Beekeeping: Harvested honey for the first time in many years

Yesterday, I finally got around to opening our backyard beehive for the first time in about three years. The hive was chock full of honey, so I decided to harvest one shallow super (a super is a stackable box of comb on removable frames; generally, deep supers are used as brood chambers, shallow supers for honey storage. Each super has 10 frames in a standard hive). I got about 29lbs of honey and there are two more supers still on the hive, just as full. Twenty-nine pounds of honey will last us for years, though, so I may or may not harvest another super when I have time. 

This was the first time I've taken honey from the hive since 2013. The long pause in harvesting was partly because of losing the colony three times in the past ten years or so, but also because we had so much honey it took us that long to use it up. The honey this time is very dark in color, but it tastes pretty much the same as honey harvested in the past that was considerably paler. 

Miscellaneous: Bees Again

Having lost our bees again over the summer of 2020, I was trying to decide whether to buy new bees this spring while hoping a swarm would move in on its own back in April, and a swarm did, in fact, find one of our two empty hives and take up residence. So, we have bees again. For the past ten years or so, it's been hard to keep a hive going. This is the third or fourth year that bees have moved in on their own. At first, they look strong, but they seem to lose energy and focus and over the summer the colony fails. We haven't harvested honey since 2013. 

I'm hoping for the best this year. So far, the bees seem happy. They are bringing in nectar and pollen from the sea of flowers blooming in the garden, which is near its spring peak. 

Beekeeping: New Bees Again (June 9, 2020)

Yesterday, friends notified me that their bees had swarmed and that the bees were hanging out in a very easily accessible location low on a fig tree. I was happy to pick them up. It was about the easiest swarm capture I've ever done. The bees dropped easily into my homemade swarm capture box and I drove them home on the car seat next to me. About five years ago I captured a swarm that subsequently left not too long after I installed them or they succumbed to the so-called "disappearing disease." I hope these new bees fare better. I still had the two deep hive boxes from the last swarm and today I added a super and a queen excluder to give them more room. I also decided to feed them a little to get them off to a good start. We'll see....

[Edit: Today is June 14, so the bees have been in the new hive for five days now. Today for the first time I noticed bees bringing in pollen, which is a good sign, as it means there is brood to feed or there will be soon. Until today, all the bees I saw coming back to the hive were bringing in nectar only. They need nectar to produce wax. As these were installed on bare foundation (no drawn comb) they will have had to build comb from scratch. It's amazing how quickly they work. They can build a significant amount of comb in a day, so I suspect things are progressing well. I won't open the hive to check on things, though, for a couple of weeks. You can tell everything you need to know usually just by watching the patterns of activity. And, as I say, pollen coming in is a good sign.]

Miscellaneous: Swarm moves in (April 13, 2019)

The last few days, a number of bees had been checking out one of our two empty beehives in the back garden. I was hoping it might be a scouting party for a swarm looking for a new home. And yesterday the air was full of bees and a large clump quickly formed on the alighting board in front of one of the hives.

We haven't had bees for two seasons. It will be nice to have bees again. I hope they become established and find their new home comfortable. Right now they seem to be cleaning things up, pushing dead earwigs and other debris out the front door. A new hive start has gotten so expensive now (I've heard as much as about $180), that a free swarm is a real gift. When I started keeping bees, in 2001, a hive start cost about $35.

Beekeeping: New Swarm Installed (April 21, 2013)

Yesterday I was offered a swarm of bees in Vallejo, about an hour's drive away, but it was worth the trip. My bees died over last winter. I was looking for a swarm. New bees are now about $100 for a hive start, which seems a lot of money, as I bought my first package of bees for only $35--but that was back in 2001 or so--long before so many bee colonies began failing. I had to climb up on a garage roof and help the owner, a beekeeper himself (thanks, David) lop branches off a plum tree to get to the cluster of bees. I got them in a box prepared for the purpose and then drove home with them on the seat beside me. In the late afternoon, I deposited the swarm in an empty hive. The bees were rather agitated for a while and a couple of groups spent the night in little clusters outside the hive, but, by this morning, they seemed to have taken to their new home and I'm hopeful they'll thrive. It takes about 21 days to raise a new bee. By the first week of May I should know if the queen is laying and worker bee numbers are growing.

Beekeeping: Harvesting Honey (March 5, 2013)

The past few days have been occupied with harvesting honey from my beehive. Sadly, we lost the bees again this year. With no bees to tend the comb, I decided I'd have to remove all the honey from the hive to avoid its being ruined or robbed by other bees or wasps. It took four days--mostly because I was extracting honey in the midst of doing other work, but it was still a big job. I harvested enough honey for a couple of years at least (55 pounds). Local friends and family will be getting presents, but I may try making mead.

The hive does not appear to be diseased. It's not clear what happened. I had seen activity as recently as about three weeks before I realized something was wrong. On one of the few recent warm days we've had, no bees were entering or leaving the hive and it was clear that the colony was lost. I'm hoping to find a swarm of bees as soon as possible, to get the hive going again. 

Beekeeping: Time for a Belated Honey Harvest (February 22, 2012)

It was unseasonably warm today. I took the opportunity to open up the beehive for the first time in quite some time. It was filling with honey when I last looked, sometime in late October, perhaps, but there was enough empty space in many of the frames that I only extracted about 25lbs of honey in the autumn. There has been little activity around the entrance to the hive in recent weeks, so I've been a bit worried about my charges, but, if what I saw today is any indication, they've been--I hate to say it, but, busy as bees....

I took off a complete shallow super of ten frames, which should yield enough honey for friends and family for a while, and I suspect there is a second super that could be extracted as well. I expect to be busy tomorrow, if work permits such pastoral duties as honey extraction.

Beekeeping: Spring Honey Harvest

Last year I never got around to harvesting any honey, so my bees have been left unmolested for quite some time. Thinking it would be best to harvest some before they swarm, however, I extracted six frames yesterday. There is quite a bit more honey in the hive--another ten or twelve frames or so, but most of it incompletely capped with wax, so I will probably leave the bees alone again until late autumn. I usually harvest around October. This is the first time I've harvested honey in the spring. It's notably paler in color, less viscous, and less strongly flavored than what I usually get, but delicious nevertheless. Harvested about 20lbs.

Miscellaneous: Honey Harvest

Harvested 33lbs of honey on Sunday. It's considerably darker this year than it has been in the past. Most of it got made and stored away fairly early in the season. I'm not sure exactly what kind of nectar the bees were getting, but it's tasty. With that, most of the seasonal work is done. The wine is made--more or less. The honey is harvested. The figs are mostly finished. We have tons of apples and pears and a lot of basil for making pesto. Maybe we should get some chickens?

Beekeeping: Opened the Hive Today (June 15, 2009)

I opened the hive today for the first time this season. Even after the huge swarm that left a few weeks back, the place is humming with activity and packed with bees--and honey! It looks like two full shallow supers are nearly full of capped honey (see photo). It will be nice to have a supply again after having lost the bees two seasons ago. There are still many flowers in bloom and there is plenty of nectar around, so I expect them to quickly fill the third super I added today.