Melting the Wax Caps...

Remember those wax caps? We've got plans for them!

In addition to what you see in the bin above, we harvested
wax caps from the screen through which
the honey strained. The lot of it appears in the
wax-designated saucepan in this image.

Heat and stir....

...and stir...

I'm melting!

I sprayed Pam inside a leftover container, and
the wax is now inside the container, cooling. Shortly, we'll
be able to make candles...more on this soon!

Our First Honey Harvest

Well...technically, it's not our first harvest, since we took a few frames out in high summer, pushed the honey and comb through a sieve, and got three glass jars full of pretty amber liquid. Yet, this is the first significant harvest, one that involved cutting open the wax caps and placing the frames in a spinner. Processing four supers took us just a little over two hours, not counting prep time. Here are some pictures:

Glenn removes the wax caps with a serrated knife.

Michael uses a pronged scraper to open the
capped cells before they go into the spinner.



Glenn checks the frames, turns them around.



Michael cranks the spinner, while Glenn holds it in place.
They took turns at this task. Savannah tried it, too, but her arm
wimped out after one frame. The centrifugal force pulls the
honey out of the uncapped cells and throws it onto the inside walls
of the spinner. It works much like the spin cycle in a washing machine.



The serrated capping knife, wax, and honey...
looking every bit like a scene from CSI.



Straining the wax and other detritus out of the honey
involves a finely meshed screen.

Glenn dispenses honey into glass pints and quarts.
(Savannah has also learned that hard plastic doesn't like the
dishwasher--even the friendlier top rack. It makes me
wonder what that heat is actually doing to my
softer plastic leftover containers. *gulp*)

Our honey is dark, much like molasses. It is darker
even than buckwheat honey we've purchased at market.
In fact, it is so dark that very little light penetrates the liquid.
We know for certain that our bees hit the field thistles and
clover especially hard. However, beyond that,
we're not sure what nectar might comprise this harvest.





All Kinds of Good Stuff...

Remember those cucumbers on the vine? I cleaned them at the sink and look what
happened. Nice crumbs around the plate, eh? Well, when magic like that happens,
you have to make sure it's still edible. We assure you that it is.
Interested in the receipe? C'est ca.

Glenn and Michael check the top bar in our garden.

A side view of one of the top bar combs

Capped honey at the top and brood on the bottom.

On Bee Hill, we checked the supers and harvested some frames.

We brought back two frames from the Bee Hill supers. They're hanging in our basement,
on coat hangers, drying within the range of the dehumidifer.  Soon, soon, we taste.

Some new lovely things....

Pies! Raspberry on the left and rhubarb on the right.
Granola with a mound of rasins in the background.

Remember these? The seeds for the bee garden
have turned into beautiful flowers.

Michael checks the ladies in the hive closest to the woods.

The ladies, they're hungry. They're clustered on the feeder.

We add another super to both hives. Go, girls, go!

Michael refills the feeder on the top bar.

Michael checks the cukes.

We got four already!

Our bee observation chairs.

A bee visits our onions...and this could make for
some interesting honey.

Goings on over the past few days...

Michael removing the top bar's canvas cover.
Here, he's planning to stretch out the bars by
inserting uncombed bars between the combed ones.



Our lovely yellow api-chicas are pulling down the sugar syrup pretty heartily right now. Personally, I imagine them flying around with syrup beards and rambunctious demeanors, like toddlers plied with Milky Way bars and  Pepsi. Perhaps it's a feeding frenzy before we take the syrup jars off in July. In the top bar alone, they are going through a quart in less than 24 hours.

Last night, Michael and I got out the huge, stainless steel pot we use when we make cheese. And around 7:30, we made what felt like several hundred gallons of syrup. We even used a whole ten-pound bag of sugar (although, to my arms, it felt lighter than 10 pounds...Walmart, are you light-weighting us?). From all that, we got (gasp!) only 2 and a half gallons. I had such high hopes that we'd fill at least four plastic jugs. But alas, no.

Below are some pictures of how things are progressing, along with some other things of interest.....






Some observation seats near the top bar. Yes,
we're right in that flight path, aren't we? I've
learned to duck.




Michael found, when he pulled apart the combs, that
the bees have created a honey font. Unlike
the comb sculptures we remove in the traditional hives
on Bee Hill, we left this one alone, so the ladies can use
their resources as they need to.



One of the top bar combs.



And more comb sculpture.





The ladies almost have all the bars in the window filled with
comb.

 

Here, Michael is on Bee Hill inserting pollen
patty on the frames of our recently
replaced colony. They are doing extremely well, and
are just a week behind the strong colony to its right.

Traffic jam before the tunnels.

It's almost raspberry time here, and a cousin of Michael's
takes his bucket out in the evenings and picks what
is now ripe.

Near Bee Hill, one of our girls peruses the thistle offerings
along the field Glenn recently cut.

Michael harvested a fanny-load of radishes
and that means radish salad, which what
I'm making here: white vinegar, brown sugar
and white and red radishes.



Sometimes, you have to use up things from the
freezer. I had this yummy yellow frosting
taking up space, so I made a chocolate wacky cake.
Fast and easy! With Fourth of July sprinkles.



And, I made strawberry rhubard crisp for breakfast.
Don't let the oatmeal fool you. It was really good.

Nuc progress and other fascinating tales....




Fred: 'What the <BLEEEEP> do you want?'
Me: Could you, um, maybe file my invoices and bills, please? You know, that pile there?
Fred: Not a chance, biped. My job description involves alarm barks and
napping in cute positions. That's it, capiche?
Me: Well, if you could--
Fred: Do I need to talk to HR again? 'Cause I'll go straight to HR.

 


Sunflowers are coming up. Squash, too.
Our top bar is cranking along very well. The nuc that we
put in almost two weeks ago has created new comb
on empty bars.




On the left are two foundation frames with the original nuc comb.
The two on the right are newly constructed comb, built on empty
hive bars.




Inside the top bar. Looks like the floor of the NYSE. So, uh, how's honey trading?



Holy crap. They're line dancing.
But girls, come on. To 'Achy Breaky Heart'? Really?

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Watering.

 


The nuc we used to replace the weak colony last week might very well be ready
for a super by early next week. They are doing stellarly. But oooo lawd, is everyone
there touchy! The summer brood are way more aggressive than the wintered over crop.
I had one lose a stinger in my suit sleeve. And I had only just been
marveling at the butt-folding dance I thought she'd been doing.