Oh, HONEY!

It was inevitable.

Got my first bees sting this morning.

They say it's good for a keeper to get stung a few times each season.

Anyway...

earlier this week I posted the following Instagram:

Sweet, golden deliciousness.
I did a necessary micro-harvest so I could install the queen excluder and the honey super this afternoon.
Our Bungalow Bees are busy and thriving!

This photo looks like there is quite a substantial amount of honeycomb in this bowl.

Do not be deceived - it really wasn't a whole lot.

I transferred the honeycomb to my medium-size cooking sieve, set the 

sieve atop a medium-size pot and let it sit for two days. I turned the comb over in the 

sieve every once in a while to re-position it, allowing the honey to run from all the chambers.

To my absolute surprise and delight,

we ended up harvesting very nearly

TWO CUPS

of fresh, raw, organic honey!

And it is perfectly delicious!

HONEY!

I prepared the second box for our beehive on Monday,

loaded it and my beehive tools into the little wagon behind 

the lawn tractor and tootled up to the top of our property.

I took my Rebel with me too, but it wasn't cooperating

for some reason and it's really hard to make adjustments

with gloves and a beekeeper's veil on.

I inspected the trays and was a bit disappointed 

to find two of them virtually untouched.

I can see that our queen is thriving, tough, and I'm thinking

that the cold, wet weather we had in the weeks before last 

probably has something to do with production.

Or...

perhaps I'm just impatient?

I set the second box in place.

Next comes the top feeder, but it wouldn't sit balanced on the new box.

I lifted the feeder to take a look at its underside.

Ah ha!

There was a bit of honeycomb formed there that prevented a proper seal.

I scraped the comb off, set it aside on a big rock near the hive 

and finished getting everything settled.

My work gloves were covered and dripping with honey by the time

I got back down the hill from the hive.

It is thrilling, to say the least, to see and sample 

what our busy little bees have been up to.

Our best critic gave it two sticky thumbs up.

IT'S FINGER-LICKIN' BEELICIOUS!