Local Honey Available!

Tis the season for honey!  Actually, I think honey can be harvested at many points during the year, but for the past three or four years, I’ve harvested in the fall, usually after the bees have either flown the hive or died off.  Truthfully, I don’t know what happened this year:  when I went into the hives, they were full, and I do mean FULL of honey – probably close to fifty pounds per hive – and no bee bodies to speak of in sight.  This leads me to think that something happened to the queen as she is in charge of reproduction.  So it makes sense that if she died, the population would age and then die out, most likely away from home, while foraging.  I guess the other possibility is they swarmed (when part of the colony flies off to a new nest somewhere), but there are usually signs of that, and I’m not convinced that they would swarm and leave behind a winter’s supply of food. Also, I didn’t see any capped brood.

 At any rate, I was sad about the bees but delighted with the honey harvest this year. Also, to be honest, harvesting honey when the bees are occupying the hive is pretty terrifying, even with the bee suit.

 We spent two weekend days spinning out the honey, filtering it, and pouring it into over 100 jars (still working on that part). I even ordered little stickers for the tops to make them look more official.  “Bee Blessed” is the logo I came up with on short notice and pink, well, I like pink.

So half pints of honey are available at Beverly Bikes for $10 each.  Support your local beekeeper!  And ENJOY ;-)