By Margaret Sloan, Sunset production coordinator
Last Friday we went out to inspect the hives, count brood and bees, and check on the honey super (the box of small frames used strictly for honey production for our One-Block Diet).
Were we surprised! The frames in the honey super were filling in nicely. We put it in about 6 weeks ago, but we had been cautioned that we would probably not get honey our first year. But there it was. One frame was mostly capped, and the others were full, or nearly full of nectar, and partially capped. At this rate, we thought, in another month we’ll be harvesting the whole super.
Then we put the super aside and started pulling frames from Veronica, looking for baby bees.
Nope, no babies, but lots and lots and lots of honey. Every frame in Veronica was full of lovely capped frames of honey. We must be having one heck of a nectar flow. A whole box of honey. My mouth was watering.
But this is not all good; there should be eggs and brood in this box. Bees can get honeybound, boxing their brood area in with honey so the hive can’t grow, which encourages them to swarm. To give them room, we pulled 4 frames of honey and replaced them with empty frames. Purely to help the bees. Honestly.
And Yay! The honey is good. It’s great! Now we’re ready to eat ... I mean, process it.
