Andrew’s Bee Blog

I apologize for not writing for awhile.  I started a new job and haven’t had much time.  Anyway, we harvested the honey on Wednesday, September 3rd.  Emmy and my Dad pulled the top supers off of both hives.  We had about 9 frames with honey on them, although they weren’t entirely full.  The package hive at Emmy’s was a bit odd.  The bees had made very strange comb on the frames.   I think it was because the wax foundation was pretty flimsy.  We brought all of the frames inside my parents kitchen.  I had rented a three frame extractor and a heated knife.  We took turns cutting off the the top of the comb and putting the frames in the extractor.  Emmy and Will (mostly Will) spun the extractor.  All in all, we got about 2 gallons of honey.  Not bad for the first year.

Here are a few pictures of pulling the supers off of the hive:

I just stumbled on this site from Haagen-Dazs. Check it out!

http://helpthehoneybees.com/

So yesterday, I was up at my parents for a family party and Will, Emmy and I went down to look a the swarm hive. We were just peeking at it and I decided to peek into it to see if I they had been working on the third super. When I opened the top just an inch or so, a bee came flying out right at my sleeve. Of course, I wasn’t to smart doing this in a t-shirt and shorts with no veil on either. I thought the bee had just flown off, but a minute or so later I felt it crawling on my arm. I waved my frantically to get it off and it took off at Will. Will spun around and the bee then went after Emmy. Emmy started shaking her hair, as if she were headbanging and ran for the garage. The bee buzzed her most of the way up to the garage. Will and I were laughing our heads off. It was pretty funny.

The bees were all they way to the top of the third hive body…time to add another one!!!