buzzzzzzzzzz new adventure

[addy1]

Yep true and I wouldn't mind someone planting some here on our property but I don't want to take care of them myself.

Get in touch with the local bee keeping association. A lot of people look for land to put hives on. A commercial guy here has 1000 hives, he lives in a townhouse. His hives are spread out everywhere. He takes care of them, the people get the benefit of fertilization.

 

[addy1]

We started this adventure October of last year (classes) got our first nuc in May, we have four hives in Maryland, zero honey. Spent the summer getting them to grow and be healthy.

So we come down to Florida, remove a wild hive from the wall, one small clump of capped honey, at the top of the opening Too thick to put into the hive box. So we harvested it, 3 inches long around 18 inches wide. The layer behind this layer had another small amount of capped honey. We think the honey was from a previous hive.

We got 2 lbs of honey, very sweet, very tasty kept a small amount of comb with capped honey, we drained the honey from it into a bowl. One expensive tasty jar of honey!
We did not filter out the small pieces of wax etc that is in the honey, like you would if you were selling the honey.

Once the comb had drained the honey, we put it back into the hive on top of the inner cover for them to clean out all of the honey that was left They are working diligently at doing their job. Once they are done we will have a collection of comb to melt into wax for candles etc All of the rest of the comb we rubber banded it into empty frames. Giving them comb makes it easier on the bees, they do not need to spend the time or effort building the comb.

 

[j.w]

Very cool addy you have honey and it looks very pretty

 

[Lisak1]

It's beautiful! That's your thanks for saving the little buzzers!

 

[addy1]

Make sure you buy pure unprocessed honey. A lot of the store honey has added fillers.

Here is a excerpt from the American bee journal

(Courtesy of the National Honey Board)

Thanksgiving has snuck up on us once again this year and since it is next week, we thought a honey-inspired holiday menu was appropriate.
You see, one-third of our food is made possible by insect pollinated crops and these hard-working ladies are responsible for about 80 percent of that pollination. And if that isn’t enough, honey bees travel more than 55,000 miles just to bring one pound of honey to consumers. Now that hard work is something to be thankful for!
From the ham to the pecan pie, the honey bees and their scrumptious honey have you covered! Enjoy this time with your friends and family, and reflect on the fact that sometimes, it’s the littlest things we are thankful for.

Wild Rice & Mushroom Stuffing

• 1 cup - wild rice
• 4 cups - water, salted to taste
• 1 Tablespoon - oil
• 1/2 cup - minced onion
• 1/2 cup - chopped celery
• 1 teaspoon - minced garlic
• 2 cups - sliced mushrooms
• 1/4 cup - chopped dried apricots
• 2 Tablespoons - minced parsley
• 1/4 cup - honey

In small saucepan, combine wild rice with salted water. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer until tender, approximately 45 minutes. While rice is cooking, heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in onions, celery and garlic; sauté until onion is translucent and celery is soft, about 7 minutes. Add mushrooms; sauté until mushrooms are soft, about 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat. When rice is cooked, drain in a colander. In large bowl, combine rice and mushroom-onion mixture. Add apricots, parsley and honey, stirring until mixed well. Serve warm as a side dish or use to stuff poultry.

Fallen Butternut Squash Gratin

• 3 cups (6 medium) - butternut squash, cooked
• 1/2 cup - honey
• 3 Tablespoons - flour
• 1 teaspoon - salt
• 1/4 teaspoon - nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon - cinnamon
• 3 large - eggs, separated
• 1/4 cup - chopped pecans

Combine squash, honey, flour, salt, spices and egg yolks; blend well. Beat egg whites until they reach stiff peaks; sold into squash mixture until no streaks of white remain. Pour into 6 buttered ramekins; sprinkle nuts over top. Place ramekins in hot water bath; bake at 350°F until golden, about 30 minutes.

Cranberry Pecan Pie

• 2 cups - fresh or frozen cranberries
• 1 cup - orange juice
• 1/2 cup - honey
• 2 Tablespoons - cornstarch
• 2 Tablespoons - cold water
• 1/2 teaspoon - orange extract
• 1 - 9-inch baked pie shell
• 1/2 cup - honey
• 3 Tablespoons - butter or margarine
• 1-3/4 cups - pecan halves

In medium saucepan, combine cranberries, juice and honey. Cook, uncovered, over low heat for 15 minutes if using fresh cranberries or 20 minutes if using frozen berries. Cool. Puree cranberry mixture in blender; return to saucepan. Combine cornstarch and water. Stir into cranberry mixture. Bring to boil and cook until thickened. Stir in orange extract. Cool; then pour into pie shell. Spoon topping evenly over cranberry mixture. Bake at 350°F 20 minutes or until top is bubbly. Cool on wire rack. Serve at room temperature or chilled. Topping: In medium saucepan, combine 1/2 cup honey and 3 Tablespoons butter or margarine; cook and stir 2 minutes or until mixture is smooth. Stir in 1-3/4 cups pecan halves until well coated.

Honey Whiskey Clove-Glazed Ham

• 3/4 cup - honey
• 1-1/2 Tablespoons - bourbon whiskey*
• 1/2 teaspoon - ground cloves
• 1 (5-lb.) - bone-in fully cooked ham, spiral sliced

Combine honey, bourbon and cloves in small bowl until well blended. Place ham, cut-side down, in roasting pan; brush with honey mixture. Cover pan with foil and bake at 275°F about 1 hour or until heated through. Remove foil from ham and increase oven temperature to 425°F Brush with honey mixture. Bake about 10 minutes more or until ham is golden brown. Remove from oven and place on serving platter. Pour juices over ham.
*2 teaspoons vanilla can be substituted for bourbon.

Honey Pot Cider

• 1-1/4 cup - apple cider
• 1 Tablespoon - Orange Blossom honey
• 1 pinch - cinnamon
• 1-3/4 oz. - Apple Jack brandy
• 1 - cinnamon stick
• 2 - apple slices

Combine the apple cider, honey and cinnamon in a small saucepan and stir over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until heated through. Stir in the Apple Jack brandy and pour the cider into a mug.
With the tip of a small knife, pierce small holes in the apples and string them onto a cinnamon stick. Place the garnish across or in the cider.

 

[Nepen]

I've been buying honey from my bee keeping friend and each season brings different taste in the honey. Love it.

We have Burt's Bees just around the corner and they keep LOTS of bees there. They actually have hive viewing days and sometimes would just open the hive for us to see. I walk pass their building to work everyday and got to watch the busy bees several times.

I want to keep bees but I'll have to wait. We need to kill off Wisteria first and dont want the chemical to kill the bees.

 

[addy1]

You never know what flower the bees feast on, each nectar gives the honey a different flavor. The honey we got from this wild hive is so sweet, great flavor, different than the honey I have bought in Maryland and bought down here.

One of our primary nectars is black locust trees (in my neighborhood) there is a bunch of them lining a stream about a mile from our house, perfect nectar. The flowers only last for 2 weeks, but the bees go crazy over them. We planted 10 of those trees in our yard to help them out, boy do they grow fast, one summer from 2 feet to around 8 foot tall.

I like burt bees stuff, have used it for years.

 

[tbendl]

So how are the bees doing?

 

[addy1]

When we left delray to head south, I put a gallon of 2/1 bee crack on the hive, they were eating around 1/4 inch a day from the gallon jar. Had to buy a gallon of pickles to get the jar............ I saw three of the rubber bands laying outside of the hive, meaning they had attached those combs to the frames, chewed through the rubber bands and drug them outside of the hive.

When we get back by the end of this week we will inspect the hive to see how they are doing in making comb, capping nectar, brood pattern. Seeing if they have attached the comb to the frames and see if they are drawing out the foundation we put in the hive.

 

[tbendl]

So I guess the queen is alive and well? Yay! I hope they have settled in and are enjoying the last of their warm winter weather.

 

[addy1]

Well we hope so, that we have a queen, we really won't know until we go into the hive and look. There were under three day old eggs, there was a capped queen cup, which means if something had happened to the queen the hive would make a new one. It just sets the hive back by 45 days, by the time she grows, mates, lays eggs and the eggs become working bees.

The hive is calm, usually they are testy if there is no queen. So we think we got her...............we think

 

[tbendl]

Well worse case you will just have to stay down in Florida another 45 days. You know, to be sure.

 

[addy1]

lol except the house we are in is rented out as of the 15th so we have to leave or find another home to hang out in.

 

[addy1]

Up date! We went into the wall hive today. We have uncapped brood, capped brood, some capped honey, nectar. They have nicely attached some of the comb to the frames, still more to attach. Still more comb to build, more honey to make, but moving forward. This is what you would call a small hive, I really do believe they had just moved into the wall, they were just setting up home.

I think I found the queen, on the brood frames.

While taking pictures one of the ladies nicely stung my thumb right in the joint, I immediately smeared unkers on it, no pain, no swelling, just a tiny bit red. She got me big time. I will ALWAYS have unkers around when working the bees.

This is a peak through the feeding hole for the jar, when we first opened the hive. A few guards bees watching us. We did not smoke them, we did not want to stress the bees, smoking does set them back a few days. They were totally calm, ignored up except for the one guard bee that decided my thumb was a danger to it.

First peak at a frame, before pulling it out we could see capped brood! Exciting!

The first frame we pulled out, capped brood, uncapped brood, nectar, some pollen and we thing the queen! The uncapped brood is he white in the cells grub like.

This shot shows the un-capped brood nicely.

The white comb to the right is new comb just built by the bees. We will have sort of a mess in the comb to clean up down the road. Without the structure of the foundation, they sort of go crazy making comb and attaching it to other comb.

Another two frames with brood

This frames is full of capped honey, they have been working on.

The tenant took this picture when we were removing the hive from the wall.

 

[j.w]

The hive looks like it is doing well. Sounds like it has a good chance at making it to your home. Is that the queen in the first top photo on the edge of the circle top? Or is that just an extra lg bee? It looks larger then the others and I can't see wings.