It took some time, but we've harvested

Only the first super so far.  We added a third recently. They have drawn out comb in that super and there's plenty of nectar in it. The second super we added near the end of March is full, but not yet completely capped, so we're leaving it for another week or so.

We went ahead and extracted right away while we have some time, and should have some honey bottled soon! Yum.

Exactly four weeks later

...we checked to see how the first super was being filled. We are surprised to learn that it is already completely full and capped. We have added a second super with comb already drawn from last year. We left the full super on because we are not prepared to do an extraction any time soon (maybe next week) and the bees will keep the honey from pests for us in the mean time. It will also hopefully lead the bees to start filling the new super.

Short story is: we should have honey available before May...(fingers crossed).

Last Week

Today

We want the hive to have a start filling the new super, find time to extract, prepare jars, bottle and label, get the stand out again....

First Hive Visits of the Year

It's been while since the last post because it ended up being a tough year for the bees. Of our five hives, only two managed to hang on.

The diseased hive seemed to bounce back only to completely vanish a month later -- I suspect that was our first experience with colony collapse, but am not really sure. The other hive at our friend's limped along for a while, then petered out. They never really showed signs of illness, but the population just never got very big. One hive at the Dolores location suffered the same fate. There was a small population in November, so we let them go as they were but they did not make it through the winter.

Overall, 2010 was a very cold summer but also fairly dry for the area. I suspect that the bees did not get out to forage as much as they needed and that even when they did get out nectar was scarce. Consequently we simply did not harvest any honey last year. Anything that the bees did collect we left for them to get through the winter.

The two hives that we have left are bustling now, though. The one at Dolores is chock full of bees and I hope to have a chance to explore the hive more thoroughly to see how much nectar and pollen they have been bringing in, and to make sure they are standing up to mites and generally healthy. The hive on our friend's roof is also very busy, but a little smaller. We added a new honey super to the top and are hoping that they get right to work on it. There was plenty of brood, and plenty of honey, and quite a bit of new nectar.

The year seems to be off to a promising start.

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

Jump Start on Spring

The weather here has been absurdly warm -- I mean into the 70's.


Therefore the bees have been out in force. We have seen significant numbers of them on the lavender and rosemary in the neighborhood. The plum trees have not started to bloom yet, though.

In Berkeley, I've seen several bees on the jade plants which are fully in bloom now.

When we visited the Stybring Arboretum in Golden Gate park over this weekend there were bees on almost every plant that was in flower.

You can see that they are gathering pollen from the flowers they visit, which means they are getting ready for brood.

It seems likely that we will need to visit the hive in the near future to make sure that they have enough room. If the warm weather has convinced the queen to start laying again they will need some space for brood and pollen, followed by honey.

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