While losing that many bees was very disappointing, we did have one hive that survived the winter. It has been going gangbusters and we've already managed to harvest a little bit of honey from it!
Over the winter, we lost 14 of our 15 hives.
That meant, back in late April, we drove to Iowa in order to pick up 12 packages of bees, and then we ordered 2 more packages from Kelly Bees that were shipped to us.
THAT was a car-trip to remember!
That meant, back in late April, we drove to Iowa in order to pick up 12 packages of bees, and then we ordered 2 more packages from Kelly Bees that were shipped to us.
THAT was a car-trip to remember!
On May 25th, we were able to go and visit all our locations in order to check up on the new hives. To our joy, all the hives appear to be settling in and we were able to add additional supers to each of them.
Willow Springs Location:
Location 2
Inverness
Harvesting a tiny amount of honey!
We couldn't help ourselves. Inverness is where our sole winter survivor hive is located and it had one full frame that was ready (barely!) to harvest. Our Sponsors were just as excited as we were and allowed us the use of their kitchen and a sieve in order to harvest the first batch. We got about 1 quart of honey out of this frame and split it between ourselves and our sponsors.
NOTE - We typically do not harvest honey in this way. It completely destroys the comb and it takes longer over all to harvest in this manner. But for the first honey of the year... we'll make an exception!
NOTE - We typically do not harvest honey in this way. It completely destroys the comb and it takes longer over all to harvest in this manner. But for the first honey of the year... we'll make an exception!