First Honey Crop

I went to do a hive inspection this morning.  I intended to move some of the bars around to create some room for the bees next to the brood nest.  They have been building comb like crazy this week.  Anyway, as I was moving the bars around, I broke one off.  The bees had attached it to the side of the hive and while I was trying to pry it off, it pulled apart.  Turns out the whole bar was full of honey!  So I pulled it off and ran inside to put it on a plate.  Then cleaned up the hive.  By the way, hot day morning inspections are not as calm as the cool afternoon days.  I was getting buzzed quite a bit today.  Still no stings though!  Here is what the broken comb looked like:

Behind the broken comb is what I'm using to strain the wax out of the comb.  Its just a bowl, a colander and a paint straining cloth I got at Ace Hardware.  Next, I broke the comb off of the bar and crushed it in my hands.  Yes, this is messy!  I had honey all over my hands.  Maybe I'll look for a cleaner way to do it next time, but it was actually kind of fun.  Anyway, you squeeze out the honey and put the clump of wax into the paint strainer "bag".  The honey drips through into the bowl.  Like this:

I let it drain while I ate a brat from the high school fund raiser at Walgreens.  Mmmm.  Then, I took the left over clump of wax and put it in a pan and baked it at 300 degrees until it melted.  This separates the wax from the remaining honey.  Here it is melting:

While the wax was baking, I just poured the honey into 1/2 pint jars.  I suppose later I will use bigger jars, but I figure I should spread my first crop around to more than one person.  So, smaller jars this time!  One bar of honeycomb made about a pint and half of honey.  There are several more bars of honey in the hive and I expect the bees to bring in much more in the next two weeks.  Here is the final product:

Pretty fun!  And pretty messy.  It should be pretty fun to have the girls help next time!

Bee Inspection

I got all beekeepered up this morning and took a look inside the hive.  The bees are still incredibly calm.  They were not really all that interested in me poking around.  They generally stayed crawling around on the comb while I pulled them out and looked around.  A few flew around me, but not bad.  I never really felt nervous or "swarmed"!  Anyway, right now there is not much honey in the hive.  Most of the bars look like they have capped brood (eggs / larvae) or pollen.  Capped honey looks whiter, and more papery.  This picture shows a close up of the comb. 

On the top, you can see a band of capped honey.  Then in the middle, you can see capped cells of brood.  That means the queen is still alive, and laying eggs!  I split the brood up a little bit so the bees think they have more room.  This is to prevent swarms.  I didnt see any queen cells though, so I dont think swarming is a danger soon.  

Here's some more pictures from the inspection!

Humming Along

I received a message from the Dane County Beekeepers that the nectar run is on in our area.  I dont know exactly what that means, but I suspect it means honey is pouring into the hive right now.  I went last night and removed the divider board so the bees have the entire hive.  I also took out the feeder, since there should be plenty for them to eat in the prairie.  I should do a hive inspection one of these days to take a closer look at the honeycomb, but it looks fine from the window.  Here's a current view through the window:

Keeping Cool

Here is what bees do to cool off a hot hive:

Here is what kids do to cool off hot feet:

Heat Wave

Its hot here in Wisconsin!  Yesterday was over 90 degrees.  It looks like summer has finally come!

The high heat is apparently another big debate in beekeeping.  When the outside temperature exceeds about 95 degrees, it can begin to soften or melt the beeswax in the hive, causing it to fall off the top bars.  Dont worry, I checked mine last night and its ok!   The debate is over whether to ventilate the hive or not.  Some people say yes, ventilate because it allows it to cool the inside off.  Others say no, dont ventilate because it allows the hot air in.  The tipping point seems to be moisture.  I dont see any condensation in the hive, so I figure I'm good with the  balance of ventilation I have.

The heat wave has also brought something else to the house - a pool!  Erin set up the pool on our deck.  Its about a 10' diameter, 2 foot deep pool for the kids to swim in.  Yep, they've been in it every day since Erin filled it.  Even when the water was about 50 degrees straight from the hose!  It looks like a really fun summer for the kids!

Young Farmers

The girls got a treat this weekend!  We stayed over night with my cousin Dan and Kristin at the farm!  In the morning, after they treated us with pancakes, we got a tour of the farm.  Emma has been learning about dairy in school this week, so all week she has been asking if she could milk a cow.  Emma and Ginny jumped right in!  Here's some photos of the young farmers:

 It was a lot of fun.  I have such good memories of exploring the farm with my cousin Dan as a kid, so it was great to share the experience with the girls!  Thank you again to Dan and Kristin for being such wonderful hosts!

Hungry Bugs

The bees are really hungry!  Tonight, I refilled the sugar syrup jar in the hive for the third time.  I've gone through over a pound of sugar so far!  I never thought I would pay this close attention to the weather and when things are blooming.  Apparently, the cool, wet weather keeps the bees from foraging as much.  Everything that I've read says that when the bees can find natural nectar, they prefer it to the syrup.  When that happens, I shouldnt have to feed them for a while.  Well, it isnt today.  Nothing I can do but keep feeding and watching.

It is pretty neat to watch them build honeycomb.  I'm pretty impressed at how much they have built.  Here's the view from the observation window tonight:

Its tough to get a good picture with the glare on the glass.  Anyway, hopefully you can see the rows of honeycomb in the picture, going up and down, perpendicular to the glass.  Just like its supposed to.  The space between the comb looks to be full of bees.  The cluster seems to be getting much bigger, but it might just be comb taking up space and making the same number look bigger.  I now know where the phrase "Busy  as a Bee" comes from!