Bees died over the winter of 2013 - 2014.

The 2013 - 2014 winter in Minnesota was a tough one for bees and certainly for my two hives; they both died.  In late December, we think that we saw evidence of cleansing flights, and I saw live bees in the hive when I looked through the top open hole.

But, come spring, both hives were dead.  When we opened each hive, we could see bees next to capped honey.  They died "head down" in the cell as if they were trying to get the last bit of honey out of the cell.  The mite counts were low going into the winter, and I saw no evidence of disease of infestation. So, it may be that the cold was just too much for the cluster of bees to move to new areas of honey.

In the spring/summer, we harvested the honey.  There wasn't a great deal of it, so we used the crush and strain method with a household stainless steel mesh strainer.  The harvest is below.

Honey from hives A and B (mixed) before final straining.

We also used a double-boiler to melt and purify the wax.  We now have about 2 pounds of pure beeswax.  (No picture currently available.)  There are still fine bits of wax in the honey.  We eat it this way.  But, before we give it to others, we have been using 4 layers of cheesecloth as a final straining.

First inspection with two boxes on each hive, part 2.

Fourth inspection of Hive A and Hive B, Sunday, 6/16/13:

[Note:  This is follow-up to the July 7, 2013 post, with video links below.]

To recap, this was day 43 for the hives, with the packages having been installed Saturday the 4th of May, 2013.  We were able to do a full inspection today, as the weather was in the mid-70's.  The inspection started at about 1820.  There were two boxes on each hive, and I felt a bit more rushed for time.  But, overall it went well.  Inspection ended at 1850.

The videos (part 1 and part 2) tell most of the tale.  It was fun to see the bees moving into their second box and drawing out more comb.  With how much wax they were making (and how little syrup they were taking in), they were clearly finding a great deal of nectar in the wild.

First inspection with two boxes on each hive.

Fourth inspection of Hive A and Hive B, Sunday, 6/16/13:

This was day 43 for the hives, with the packages having been installed Saturday the 4th.  I was able to do a full inspection today, as the weather was in the mid-70's.  The inspection started at about 1820.  There were two boxes on each hive, and I felt a bit more rushed for time.  But, overall it went well.

Again, the bees took very little syrup.  They had taken less than 10% of the gallon that they each had available.  Interestingly, the lid of the feeder pail is covered with bees; yet, they take so little syrup.  So, I only provided 1/2 gallon to each hive, new buckets.  I also added pollen patties to each hive, but just 1/2 a patty per hive.  I'm not sure what the shelf life of a pollen patty is, and I have a dozen, so I thought I'd see if they could make use of it.

For the inspection of Hive A, I tried to take of box A-2 but found it to be very heavy.  I soon learned that I was pulling up 4 central frames from A-1 that were burr comb attached to the frames above them.  When they broke apart, honey and nectar started pouring from the broken comb.  This was unfortunate, but unavoidable.  If the burr comb (comb that is built out of place) isn't dealt with regularly, the condition will only worsen.  Subsequent inspections can become even more damaging to the bees or even more difficult to carry out.

This is an incomplete post without a video (yet).  I'm hoping to edit the video over the 4th of July holiday and get it posted.  I have another inspection to be done this week/weekend, too.

Bottling the mead.

This evening (Saturday, May 25, 2013), I bottled my three batches of mead.  You, the reader, might recall that the 1st batch was "standard" mead with no flavors added.  Batch 2 had cinnamon added.  Batch 3 had cardamom added.

I went to a local brewing supply store.  It was a great visit.  I was able to keep my purchases to a relatively low dollar amount.  I needed bottles, and enough to hold a bit over 300 ounces of mead.  I decided to get 16 ounce bottles that have an integrated cap.

16-ounce bottle for the mead.

They were already clean, but needed a sanitizing step.

Relatively cheap and no-rinse.

Lastly, I bought some labels.  The picture of them (on the finished product) is at the end of the post.  After I used the "1 Step," I began siphoning.  Each batch filled 6 bottles with a bit left over.

Siphoning mead into the bottles.

Another view.

In the end, after applying a simple label, I had 18 bottles of mead (regular, cinnamon, and cardamom).

Finished product.

I tasted the mead from the 19th bottle.  It contained the last ounces from each batch.  It was not very good, unfortunately.  I'll have to see what the other bottles taste like.  Perhaps the one I drank had a lot of sediment in it, so it tasted less than good.  We'll see...

At least, there have been no fatalities yet.

Mead update.

Since the last racking of the mead, the balloons have remained flaccid.  It seems that the fermenting is done.  I will probably bottle them soon, then.  I found a local brew and wine shop that I want to visit.  Their hours are a bit limited, so I have to try to work it into my schedule.  I expect that my family, friends, and I will be tasting the meads this summer.  Hopefully, there will be limited fatalities.

Racking the mead.

On November 24, 2012, I racked my first batch of mead.  Racking--as noted elsewhere in this blog--is the process of removing the liquid and leaving behind most or all of the sediment (or yeast cake).  Below is the aquarium tubing that I used.  Next time, I would try to get larger-bore tubing as the aquarium tubing took a long time to siphon the liquid.

The mead will be put into a new and clean container for more fermenting.  See below for my siphoning set-up.

As noted elsewhere, the mead should be ready in about June, 2013 or so...

Honey extraction day!

Last fall (September 29, 2012), Mark (mentioned in the April, 2012 post) was harvesting some honey from his hives.  He was willing to suffer the presence of me and the four kids, so up to his place we travelled.  He had the extracting set-up all ready to go.

Above shows Mark's garage, modified to do the honey extraction.

Before we started the process, we took a look at the hives.  They were busy with active bees.  Below, first, is a picture.  Below that, a short video.

He had already removed the frames from the hive.  They were in a sealed container in his garage.  They were sealed so that the bees would be less likely to find the frames and reclaim their honey!  Below is a picture of a frame of capped honey.

In the stainless steel bowl to the left (in the photo above), there is a spatula-like tool with a cord coming out of the handle.  It is a heated tool that removes the capping of the honey, by melting/scraping them off.  That opens up the hexagonal compartments that the bees created and put honey into.  The frames (the woodenware rectangle in the pan on the right in the photo above) go into an extractor.  An even number of frames goes into the center of the metal cylinder (below).  Then, they are spun.  This uses the spinning action to fling the honey out of the hexagonal compartments in the frame and against the side of the extractor.  You can see the extractor in the top photo of this post.  A close-up of the extractor and its honey port is below.

You can see above that the honey is flowing out into a filter.  The filter is removing bits of wax and bees.  The honey then continues through and collects in the bucket below.  The bucket also has a honey port that you can use to bottle the honey.  Below is a video of the honey flow in action.

In the end, we left with a nicely-packaged bottle of honey.  It would be considered "local wildflower," raw, Grade A honey (at least that's my current understanding).  Below is a picture of it.

It is now April, 2013 as I write this post.  Most of the honey has been eaten!