When I inspected the bees today, I found beautiful capped honey. The first super was full with about 45 % of the honey capped. When the frames in the super are completely capped, I can remove the super and finally taste the honey that my bees are making.
The second picture is of the uncapped honey. It is really dark. We just ended the tulip poplar
flow and that honey is a darker honey.
I'd like to think the bees are happy with their work, but mostly they were irritated with me for disrupting their day and intruding into their house!So far when I work on the bees, I always wear my suit, complete with veil and gloves. I haven't been stung yet but I'm sure the day is coming. My little dog Haley has been stung twice now by bees that come into my house unbeknownst to me after I've worked on the bees. She got curious and pushed a bee around with her paw and the bee gave up her life to show Haley how mad she was about that treatment.
Hey Linda,
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the wonderful world of beekeeping. Nice frame of capped honey you have.
Last year someone gave me an Italian hive that hadn't been worked for a decade, so I've been nursing it back to health.
This year purchased packages and nucs for 7 hives (2 Italians, 4 Buckfast F1s, and 1 Russian).
I have found my two Italian hives in suburbia (Baton Rouge, LA) produce a bounty of honey and cut comb compared to my outyard in rural Slidell (north of New Orleans). End of the month I have to move 6 hives to my new outyard closer to home with more floral sources. Of course it will be a solo job with no help from my friends.
Another good honeybee forum you will find of interest is Beesource: http://www.beesource.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/Ultimatebb.cgi?action=intro
Happy Beekeeping!
James