Boone
Well-known member
I'm in my 4th year as a beekeeper. A work friend of mine went down to a weekend 'bee school' in Asheville, NC 5 years ago and got some 'schoolin' on how to get started. I have 5 hives in my backyard (I live in a small rural neighborhood that backs up against the woods with a creek as well. I am a 'minimalist' beekeeper. Most expert keepers will urge you to inspect the hive repeatedly throughout the year in case problems are occurring. I figure that the hive itself will figure out how to solve most problems and that they know a lot more than I do about what needs to be done.
This year, had very little time to focus on my bees. I did replace 4 hives with new bees after the original occupants didn't survive the winter (this past winter was actually the first time I had significant losses). Put my honey boxes on in mid-March. Retrieved honey a few days ago. I probably only pulled 20 frames or less but they were absolutely loaded. The wax was the cleanest I have ever seen, and the honey was much thinner and lighter than usual. We had a ton of rain in April and May and I'm thinking that this washed away a lot of the tulip poplar nectar which is usually their primary source here in NC and which typically makes a very dark and thick honey.
Fewer frames this year as I ONLY took extra honey frames and did not *raid* the actual next boxes for honey as I have some years. This is better for the bees as it leaves them with a lot more honey.
As mentioned, the amount of honey and comb on each frame was much greater this year. I have started to put 9 frames instead of the usual 10 in the honey boxes which gives the bees more space to fill them up with honey. I had a number of them just loaded like this one.
I use the 'crush and strain' technique to harvest. Basically scrape all of the wax and honey off the frames, hand crush it, and then filter out the wax.
I've never had honey this light in color. Bees are weird It's absolutely delicious.
Final take for this year was 6.5 gallons. I may be able to harvest more in a month or so as I left boxes on the hives.
This year, had very little time to focus on my bees. I did replace 4 hives with new bees after the original occupants didn't survive the winter (this past winter was actually the first time I had significant losses). Put my honey boxes on in mid-March. Retrieved honey a few days ago. I probably only pulled 20 frames or less but they were absolutely loaded. The wax was the cleanest I have ever seen, and the honey was much thinner and lighter than usual. We had a ton of rain in April and May and I'm thinking that this washed away a lot of the tulip poplar nectar which is usually their primary source here in NC and which typically makes a very dark and thick honey.
Fewer frames this year as I ONLY took extra honey frames and did not *raid* the actual next boxes for honey as I have some years. This is better for the bees as it leaves them with a lot more honey.
As mentioned, the amount of honey and comb on each frame was much greater this year. I have started to put 9 frames instead of the usual 10 in the honey boxes which gives the bees more space to fill them up with honey. I had a number of them just loaded like this one.
I use the 'crush and strain' technique to harvest. Basically scrape all of the wax and honey off the frames, hand crush it, and then filter out the wax.
I've never had honey this light in color. Bees are weird It's absolutely delicious.
Final take for this year was 6.5 gallons. I may be able to harvest more in a month or so as I left boxes on the hives.