The beekeeping year started in February as our honeybees came out from their winter huddle. (The hive is still wrapped in its winter insulation below).
They came out to stretch their legs & wings, and do a little sunbathing.
Dozzy little bees landing on us. So lovely!
And what's this? Poop everywhere!
Bees don't poops inside their hive (unless they are sick). Because we happened to witness that very first day they emerged from their winter's huddle, we also got to witness a mass poop! Considering the chances of seeing this happening, we now have a new found appreciation for bee poop :) Smiles.
The next stage of our beekeeping year was the splitting of the hive and re-queening. We brought the second hive over to Dad's in Langley. Then the unexpected (but expected being bees and all) happened! One day (our 5th year anniversary to be exact), while we were out in the garden the sound of buzzing got louder and louder and when we looked up we saw a sea of bees! Scary & awesome all at once - a bee Armageddon happening over us. Another amazing first! A swarm in the making! Another amazing not so often seen occurrence of nature!
It took about 5 mins or so for them to settle down and begin to form their cluster on a nearby tree.
We caught them using a large plastic container with a lid (with a hole & screen for air on the top). But we didn't have it sealed properly and about 1/2 hour later, they swarmed for the second time. We caught the second swarm (now a little higher in another nearby tree on the property). We kept saying to each other "Holy cow we caught two swarms!" A fifth year anniversary we will definitely not forget!
So we put our swarm inside our Ware hive (a top bar hive), that we received as a wedding gift from two amazing friends who hand-crafted it for us. :) You need either a (purchased) box of bees or a swarm to get a Ware hive started...and nature blessed us with the latter :) Here's a frame (picture below) of what the bees do naturally in a Ware hive (when there's no frames given for them to make their comb). Awesome!
We made it through our second year of beekeeping - to arrive at our third newbie for the season - extracting honey!
First you take of the honey super! We do this by shaking off the bees frame by frame - letting them land in front of the hive. They'll make it back inside as the evening (and with it cooler temperature), nears.
So many bees to get back into the hive! We decided later to take the book shelf super down and put it in front of the hive. Jason had an idea to make a bridge between the super and their hives' front door - and look...it worked! The bees are using the wooden paint stick as a bridge - climbing over each other, upside down and all that jazz...such amazing creatures!
With the honey super off and bee-empty - it's time to extract the honey. Using a comb designed for uncapping the honey - we prepare the frames for the extractor.
Then we each take turns at cranking the extractor (causing the frames to spin around and around in a four-framed compartment). Gravity (and force) works!
Into the jars.
But out of the jars... as we learned we should have strained the honey through a cheesecloth from the start - to catch the honeycomb flakes that end up in the honey from the process.
This is how much honey we got from only 4 frames of honey that were only 75% full. Imagine if we had a full super - maybe next year will be better - we had a rough go at it this year...
Then we took the comb that we collected (from uncapping the honey frames), out to the bees (in the fall sunshine), and they cleaned up all the honey stuck to it in 1 day! We ended up with dry fresh honeycomb to use. So we made a wonderful salve with the honeycomb & olive oil (and peppermint extract). Great for the lips, dry skin and an amazing back massage salve!
A super fun year with lots of newbies and learning! The hives have now all been put to bed (winterized). We look forward to the beekeeping season next year - and we pray & hope that our bees survive the winter and honor us with their presence and bee-auty next year!
P.S. And here's that extra not-so-fun-bit that goes with the practice (below). I promised the family that I would post the proof that YES I have a slight (um Med.? Lrg.?), allergy to bee stings :) After seeing this photo you may wonder"???!!!!??" Here's your answer: I carry on for the unparalleled joy bees bring into my life :)
Puffy-pufferton! But a happy one!
