The good new is, the honey is done. The bad news is I am not making too much headway on getting ready for winter.
Now I am sweating bullets that the weather won't warm up enough so compress the bees down into one box. I know it will but still, I do worry.
Today however I managed to get out there and treat for mites and get the sugar syrup inside for the girls.
Sept 14
Well I finally made it.
My mum gave James a bee jacket and gloves for his birthday this year, so I had a helper. It was great.
Mother nature was on our side, even though it froze overnight last night, it warmed up during the day. So once our motel chores were done, we made a bee-line out to the bee yard and got down to business. We managed to get all 3 hives compressed into one brood box, with their deep honey super on top. I left a empty super on top of the honey, as a attic box. This will be filled with insulation later for winter. But for now, it holds the jars of syrup and pollen patties.
Even though it only took an hour to do all 3 hives, it took all afternoon and into the evening to finish. The bees don't want to leave their frames of honey so they have to be coaxed off before it cools down for the night. I learnt this last year and lost a few handful of bees cause they stayed with the frames all night and it was too cold. Poor girls.
Anyways, they say we learn from our mistakes, which leads me to think I should be a genius by now...ummmm
So for now, the bees are all set until its time to wrap them up for winter. So over the next 2 days, I have been experimenting with making "creamed" honey. I will let you know how that goes in a couple weeks..I should know by then. I also melted down the last of the cappings, which is one of my favorite jobs.
But for now, that's it. Will chat again soon.
Bee Happy!
