What a summer. It’s been busy. The kids are already getting ready to head back to school and we have accomplished a lot on the bee front. Cleaning up our bee blog wasn’t one of those accomplishments…yet. It’s still a goal just hasn’t ranked high on the priority list. Let’s bring you up to speed on the most exciting front…HONEY! Late in July we pulled all remaining honey supers (I think there were a total of six) and extracted at our mentor’s house. You’ve heard me say it before…he has an incredible set up. We came home with three buckets of honey…more than we’ve ever had. And remember, this is on top of the mini extraction we did on our own. Restocking the house with honey is satisfying.
And I finally gave in and let the little beekeeper set up for sales. People were so supportive, and we were able to decrease our overall bee debt with honey money!
For any new beekeeper – I’d encourage you to keep a book. A book of expenses and profits. I didn’t do this because there was a part of me that just didn’t want to know! The initial startup is costly. BUT, if in time one would become good at beekeeping, I’m starting to see that there could be some potential for profits down the road. Now, I personally didn’t get into beekeeping for profits but others in the family enjoy the sales part more than I do. It’s a team effort, I’m trying to play along. My mentor mentioned he kept a log of honey he had harvested in his forty plus years as a beekeeper…335,000 pounds of honey! Isn’t that incredible?!?!?!? One of these days I hope to interview him and publish a blog of his story. Stay tuned for that.
Now, that honey we harvested all came from the established hives we purchased from our mentor in the spring. Without those hives we would have been without honey this year. Sad but true. The nucleus colonies we purchased for the spring weren’t picked up until May 15th – that felt very late to be getting started. Sadly, today, I confirmed, one of those hives collapsed. The other nucleus colony seems to be holding on. My hope is that hive will gain strength and numbers, survive winter and be ready to rock and roll come spring. Today we disassembled Hive #1 (sad day) and treated hives 2-4 for mites. Once the mite treatment is complete, we will reassess to see if fall feeding will be necessary. It would be wonderful to have three strong hives come through winter – that would be another first for us! May we BEE so lucky.
Our drone bee was kind enough to haul and store all those honey supers in a trailer instead of our basement.
We sprayed the frames with B402, a biological larvicide, to keep the wax moth from laying in the comb. I made the little beekeeper do the spraying…spraying each individual frame is tedious but important (remember that picture of the yucky wax moth – we do NOT want that again). I hope he did a good job. If not, we’ll find out the hard way. Storing the equipment is a hassle and I feel like the frames are so vulnerable to ants, wax moths, mice, etc when not protected by strong bees! In the end, this is probably another ‘live and learn’ kind of moment in beekeeping – we’ll see if our method works this year and if not, adjust accordingly next year.
This year was our third honey harvest. I feel like we have gained a lot of knowledge and some confidence. We still have a lot to learn but I hope the bee adventures and successes will continue for many years.
On a slightly different note, the bees are really taking to my sunflowers. I’ll occasionally see them working other flowers in the yard but of all the varieties of flowers the sunflowers seem to be the most popular right now. The zinnias might be their second choice as I do see several working those, too. We’ve been blessed with significant rains lately and I’m hoping that will keep the bees’ resources flourishing so they can adequately prepare for winter. If you’ve never planted a small flower garden, I’d encourage you to consider it for next spring. Just a small portion of your yard or even a planter on the deck or porch. Sure, it takes some effort and watering, but you might be surprised how much joy the flowers and pollinators bring. Spring is a little ways away, plenty of time to put some thought into the possibilities!
We hope you are able to get out there and enjoy the remaining weeks of summer. Keep those gardens watered and the fall flowers blooming. Honeybees will be working hard to prepare their stores for winter. We appreciate all the support and hope to encourage any other beekeepers wanting to jump into this hobby. And if you haven’t already, pick up some honey from a local beekeeper…fall is a great time to enjoy the sweet goodness on cornbread, pumpkin bread, pancakes, waffles, and all the other sweet fall kind of eats…maybe even a peanut butter and honey with your chili if you’re into that kind of combination…one I’ve never understood! (then again, maybe I should try it!)
-Worker Bee 2021
Howards' Hives and Honey 