling today.

Journey Joy: Wishes

We could learn a lot from a bee

We could learn a lot from a bee.

1. Family comes first.


The success of the hive depends on everyone. Each bee (person?) has a role to play regardless of age or ability. And each role is just as important as the next. No one bee is valued above the other. But if some one or something threatens the hive (the family or the country, if you will) then everyone defends the hive... even to the death. The success of the hive is top priority.


2. Work is important.


Whether you are a nurse bee, guard bee, or worker bee (and normally as a bee you get the opportunity to do all three) you are special and your work brings health, well being, and protection to your family. Everyone works. A bee that doesn't work eventually ends up thrown out. Consider the poor drones at the end of the summer. All the male bees (drones) are pushed out of the hive at the end of the summer... drones only eat and inseminate queen bees. They neither toil, clean nor collect anything. So they are expelled from the hive. Work is life. Life is work. And if you've ever watched a bee do her work then you will realize that she works with eagerness, enthusiasm, and direction.

3. Bees co-exist with harmony.

As she travels from flower to flower the worker bee collects pollen (you might notice the yellow pollen sack on this bee sitting on the nasturtium flower). Collecting pollen is sometimes an untidy task. The bee buzzes from flower to flower dropping bits and pieces of pollen from each flower on to another... what a wonderful and efficient way to help plants fruit. Without the fruit there would be no seed. Without the seed there would be no plant. Without the plant there would be no flower. And without the flower there would be no pollen or nectar and hence, no bee. Bees co-exist with nature.

4. Bees know when to replace their leader.

When the queen is no longer laying eggs well, or is exhibiting unusual and detrimental behavior to the health of the hive she is killed by her subordinates. They "supercede" her and replace her with one of her own offspring. In essence the new queen is the half sister of the old queen. The new virgin queen is born several weeks later and then mates and begins the new "government" fresh with energy and vitality.

Questions to ponder: Are our priorities in line? Is our first priority the preservation and success of our family? Do we approach work as joy? Or is work a four letter word in which life exists around? Do we experience the satisfaction of a job well done? Have we given it our all? How have we tended the garden? The environment? The lives around us? Do we work or co-exist in harmony? Or do we try to master everything (even to our peril)? And lastly, do we as a people know when to replace our leader?

I find it interesting that the hive naturally replaces their leader from someone in the same family. The hive realizes that the queen is not well... she is not good for the hive. But her traits, genetics and characteristics are still important. One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to know where this line of thought is going. We know that President Bush has done some wonderful and spectacular things for our country... but...(not wanting to be pessimistic) it is time to replace him... not with a totally new "type" but with one with similar values, beliefs, and vitality. It was those characteristics that made the hive great to begin with. So our new leader should be one that recognizes and believes (therefore acts upon): (1) family (country) comes first (to defend at all costs), (2) work is valuable (those who can work, should work), and (3) environment is fragile and must be worked with in harmony within the cycle of life. Seems pretty simple. Pretty fundamental. Pretty bee-like.

We could learn a lot from a bee....

Today's journey joy: the example of a bee

Honey Harvest (Part 2)

"Pleasant words are as honeycomb, sweet to the soul." (Proverbs 16:24)

Earlier I wrote about our adventures with the 2008 honey harvest... it was basically uneventful... no stings, no angry bees, an easy time essentially getting the supers from the hives. And if you recall we found that our honey harvest was less than we had hoped (I also wrote about some speculations about the reason that happened). After we got the frames into the honey house (i.e., our basement!) we discovered that not all the honey was capped and in fact some of it still had too much water content. If honey is extracted with too much moisture it easily ferments... not a problem if you're trying to make mead, but if your aim to sell honey... well, one's customers might frown. So my husband cleverly came up with a dehydration-station. A make-shift room made out of a shower, a dehumidifier and a bunch of shower curtains / plastic. After a week the honey was well within the specs to harvest. So last weekend we extracted the honey from the frames. Above you can see my husband using an electric uncapping knife to remove the caps of wax over the honey. The cappings fall into the uncapping tank (which is a bi-layered "tank" that allows the honey attached to cappings to fall below - some say that the capping honey is the sweetest - I tend to agree). After the frames have been uncapped, I placed them in the extractor. We have been blessed with a large 20 frame motorized radial extractor. It makes the work of extracting super easy. I remember when I first saw our friends extract honey. They have a nice manually operated tangential extractor. They would turn the crank as fast as they could for (what seemed to me) to be a long time. Then they would turn the frames around and do the whole process again.... a great work out.... but I'm too old for that kind of work (at least that's the excuse I'm giving today!)

So anyway, I put the frames in the extractor and tried to balance their weight so the whole machine doesn't walk the floor like a washing machine out of balance. We close the lid, turned the motor and watch the honey "spray" out of the frames. A few minutes later we slowed the motor down and then spun them the other way. The whole extracting process probably took only 5-10 minutes (with no sweating or achy joints involved!).

The honey was strained using a double stainless steel strainer. The strainer gets most of the wax, bees debris and stuff that was on the frames out of the honey. Then the honey is stored in big 5-6 gallon honey containers and left to settle for a few days. The extracting process allows some air into the honey and if one were to bottle this new extracted honey there would be a bunch of air bubbles in the containers.


So since today is a very rainy day and I can't pick beans, squash, or raspberries and it is certainly way to muddy to be weeding the strawberries, I thought today would be a good day to bottle the honey. It's not difficult but it sure is sticky and sweet (of course I have to sample the "drips"). I simply grab one of our bears and open the honey gate and fill the bear. The process just repeats until the honey in the container is drained. Sometimes the children help me but today I did it myself.

We bottle Papa (16 oz.), Mama (12 oz.), Brother (8 oz.) and Baby (6 oz.) Bears. I placed the fall honey next to the spring honey to show the differences in color. The spring honey (we call "apple blossom honey") is much lighter than the fall honey (we call "autumn gold honey"). The last picture is one of the whole "family." We hope to sell some of it this year. Usually all I have to say is something like "Local honey makes a great and unique stocking stuffer." Sometimes I remind potential customers that this honey is from our hives which have no chemicals or harsh treatments (like many commercial honeys) and that since it is local they would be supporting their local economy. If they suffer from allergies I also remind them that research shows that local honey may help their symptoms.


Selling honey is not the only reason why we have become beekeepers. It just seems like the right thing to do. The berries need pollination and the bees make many products (honey, comb, pollen, propolis and wax). They have an amazing structure to their colonies. Perhaps one day I'll write about the many life lessons I have learned from watching their behavior.

God made an amazing insect with amazing abilities. And throughout history honey has been a valued and sought after commodity. Remember the Israelites? God promised them a land flowing with milk and honey... sounds like a good recipe for ice cream to me!

Today's journey joy - Autumn Gold Honey

Honey Harvest (Part 1)

"They (God's Word) are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. " (Psalm 19:10)

Labor Day weekend is our "Honey harvest weekend." All summer the bees have been growing, multiplying, collecting pollen and nectar. And it is this weekend when we interrupt them and remove the supers (a rectangular box with ten frames that the bees make honeycomb on). The bees are usually not too pleased to have someone take their honey. But this year we did the honey harvest at around 3:00 pm and most of the worker bees were out and about so the supers were relatively easy to get off. The weather was gloriously hot and sunny, and thankfully there was a slight breeze.

It all starts with getting dressed and getting the smoker lit for a couple hours of anticipated work. My husband grabbed some coals from the outside wood furnace and added some wood chips. It makes great fuel and super smoke.


The photo below is of a hive that was started this spring from a 3 pound package of Buckfast bees. They started a little slow but we were hopeful that they would make some surplus honey. So with anticipation I approach the hive with my smoker, fume board and a little Bee Quick (a smell that encourages the bees to leave the super).

But alas, no surplus honey on this hive. That is not unexpected. First year hives that have to draw out their own comb often do not have enough numbers and time to make extra honey for the bee keeper. But there's always next year!

So instead of getting honey I checked the brood boxes (the larger rectangular boxes below the super) and see if they have enough stores of honey to make it through the winter. The frame I have lifted is full of capped honey on the top, brood in the middle and some pollen near the bottom. The bees are healthy and happy. That makes a happy bee keeper.

After about an hour we have gone through all the seven hives (five of them new packages this year) and have about four supers with honey in them. A scant harvest of honey. But we are excited... the aroma of the honey is irresistable and I am eager to extract. My husband gets our massive 20 frame radial extractor ready below. But then as we are about to uncap the honey and put them in we discover that some of the frames of honey have too much moisture and we need to dehydrate them a bit. So my wonderful and resourceful "honey" rigs up a shower dehydrator and they are presently getting thicker. The rest of the honey harvest will have to wait until the honey is at 17% moisture content.

For now I will be satisfied with the anticipation of yummy, sweet and delightfully sticky honey.

Today's journey joy: Golden sweet honey