Sting Saga

Previous to taking the honey from the beehives, I had only been stung once by my bees and that was when I stepped on a bee in my house who was dying on the floor. However, the first weekend that I took honey from the hives, I got stung on my knee when I returned the honey-dripping frames to the hives. I did this without my bee suit, wearing only my veil.

The sting on my knee hurt, but didn't look like anything until the next day when the area was swollen about the size of a silver dollar. It was very itchy for about two days and then went away.

This past weekend, my second weekend to rob the bees, I got stung again. I had been at an all-day choir rehearsal on Saturday and came home at the end of the day to let my dogs out before returning to choir. I love the way it smells when you stand between my two hives. In the warmth of summer, there's a rich smell of honey and bees that is absolutely wonderful. I often go out in the morning before work without my beesuit on to enjoy the smell.

So at 5 PM without my beesuit I went out to stand between the hives before returning to choir. There were three things wrong with this decision: I was wearing all black, I had had a Coke about an hour before, and it was the time of day when my bees are in orientation flights. The Internet forum posters all suggest that you get stung more when wearing black and when you have ingested caffeine.

I got stung right under my eyebrow. It hurt but I went on back to the party. The next day my eye was swollen shut and over the day, although I could open my eye, swelling developed that was an oval about four inches from above my eyebrow to below my cheekbone. This is called a large local reaction by those familiar with stings. One Internet site I read said that stings around the eye often result in "comic distortions of the face" which explains why this post has no pictures!

Now it's Tuesday and everything is finally back to normal after two days of no contact lenses and "comic distortion of the face."

But I'm wearing my bee veil for the rest of the bee season!

Honey differences!

Amazing that there are major differences in the honey I bottled today and the honey from last week. The super this week was on the hive less time than the first week. The honey this week is lighter and tastes very different from the honey from last week.

Last week the honey seemed to be flavored by the tulip poplar. It is dark honey with a smooth flavor and has a taste that is softer than this week's honey. This week the honey tastes much lighter and ends with a tart almost lemony note. I love it - and I loved the honey last week.

The last picture is a comparison of the first jar of honey last week with a comparable jar bottled today.

The super this week was one of those where the wax wasn't long enough for the frame and the bees had not drawn it all the way down to the bottom of the frame, so there was less honey and less beautiful comb to cut.

Nonetheless, I bottled 8 pints of cut comb honey, 42 tiny honey bottles to give my Emory grad students when they turn in their final exams on Wednesday, and 10 half pints. The bucket is still outside in the heat and will yield several more bottles before we are all said and done.

I can't get over the fact that the two honeys taste so different. I imagine the tulip poplar is a clear cut honey taste, but where did the tart taste come from in the jars I bottled today?

Second Weekend Honey Harvest

This is the second super I've harvested from the Destin hive. This honey is lighter and tastes a little tart - really yummy.

I cut it off of the frames and put some into comb honey jars. I smashed the rest of it for liquid honey. It's now straining in my front yard in a closed bucket.

The flexible plastic cutting board has been the secret to less messy honey harvesting. I just take the plastic covered with honey and put it into the strainer. I use a rubber spatula to scrape as much honey as possible from the plastic cutting board.

My children used to love to lick the bowl and never liked to see the rubber spatula - because I am great at getting almost all of the honey/frosting/brownie mixture - whatever we were cooking off of the container and into the pan. I always left batter on purpose so they'd actually be able to lick the bowl, but I got every bit of honey off of the plastic cutting mat and into the strainer.

Everyone says doing honey in your kitchen means a sticky mess, so I wanted you to see the extent of the mess - honey on the counter that has to be washed off, but that's about all. The cardboard protects the floor.

Shorter hives!

Last week when I took the honey, I put the supers back in the hives with the frames dripping where I cut the comb from the frames. This week the bees have completely cleaned all the honey off, but I don't know what to do now.

I decided to take the supers off, but needed to convince the bees to stay with the hive and not the removed super. I stood the supers on end facing the hive from which they came and left them. I'll bring them inside tonight or tomorrow if they are bee-free.

I also took the super off of Destin that had the frames on it that I am taking honey from this afternoon. I left it on its side near Destin to convince those bees to go back home, as well.

Bermuda super being used for brood

Bermuda has a full, capped super that I will take off of the hive on the weekend after Labor Day.

In another super, Bermuda has plenty of honey but is also using this super for brood. In the first picture you can see a few drone cells.

In the last picture, you can see a brood area in the super.

I'll leave this super on the hive just above the second hive box because they obviously are using it for hive development. There's lots of honey in it in the side frames, but I'll probably also leave it. I'll ask all my bee advisors on the Beemasters' Forum and see what they think.

What's happening in the supers?

I took another full of honey super off of Destin today. I followed my procedures from last week, removing the individual frames, shaking off the bees, brushing off the remaining bees and putting the frame in an empty super under a sheet.

I checked on another super on Desting and it was in the early stages of production. In the first picture you can see uncapped honey. In the second picture from a frame closer to the center of the super, you can see honey beginning to be capped. In the last picture you can see pollen being stored in the frame.

Honey Label

My honey needed an identity, so I made this label for the jars. The cute bee is part of Microsoft Word!

Chunk Honey - Phase Two

The crushed honey sat on the edge of my garden for several hours and most of the honey strained through the filter by then. I took the bucket in to my kitchen and began filling the wide-mouthed jars filled with honeycomb.

I had 22 jars and just enough honey to fill all of them - which says to me that to do chunk honey, I'll always need to allot about half of the frames to crush and strain to provide the honey to fill the jars.

So at the end of the day of honey bottling, I have:

1. From Bermuda, all done in crush and strain, I emptied one 10 frame shallow super and got about 21 pounds of bottled honey.

2. From Destin, I emptied one 10 frame shallow super and made 22 pint jars of chunk honey, including comb and filler honey.











3. I also ended up with 2 gallon ziploc bags filled with washed wax cappings and crushed comb


At the end of the honey bottling day, I put the empty frames, each with honey dripping from them, back on the hive from which they came. I put the frames in Bermuda back in the empty super below the inner cover. I put the frames in Destin above the inner cover, as suggested in Hive Management.

I'm not sure that was a good idea in that there has been a frenzy of bee activity around the super in Destin with the honey dripping from the frames - I'm not sure if robbing from Bermuda is happening or what.

I left the wax from the chunk honey in the filter over the 5 gallon bucket to continue to filter overnight. Whew!!!! What a day!

Bermuda still has three honey supers on the hive - one is pretty empty; one has honey and brood and is closest to the brood boxes, so I'll leave it on the hive for the bees; one more is full and capped. So I still have at least one super to harvest from that hive.

Destin still has two honey supers on the hive. One is pretty empty and the other is full of beautifully capped honey. I will harvest at least that one super from the Destin hive in a week or two.