2011

Happy New Year!!!!! Hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season. It seems far off, but spring will be here before we know it and that means opening the hive! There has been VERY little action around the hive, for all are inside staying warm. Hope 2011 is a good year!

Snow!

This week in Seattle it snowed! Snow does not usually happen this early in winter, so it took everyone by surprise. The bees, of course, are not happy about this. They would rather be in nice, hot weather. The snow was about five inches high on the top of the hive. I brushed it off when I had the chance. Sadly, this week I started noticing more and more dead bees. Then I woke up to see hundreds of them on the ground. I was worried, and so was my mom, so we e-mail Corky Luster from Bh Honey to ask him if this was normal. He e-mailed back saying, "This is the season when you will see dead bees on the ground and all over the bottom of the hive. They are dying at home instead of while they forage". I hope Corky is right about that, for I do not want to open the hive in the spring seeing thousands of little dead bodies.

Good Night Bees

About 3 weeks ago the hive got closed down. I sadly could not be there (too busy with school) so Corky and my mom did it. They put wood chips in the top box to collect moisture. Also a mouse guard got put on the entrance, so the bees look like they are in jail. I have been seeing more dead bees around, so I hope nothing bad is going on inside.

Tonight I watched the movie Colony at the Northwest Film Forum on Capitol Hill. I liked it, though I felt it was a little too long. While I was sitting watching the movie, I was wondering how many people at the movie were also beekeepers, or if I was the only one!

-Audrey

Happy Halloween!

BOO!!!!

Sorry I have not posted for such a long time. School started, so I have been busy with homework (I have at least one quiz per week), cross country, and in my free time packaging honey jars. So, in this past month lots have happened, but I will try to summarize as short as possible.

Corky (from Bh Honey) had to open the hive with just my mom, as I was busy and so was he. But, the last time I opened the hive with him we saw that a queen cell had hatched! We think the old queen and new queen probably had a fight. The next week when the hive opened Corky saw eggs, so he concluded that a small swarm had happened, leaving the new queen to run the hive. All seems well in the hive, which is good.

Last week Corky and my mom opened the hive to get it ready for the winter. I have started feeding the bees again, but will stop soon. They are drinking a lot of the sugar water. The Volunteer Park Cafe is still selling my honey, so if you have a chance stop on by do.

These past few days there have been many dead bees next to the hive. When I e-mailed Corky he said that was normal. The rain has been bad for the bees, for they like the HOT weather. Well, will most likely open the hive just one more time before winter. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

-Audrey

Audrey's Honey on the NEWS

(quick snap shot of store)

I am continuing to bottle and label the honey jars. The manufacturing has been slow. I sold 12 jars to the Volunteer Park Cafe, and they all sold out, so I sold them another 12! Hope I can sell a dozen more there. The King 5 news crew did a special on the cafe, and they showed a picture of my honey, plus talked about it/me for a little bit. I had no idea this was going to happen so it was a nice surprise. I still have to give a lot of my honey away to some of my friends, for they keep asking when their jars are coming. I respond "Hopefully soon!" My list of give-away jars is growing. People tell me they love the clean taste of the honey---I agree! Those bees were fantastic. I'm noticing less activity around the hives. I hope all is well in there.

- AUDREY

Honey Jars

I have been working like crazy trying to get all the honey labels on the jars. I love my label, and I hope all of you do too! I picked blue for the ribbon and circle around the bee, for right now blue is my favorite color. I talked to the store by my house, Volunteer Park Cafe and Market Place, and they agreed to sell my honey! So, if any of you want some honey, visit the store on 17th and Galer on Capitol Hill (they also have very good food).

-Audrey

Honey honey how you thrill me...

Some honey

extractor

even Teddy likes it

first jar

Saturday I went over to Corky's house and extracted honey! I left more frames (more then I needed) in the hive just to make sure the bees have enough to eat during the winter, so I only have 40-50 pounds of honey. That is good for one hive on the first year. My mom and I are thinking loosely on having a second hive in the back yard next year. Extracting honey is simpler than I thought. First, I used a large hot knife/blade to cut off the top of the honey, for it had been capped in the frame. I also used a little comb to get some more wax and stuff off the frame. Then I would put the frame into the extractor. It looks like a big tub with six spots for frames. Once I put six frames in I turn the extractor on and the frames start to spin. I let them spin for a while, for the honey is flung to the side of the extractor and then goes down to the bottom. After sometime I turned the extractor off and opened the cap at the bottom. The honey then comes out into a bucket I have waiting. Once I went through all the frames it was time to go. When I was home I let the honey sit till Monday (that's when Corky came again) for all the wax that got in the honey will float to the top, so then I could scoop it off.

When Monday came Corky came to tell us what to do with the honey and to open the hive with us again. We put boxes on the hive that were full of the honey remains from Saturday, so the hive is now seven boxes tall again. The bees seemed nice, for no one got stung. There were queen cells, which should stop soon, as it is so late in the season. I did not see the queen, but there were signs of her, for example eggs and larva.

When we closed the hive Corky showed us how to pour the honey through strainers into another bucket. Mom and I spent the day pouring honey through the strainers. We finished yesterday.

Today I even started filling jars. I will update you either tomorrow or Friday on what has progressed on the honey. I'm meeting with a neighborhood store tomorrow to see if they would like to sell my honey.

-Audrey