Taking Honey

[JimWWhite]

Your garden looks fantastic. Hope you can keep it alive in this heat. Are those the hives along the tree line in back? Do you suppose the bees (and other insects) feel the heat, or maybe it is just the lack of water that hurts them? And of course, the dying clover and other blooming things. I have sure seen a lot of bees on the blooming things I am watering.

I noticed tonight just before dark and coming in for the evening that the far-most hive that is out of sight in this pic was bearding up with about 2000 bees on the outside covering the front of it. Normal behavior where some of the colony goes out to keep the hive cooler. Bees do a great job of air conditioning and heating their hives by regulating the heat with their wings. If I were to have gone down to it tonight and listened closely I'd heard them buzzing on the inside of the hive to regulate the temp. I think I read somewhere they keep the internal temperature of the hive right about 98.6 F. I thought, what a coincidence or what?

 

[catjac1975]

Beautiful garden. So neat and weed free. I made great gains weeding my veggie garden the past few days. But it's still not done. Well, never done. Now is the time when everything is ready! Found some beautiful broccoli today that I had forgotten about. Looks beautiful. Up until now it has not been a banner broccoli year. But Oh the kale and kohlrabi. One giant red tomato coming-can't wait.

 

[JimWWhite]

Beautiful garden. So neat and weed free. I made great gains weeding my veggie garden the past few days. But it's still not done. Well, never done. Now is the time when everything is ready! Found some beautiful broccoli today that I had forgotten about. Looks beautiful. Up until now it has not been a banner broccoli year. But Oh the kale and kohlrabi. One giant red tomato coming-can't wait.

That tomato wouldn't have made it in the house. When tomatoes are coming in I keep a salt shaker in my pocket and sit down out in the middle of the garden and have my fill...

 

[Smiles Jr.]

When tomatoes are coming in I keep a salt shaker in my pocket and sit down out in the middle of the garden and have my fill...

OMG. I thought I was the only one who did that.

 

[JimWWhite]

Well, we finally got the honey we took off the other day put up in jars. From the four medium supers we got 50 pints (25 quarts) of honey. We filled one five-gallon bucket and another 1-1/2 gallons in another. After extracting it and getting it strained through cheese cloth all we did was bottle it. There's no other preparation involved. And as you can see it's beautiful honey. You can taste the sourwood in it too. Basically it's just wildflower honey from whatever was growing at the moment. The pic below is just a small portion of what we put up. Teresa's already taken 16 pints to work and sold every one of them within 30 minutes for $8 a pint. I took in 8 pints and it was gone within an hour. On the Fourth Hurricane Julie (our darling daughter) blew through and took six pints for her family and a friend and her in-laws. We gave a quart to our neighbors just because they had to put up with our bees pollinating their garden and flowers all spring long. We're hoping this fall we can harvest at least as much. We may have to wait for next spring depending on how well the nectar flow goes until October. There's should be another flow coming in August and September that the Gals will be able to work on.

 

[so lucky]

That looks fantastic. Bet it tastes fantastic, too. I am envious of your accomplishments.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Very nice!

 

[thistlebloom]

Gorgeous honey Jim, what a satisfying enterprise beekeeping must be!

 

[ninnymary]

That honey picture looks like it should be in a high end magazine! Just beautiful, makes you want to eat honey. I wish I was that neighbor of yours. Imagine getting bees to pollinate your garden and producing alot more veggies/fruit and on top of that getting honey!

Mary

 

[Jared77]

Beautiful picture Jim, it looks like something Id expect to see in Mother Earth News, or a cooking magazine.