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It's the truth. The bees have survived the bears, a 3-week onslaught of rain, the mites... all of it. (Actually, we did not get mites. Which is a good thing. We treat prophylactically for mites twice a year. The second round comes after we harvest.)
The harvest. The topic that is top of mind for many of you. When do we harvest the honey? Soon is the answer (I am rolling my eyes at myself because that sounds like such a mom answer). We will likely pull the honey frames in early November. And I will hold them so that we can have a honey spinning event in early December, ok? Before the onslaught of holiday commitments.
So, also top of mind and a frequent question that I hear from all you Beeople, "Do we have honey? How much honey?" We do have honey. I don't think it's a ton of honey, but we have some. First year hives, which these are (since the winter was really rough on our colonies, if you remember) don't typically produce a lot of honey because the bees are busy building out their honeycomb. So, honeycomb we have in abundance. And, so far, all of our hives have survived. We nearly lost one, but the Jones Team was on it and nurtured it back to health. Many of our thirteen hives have supers and one has a double super. So, suspense. You will learn soon enough how much honey we have!
Here's the big issue: How do we get our hives to survive the winter? This is something that fills our thoughts and discussions and sends us down many an internet rabbit hole. I have been thinking about clustering them. I have been thinking about double wrapping them. I have been dreaming about a small piece of land in Georgia or North Carolina where I could take them for the winter. Do you have a small piece of land in a warmer climate where we could take them? I am serious. If you do... let me know.
Stay tuned for a spinning-out-the-honey date and in the meantime, get your biceps ready.
XOXO Farm Girl