Winterizing

Now that we have extracted the final super of honey from the hive for the year, it's time to consider setting up the hive for success in overwintering.  We have had less of a mite problem this year, thanks in no small part to investing a few more dollars in a mite-resistant queen.  This colony has consequently been VERY fastidious about hygiene, sealing off everything that could be a potential entrance for pests with propolis, and disposing of debris (and infested brood) diligently.

Last year, I think the mites reached a level where they compromised the strength of the hive and we lost to colony to a host of pests including wax moths and hive beetles.

There is evidence this year of wax moths trying to make their presence felt, and we've seen several hive beetles scurrying around, but--from what information we can find--so long as the colony isn't being overwhelmed by mites, they should be able to keep the beetles and moths at bay.

However, we want to make sure the hive cover is well sealed, reduce the front entrance opening and we'll probably want to put the hive bodies on a solid bottom board in place of the screened bottom board we have now.  That will minimize the ability of pests to enter, and interrupt the reproduction of the hive beetles (whose larvae leave the hive to mature in the ground under the hive and then climb back inside).

The bees are still pretty active right now, but shortly after Halloween we'll make one last check, dust with powdered sugar to help disperse any stray mites and minimize entrances.

In the temperate climate here in Sacramento, the bees won't have to expend too much energy keeping warm, and will still be able to get out and forage on the nicer days, so I have high hopes that they will weather this winter better than last year's colony.

New, and final extraction of the year

Last weekend we were able to get into the hive and remove the last honey super for the year.  This involves removing each frame of honey one by one, brushing the bees off and back into the hive and removing the frame to a new box away from the bees.

Brushing bees from a frame of honey to be extracted.

We were able to extract the honey this weekend, and ended up with just exactly 2.5 gallons, 30lbs.  This batch is really fun.  Very dark in color, it's moderately sweet with a somewhat bitter finish -- very autumnal.  What makes it exciting though is it has a cedar-y sort of nose and a decidedly toffee (coffee?) taste with woodsy notes.

Wax comb emptied of the honey.

We have let it filter through a paint bag (bought fresh for this purpose) to remove the bits of wax that inevitably end up in the centrifugal extractor.  And will put it in jars soon, so look for it in our little stand sometime in the next week or so. Then you can try it for yourself.

New bees are still orienting themselves

We're about ready to extract the final super of the year.  I'll post that once we have started.  We have removed the super, but have not had time to take care of the frames much so we wrapped them to protect them from wax moths and hope to start extracting this afternoon or tomorrow.    

Meanwhile, I captured this pretty dramatic orientation flight.

One can tell that it is an orientation flight by watching the bees circling in figure-8 type patterns around the entrance.  They are checking for landmarks to ensure that once they venture out foraging, they will be able to recognize the way home.

Updating Some Branding

Since we are in a new town and new neighborhood, of course we want to label our honey appropriately.  I had just decided that I would keep our original logo and font for the jar labels, and simply change the text to the East Sacramento origin of the nectar.

However, it occurred to me (if a bit late) that East Sacramento actually has its own branding from 2009.  The McKinley East Sacramento Neighborhood Association and the East Sacramento Improvement Association joined forces with the East Sacramento Chamber of Commerce and commissioned 7 Welcome to East Sacramento Signs.

From the East Sacramento Community Assn.

The outline and frame of the signs echoes the shape of the East Lawn Cemetery clock.

Eastlawn Clock, SacramentoRevealed.com

It has since become popular for homes to display replicas of the signs in yard or on house-fronts.

A little searching for a decent imitation of the typeface and adapting the scale to fit a label and I present:

What do you think?

We'll keep the original for the shop branding, but this will go on the local honey jars.

Orientation

Bees spend the first few weeks after emerging from the brood cells working inside the hive caring for other brood, managing the food supply, guarding the entrance from intruders, cleaning.  After about three weeks the venture into the outside world and become foragers.

In the days leading up to this change in responsibility, they begin making forays outside: orientation flights around the hive and surroundings, so they can recognize home and the landmarks that will lead them back. For whatever reason, the bees often choose to do this activity in the mid-late afternoon, all at the same time. This can often look like the bees are planning to swarm, as I thought a few days ago.  There was a particularly large orientation flight happening, and bees began clustering on the front of the hive, not normal bearding to keep cool, but clumping in the middle of the top hive body.  The airborne bees were making the distinctive 8-shaped patterns of an orientation flight, though; and sure enough--within about 5 minutes of me convincing my partner we needed to try and capture the swarm--the bees began to flood back down and into the hive entrance. 

While the prospective foragers are exploring, some of their sisters will gather outside the entrance and fan the hive scent outward with their wings, nature's air traffic control signaling the path to the runway.

New extraction today

Last week, we were able to remove one of the two supers from the hive.  The other super (put on about two weeks ago, when the existing super was about 85% full) has most of the wax drawn out by the bees, but they have only just started adding nectar to the cells so it might be another two to three weeks before we will consider adding another super, or just letting them fill that second super and leave them to prepare for autumn.

It is a not too sweet and rather dark honey, much darker than our first extractions last year.  Sadly, we had a little wax moth damage in part of one frame so we didn't extract that frame.  We set it in the freezer to kill any remaining wax moth remnants and will return the frame to the hive for the bees to clean out, along with the empty comb.

We're filtering the resulting 2 gallons of honey as we speak (type...read...?) and will be ready to put in in jars by this coming weekend, so then we will have 6 variations on offer in our little stand.  Though we are down to less than half a gallon of two of those variations.

[The little stand has received a few visitors already.  Thank you if you were one of them.  We're working on getting some signs up to direct traffic our way, and maybe a few little jars with samples and some coffee stirrers for tasting...?]

And we're stocked!

We have our honor stand up and available!

Stand stocked and ready to sell

Come get some to take home yourself!