This end of summer honey is much darker and has an herby aftertaste compared to the spring honey. Mmm! Both delicious and unique.
Fall 2015 honey on left, Spring 2016 honey in middle and Fall 2016 on the right. Notice how crystallized the 2015 honey is. That is one way that you can tell it is raw.
First frame of the harvest. Looks great!
Solid is white capping on all of the honey! You can tell this was made by some quality Italian bees.
Peering down into the first hive. We are getting a lot of honey from it and there are a lot of bees. Replacing the frames immediately with fresh new frames this time to decrease bee stress.
We harvested so much that we ran out of blanks to replace them with so we quit.
Kirk being a goofball with a frame from the new hive. Notice how the honey is darker in some parts of the comb. You can tell which honey from fall and also which cells have been used for brood previously when the new bees were still figuring things out.
Chris with the first frame of honey from the new hive.
Kirk doesn’t like smiling for selfies. Our photographer was recovering from a tonsillectomy and our back up photographer was out of state.
All is well in both hives. So far still keeping them organic with no pesticides or antibiotics and the bees are really thriving. Our mentor told us it was a hygienic Queen and we didn’t know what that meant but now we do. Way less poison in the hive than some of our colleagues in the area.
Fiding their way back home. We may try one more harvest before winter when we take off a few supers.
Uncapping beautiful rivers of honey.
Still using the crush and strain method so I can keep the wax for cosmetic products. We let the honey settle down and wax float up over the course of a few days using a five gallon bucket and some coarse strainers. It makes a beautifully clear product which still retains all of the beneficial proteins for allergies and anti-inflammation. Great stuff!