Urban beekeeping in San Francisco.
Our bees create 100% natural, raw, wildflower honey in Noe Valley. We take it from them as available and lightly filter it so the flavor of the neighborhood is evident through each season.
The busy hive in location number 1 has been going great guns! We had put a new honey super on just before our trip (which makes three that were on the hive) and it was nearly filled when when we checked on Sunday. We took the first super that we had added off the hive, and brought it home for extracting. The other two were still not quite full, so we left them for the bees to work, and added a new empty super for good measure.
Upon extracting the honey, we had a good 27 pounds or over 2.5 gallons. We'll have it up for sale as soon as it has settled a bit and we get it bottled.
This batch was being gathered in June and early July -- it has an interesting walnut or tea color, a deep brown with a bit of green to it. The flavor is quite mild, and herbal -- nearly grassy. It seems to smell of the California lilac amongst other things. Sweet, it is still not cloying. I am very pleased with it.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
No sooner had we arrived home from our vacation, then we got a call from the Dolores Park location to let us know that there was a swarm on the power lines over the street. They weren't sure if the swarm emanated from one of our hives or not, but we rushed over to take a look. We took with us a small bottle of lemon grass essential oil from the local health food store. When we arrived we were able to get on the roof just opposite where the swarm was located. There was a cluster hanging from the wires just next to the power line pole in front of the building, but it was about 15 feet out -- too far to comfortably try to reach a box out to the swarm. Bees are strangely attracted to the scent of lemongrass when they are in swarm mode. Some have said it is because it smells to them like the queen but I am not sure if that is true. However we set up a cardboard box on the roof (on top of a med super to give it a little more height) and put a couple of frames in it that we drizzled with honey and wax from one of our existing hives. It would have been preferable to use a spare frame that was already drawn with wax, but we didn't have one handy. We also sprinkled a few drops of the lemongrass oil in the box and the closed it up except for the handle holes that were already on the sides. Hopefully this would entice the swarm to try to take up residence in the box. We considered our options. We could send a pole or ladder out from the roof edge with a similar box on the end to put under the swarm but the very last thing we wanted was to accidentally drop something onto a car or passers-by. We decided that perhaps we could run a rope over the pole carrying the power lines and use that like a laundry line to run a box out closer to the swarm. Occasionally a bee would fly over to the box and hover around it. Once in a while one would crawl into the box and back out. Deno ran to get rope while I remained on the roof to watch the swarm. While he was gone, the breeze picked up slightly and at the same time the ball of bees on the power line began to dissipate. It appeared as though the breeze was "washing them away" from the cluster like moving water breaks up a clump of soil. Soon there was a cloud of bees over the street and rooftop with me in the middle of it! Deno arrived on the street about that time and came rushing up just in time to see the cloud of bees begin circling the box and making their way in.
We had done it -- we had coaxed the swarm into our box! Inspecting the hives we had at the Dolores Park location it seemed clear that the swarm was not from one of our hives. Both hives had eggs and generally when a hive is preparing to swarm, the bees stop the queen from laying for a few days, and stop feeding her to prepare her to be able to fly. We left the box on the roof until after sunset to allow stragglers to join the rest of the colony. Then we combined the bees with one of our existing hives. It wasn't a large enough swarm to easily start a new colony, particularly so late in the year. Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
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