A Bee By-Product

This is not going to be my year for honey. The honey I harvested for the movie on honey harvest that Gina and I made on Sunday was very thin. I was worried about how runny it was - it was all from fully capped frames - so I put a drop in my refractometer. I didn't like what I read on the refractometer so I tried another drop and another and another. All read the same: 20.2. Honey with a higher percentage of moisture than 18.6 is likely to ferment and is substandard honey (to quote Cindy Bee). So I am without a good crop since that was my only possible box to harvest.

Cindy and the people on the Beemaster forum suggested that I put it with the dehumidifier and maybe that would dry it out some. I am not optimistic although it has been on top of the dehumidifier all day.

Of course, maybe I'll learn to make mead and use this thin honey for a new project!

The gift the bees have given me this year is a lot of cucumbers. The cucumbers in my garden are all gorgeous and perfectly straight. None of those poorly pollinated crooked cucumbers are to be found in my garden with these great bees around.

So tonight for the second time this June, I made pickles.  I made a second recipe of sweet pickle relish because it's so great to have around when you want to make tuna salad.  I also made four pints of bread and butter pickles.

Even though I will probably go honey-less this year, I will thank my bees each time I eat tuna salad!

The Rabun County Bees are Hard at Work

Today was my first visit to the Rabun County bees since Memorial Day weekend. So many nice things have happened at the garden. They have the lovely sign below, designating the community garden as "The Old School Garden." The garden is located on an old school ground, thus the name.



As I walked back to the bee hive, I was struck by the lush garden. I didn't take a picture of it as a whole (wish I had), but here are some cucumbers that I am sure the bees are enjoying pollinating!

Then to my surprise in front of the bee yard, they have erected this bright orange caution sign. What a hoot - I love it!


The bees were doing well. I installed them as a 2 pound package from Don Kuchenmeister (fatbeeman) on April 24 2010. By Memorial Day weekend, it was clear that they were doing well, but they had only used about 6 frames of the bottom box. Now they have completely filled the bottom box with drawn frames, brood, pollen and honey. They are into the second box where they have built out a little over 1/3 of the box, all on the right side.

They have beautiful mostly uncapped honey.



The sourwood is in full bloom all over the county and the bees are drawing wax and filling it, trying to take advantage of the flow.  (After posting this, I looked more closely at the comb below which is full of eggs(!) not sourwood honey).



I was also pleased to pull the second frame from the bottom box and see lots of eggs and brood. This is a good queen and a good hive.  Click on the picture to see a larger view of the eggs in the center bottom of the frame.

Bees on Cucumbers

Bees love cucumbers although the cucumber is not a great source of either nectar or pollen. This is because although an individual flower produces a good bit of nectar, there are relatively few flowers on a cucumber plant. Research shows that although the cucumber pollen is also something the bee might want, they only get pollen from the cucumber when there are no other pollen sources.



Many plants produce more nectar at certain times of the day. I think the cucumber must be one of them because so far I've only seen bees on the flowers in the mornings. I took these pictures at 8:30 AM. I love the one below of the bee diving headfirst into the cucumber flower!


My plants are covered with tiny cukes so the bee visits must be having quite an effect.


I love watching the bees on flowers. Here is a bee on a rather sad echinacea. Bees love echinacea for the nectar. This bee kept leaving this flower to go to other more beautiful coneflowers, but returned to this one time and time again. This must be a particular juicy one!