AWARD WINNING HONEY

Great news! I put a bottle of my summer honey and one of my homebrew beers into the North Haven Fair and they both won 1st place in their categories. Also Jack entered the same honey in the Durham fair, which has many more entries and we won 3rd place. 

I even won 8 dollars from the North Haven fair! Next year I am entering all the fairs with my dark fall honey and whatever we get in the spring. Also next year the North Haven fair is going to have a light and dark beer category. So I have to get thinking and brewing so I can win both categories next year. 

That small white topped bottle is ours. Among other lesser honeys our's rises to the top.

Fall Honey Harvest

There has been a lot going on at the apiary as the season comes to a close. Here is a quick list of things I want to check in about:
-DIY mite wash jar
-Mite count
-Mite away strips
-Fall honey harvest

         
 Between blog posts I find myself learning so much about Bees. A few weeks ago I went to a CT beekeepers informative meeting over at Massaro's Community Farm in Woodbridge. There I learned a lot about mites and different ways to keep their levels down. The biggest take away for me was

Melt a screen in between

Then you melt the lids together

My completed mite wash jar

learning about 'the count.' This is your number of mites per 100 bees. The technique for getting this number is pretty simple. You have 2 options, the sugar method or the bee wash method. Each requires the use of a jar shaker that one must make in their basement with a soldering iron. Check out this link to another bee blog site where the guy really explains all the steps. His technique is a little better then mine, but check out my pics, I think it came out pretty good.
            You use this jar and some alcohol to get your number. I took a half cup of bees (which is approximately 300) and toss them in one jar and put on the lid. Then you put a few ounces of alcohol in the other jar, screw them together and shake. This unfortunately kills the bees but it also kills all the mites. (I think about like you have to give blood sometimes to check on your health)
            You filter the liquid through the screen and look at the liquid with no bees and count the mites. A count of more then 6 mites per 300 and the experts say you should treat. Anything less and IPM (Integrated pest management) techniques will be fine. This includes, regular sugar treatments (I am in the process of making a tool to make this easier - another post to follow), screened bottom boards, maybe drone brood frames, etc.
             So with my new handy dandy mite wash jar I went about getting my count. The three North Haven hives I tested gave me these numbers: 9, 11, and 14. For you non mathematicians out there, that is more 6. To say I was concerned is an understatement. I was almost panicked.
             After much thought and evaluation of my original Beekeeping tenants I decided that treating with as minor a treatment as possible would be best. I have heard from many beekeepers that the 'organic' or rather non treatment route is kind of a fool's errand and would not being much for the health of my hives. Also, looking back at my implementation of a proper IPM program, I realize my practices are more like PPB (piss poor beekeeping) rather then IPM. I don't have screened boards under 3/5 of my hives and I haven't done a sugar shake all year. So why let my hives die from Varroa destructor just because I want to be high and mighty about treatments?
               I decided to go with mite away strips, which do not penetrate the wax and are OK to use if there is honey in the hive. They are the least invasive but still do something to knock down the mite numbers so my hives can be strong for the winter.

               I put strips in all 5 hives, and when I went to the woodbridge hives I stumbled across an awesome problem. Both hives were LOADED with honey. There were 5 mediums all completely full of dark golden rod honey. So, I got a hold of the CT beekeeping club equipment and we went to town harvesting our fall catch. I left enough so all 5 hives have a full medium box of honey for the winter.
             We went about extracting the honey from the three full boxes, it was quite an adventure. Jack, Ryan, and I went out in the field with the wheel barrow and our fume board. It started to rain. We used a propane torch to warm up the fume board to maximize the fumage inside the hive. The mild smell of almond filled the apiary. The bees hate it, but I think it is kind of pleasent.

Bees don't like this thing.

              The fumes didn't do a great job, but I think it was because all of the bees were home because it was overcast and not too nice out. So the hive was kind of overcrowded. After we took the boxes off I took them down the path a bit and used the bee brush to knock off any stragglers. Amazingly no stings, even with the weather and all that brushing. :)

         We threw the honey in the back of the truck and we went for a ride. I took a little break in the middle of the day to hang out with my 2 favorite ladies, and then we got back together to extract the honey. 

     

          We used the same equipment again, rented stuff from the bee club. It worked great. The only problem was that we had TOO MUCH. The buckets we have won't allow us to filter the amount of honey we have. So I went to the local brew shop Luck and Levity ,downtown New Haven and got another food safe bucket to store the honey before we bottle it.                                                        The honey looks and tastes delicious, I am so proud of what my little ladies have accomplsihed in a season. I have lots of plans for the winter and the spring. (I haven't yet met a beekeeper without a plan) I am thinking that I will continue to involve more people in my apiary. Ryan wants to start a hive and Jack's buddy Matt wants to still be involved. My idea of having a kind of bee colony commune might actually be a real thing some day. 

               Enjoy a couple of quick videos of the honey flow on the day of extracting: