First we went to the Morningside garden hives. These were the latest installations we made this year and they do not have any honey to harvest, but to get to the hives I have to climb straight up a hill and I knew I would need Jeff's help to do anything with these hives. I haven't looked at them in a month. They are on a hill covered with kudzu. Kudzu can grow one whole foot overnight. It's known as the vine that ate the south and our beehives are no exception.
The entrances to both hives were covered with kudzu. The bees were flying in and out just fine, but seemed grateful that we unearthed their entrances. We tugged and cut the kudzu. We also left a jar of water on each hive in a Boardman feeder. Both hives were doing well but only had enough honey for themselves so we patted them on the top cover, frowned at the kudzu to encourage it to stay away, and left the hives for another day.
At my house we only harvested from Sebastian's hive. We have at least two other hives with lots of honey to harvest, but we stuck to just this one. We took two full boxes of honey off of this hive. We crushed and strained the honey with Bear's wonderful present. It is so mammoth that it is the Paul Bunyan of crushers.
Jeff wielded it first. You can see in the photo that it crushes much more real estate than any other pestle we have. What a wonderful gift! Thank you so much, Bear.
Then I took a turn - great fun to crush with this southern pecan crusher.
We will harvest the rest soon, but it was fun to get a start on the season.
Very clever! I have some vintage wooden mashers that I should try.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry to hear about your ligament. I hope it heals quickly.
ReplyDeleteLove your blog. I have two new hives this year after losing all three of last year's over the winter. You remind me that bees have a mind of their own and we do our best and keep learning. You have been a great mentor to me in that way. Thank you!