What our bees are visiting these days

We've had really great weather the last couple of weeks -- clear, sunny with temperatures in the '60s. Once it warms up in the morning, there are lots of bees going in and and out of the hive. Karl and I were just asking ourselves where the bees were going because it doesn't seem like there are many flowers in bloom these days. This weekend, we stumbled across a few flowering plants with a whole mess of bees buzzing around. Mystery solved. Now what are the names of these plants?



This big bushy plant had a couple dozen honey bees on buzzing around it.

Video of Honey Extracting

We made a short video of our honey extracting day. My favorite part is at the end. Karl put out the frames and the bees cleaned them up.

We don't need our burglar alarm turned on today

Yesterday's spinning is done and the frames are outside being cleaned up by thousands of busy bees. Karl set up the frames on our picnic table right outside our kitchen window.

October Honey Harvest

Here's the honey extracting set up in our kitchen.



We held a capped frame steady over the large gray tub. Karl then used a stiff wire comb-like tool to scrape the wax caps off the honeycomb and into the tub. We had a bunch of boys from Karl's Cub Scout Den, as well as a couple neighborhood families over and everyone got a chance to scrape off wax caps.



Once the honeycomb is opened up, we put four frames into the cylindrical extractor. You turn the crank on the side really fast and honey flies off the frame.



The moment of truth: you open the valve at the bottom of the extractor and honey gushes out into a cheesecloth lined bucket. Aksel was pretty excited, exclaiming "waterfall!" An amber waterfall of dark, flowery honey.



The final step is hanging the cheesecloth to filter the honey.




Haven't weighed it, but there's probably a good 18 pounds of the sweet stuff.

deformed wing virus

So here is a photo of one of the bees that was ejected from the hive by her sisters because she is a victim of deformed wing virus. Basically infected bees have stubs for wings. The mite that spreads the disease is a blood sucker, and spreads the illness much like a tick would spread Lyme disease. By killing the mites you end the virus. With winter close by (when the queen stops laying eggs) we had to treat for the illness or the population of bees could suffer.

It's pretty gross, but dozens of dead mites underneath the hive entrance is evidence that the poison is working.

Honey on the Counter

Karl removed a bunch of frames for spinning tomorrow and was able to check on the hive. The traps he put in last time have caught a bunch of small hive beetles. That's a good thing for sure, but kind of a bummer that there were so many beetles to trap in the first place. More good news: no sign of the dreaded wax moth. The only bad news is that there are signs that our bees are infected with the varroa mite which is causing a bunch of baby bees to be born deformed. After removing the frames of honey, Karl treated the hive with poison to get rid of them.

Here are the frames full of honey sitting on our counter waiting to spun. The one in front has comb all over it, but only has some honey in the center that is ready to go and capped. The frames behind it are the ones that are completely full and capped, but I didn't want to disturb them to take a picture.



There are lots of cells on the front frame that have some honey in them, but the bees haven't capped them because the honey isn't quite ready. We won't spin that side of the frame. I think it's cool that the bees have built the comb on a slight angle so the honey can just sit there and not drip out.



Tomorrow's the big day for honey harvesting!

Honey Extractor

I borrowed a honey extractor from the Montgomery County Beekeepers Association this afternoon. This is the large contraption in which you place your honey filled frames and then spin. I think our plan is to harvest some honey on Columbus Day on Monday. Any friends in DC that want to come over are welcome to join the fun.

A Sign of Fall -- Pumpkin-Apple Bread