Dusting

Yesterday, we went to pay the princesses a visit. We haven't taken a look at them since the week after we installed Agnes, the new Queen so they were do for a little check-up.

The hive looked to be in good shape and the honey super that we still have remaining is nearly full, though they have not started capping they honey yet. The top hive body was about 2/3 full of honey and a little pollen and the remainder in the center had healthy looking brood in all stages of development. We did see some eggs which is important since that indicates that the queen has been laying within the last three days. We did not see Agnes herself, but that is not surprising since we didn't pull out most of the frames -- just enough to get an idea of how much brood there was vs, food supplies.

We pulled a couple frames out of the lower hive body and sure enough there is quite a bit of brood down there as well. The lower hive body seemed to all be sealed brood -- but I did notice a few cells that were open, yet had underdeveloped chrysalises. I'll have to read up and see if I can figure out if that means anything. It didn't look like foulbrood of any kind or chalkbrood, and in the same frame we found three bees that were just emerging from their cells so I am not worried.

Finally before we started putting the boxes back on the hive, we dusted each layer liberally with powdered sugar. Sprinkling about 1/2 cup on the tops of the frames of each box, we used the bee brush to scatter the sugar down between the frames over all the bees before adding the next box on top of it.

No, we don't think that the honey or the princesses themselves are not sweet enough. But this is an organic method of keeping the mite population at bay. The sugar dusting makes it harder for the mites to hold on to the bees. It also makes the bees groom themselves. The combination allows the bees to knock the mites off of themselves so they fall to the bottom of the hive. We use a screened bottom board so the mites fall right out of the hive where they can't reach the bees to get back in.


This is not a perfect method, but it does not resort to chemical pesticides which the mites may become resistant to or which may harm the bees and contaminate the hive and its products (read: honey, wax, propolis).

While we can't call our honey organic, because there is no way for us to control where the nectar is collected and there may be fertilizers or other chemicals used on the flowers the bees visit, we can make sure that we provide the bees with only natural, chemical free care and and clean naturally maintained hive.

Later in the afternoon while I was in the back yard, I noticed that the ivy growing over the neighbors' fence was covered with bees (it is just now blooming teeny green flowers). I went to watch them and saw one with her back still covered with white powder -- one of the princesses had made it to our own backyard for a visit!

Pardon the poor photo.

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Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.

Labels

We are still busily trying to finalize the lable design for the honey that we have bottled. So far we've collected a total of just about 90 lbs of raw urban honey from the princesses. This represents three separate collections actually. The first was in early summer, June. This honey crystallized nearly immediately, and has a slight bitter note underneath the herbaceous sweetness. The second and largest batch -- which we wrote about extracting last time was collected toward the middle of July -- it is also very herbal, but with a little more hints of fruits and flowers, a bit lighter with out the tang of the first batch.

The final batch, collected in early August is my favorite -- it is quite floral and a bit fruity -- very sweet. I imagine this is going to crystallize fairly quickly, but not as soon as the first crop did. I like the first batch best as a topping for oatmeal, cornbread, etc. because of the sharpness. The second from July is excellent for cooking, for toast, hot toddy's, etc. The third most floral collection is the one I use for tea, or just to eat a spoonfull once in a while (this is a great remedy for coughs, or sore throat).

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Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.

Extracting

Perhaps I should back up a couple of weeks to our last adventure in extracting honey. If Deno has pictures (I'm sure he must) I'll have him add them.

We had taken one full super off of the hive back in July and remembering that our friends from the peninsula had asked if they could come see how we extract the honey some time, we called them up to set up a date.

We came up with a weekend in early August, and reserved the extractor and related equipment from the bee club. Since our friends were coming up on Sunday morning, we took the opportunity of having some of Saturday free to check the bees again. Good thing we did as we had another full super. We swapped it for an empty and took it home with us. We also went to buy some cheesecloth and paint straining bag.

Therefore, when our friends did arrive we had two full supers of honey. We all took turns uncapping the frames with the electric heated knife into the capping tank.
We lined the rack in the tank with some cheesecloth which resulted in less lost wax, less need to strain the honey from that tank, and easier cleanup since the wax was all in the cheesecloth.

We loaded the extractor three times. Having only nine frames in the honey supers not only reduces the labor of uncapping dramatically, but it also make everything divide into the 6 frame extractor evenly.

At one point, the extractor really bogged down and it took me a couple seconds to realize that the level of the honey in the drum was up to the bottom of the frames and thus dragging the frames considerably. We opened the gate valve on the extractor and let the honey start draining into our 5 gallon drum lined with the paint bag. (Note: next time line the paint bag with a layer or two of cheese cloth.) After that things sped up again.

All told we got over 4 1/2 gallons of honey (including what drained from the cappings) and almost half a kg of beeswax from the cappings.

Our friends seemed to be really amazed at the contents of the two supers. I admit, I was too. We actually got a second smaller container and drained some of the honey from the drum into it because we were afraid we'd over flow. We would not have after all, but it still made it easier to move the honey tank with out straining so much or fear of spilling.

When the jars we later ordered arrived (144 110ml hexagonal jars, and several 1lb. 12 sided jars) I decided it would make sense to run the honey through a chinoise to filter it a bit better. There were some visible bits of wax and bee pieces that had made it through the paint strainer.

We later took a partially filled super from them since I wanted to encourage them to start building up their own supplies. Sinc that only had five frames that were about 80% full, we just scraped the comb from them rather than extracting and let it all drain through a cheesecloth lined colander (A BIG ONE). That yielded another gallon even. So to date we have almost 8 gallons or somewhat more than 80lbs of honey. Family and friends have received some of it and we are working diligently on getting the rest labled.

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Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.

Queen released

While I was away this weekend, Deno went to check the colony. The queen has been released from the cage and we already have some brood being sealed. Another two weeks and we'll have the new bees hatching and the colony will be out of danger.

Agnes is laying in the upper hive body which has me a little concerned because it will limit the space they have to store their winter supplies. If the brood does not move lower as the fall progresses, I think we'll have to take steps to rearrange the brood ourselves. Either by switching hive bodies or by moving a frame with the queen into the lower chamber and putting a queen excluder over it to keep her laying in the lower hive body until the upper hive bodies brood can hatch and the cells filled with nectar and pollen.

In California it is probably not a real crisis if there is less than 50 lbs of honey when they go into their winter cluser. Last year, they had about 70 lbs of surplus honey stored in the hive bodies for themselves when we put the entrance reducer on for the winter and when we first checked them in February they still had nearly 60 lbs remaining so they clearly were continually able to find nectar sources. However, if we have a long rainy spell they will have to depend on their stores. We need to plan for a wet winter just in case and make sure they have enough stores which means making room in the upper hive body while they still have time to collect nectar.

They have continued to bring in more fresh honey even without the queen and have filled the super that we have remaining about 1/3 with honey so far, although they have not started capping it yet so it is clearly not cured fully. Another month or so and we should be able to take of the last honey super with whatever extra honey they have placed in it.

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Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.

Requeened

It appeared two weeks ago, upon examining the hives that the current queen, Heather had either absconded or simply been smashed when we tried to reverse the hive bodies.

Unfortunately, although there were plenty of eggs at the time the bees did not see fit to raise a new monarch and when we opened the hive there was no brood whatsoever.

We originally were going to trade for a frame of eggs and brood from another local beekeeper in Glen Park, but then heard about a couple who had unnecessarily ordered a new queen for their hive in the avenues. I contacted them and took Muni out to their house last Friday to pick her up. We installed the queen in her cage the next morning and dubbed her Agnes - as in Gooch from Auntie Mame. "I liiiived! I need to know what I should do now!"

Whilst I am away this weekend, Deno will go and check on the hive to make sure the queen has been released and is laying eggs and do a third dusting of powdered sugar to keep the mites in check before the fall.

He'll also be able to take the empty honey super we put on top of the hive for cleaning and pack it away.

I imagine we'll get one final batch of the really tasty honey (maybe a gallon or so) before the season is over so stay posted.

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Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.