It's my 5th year. Finally got the right kind of bees for this area. It's a small harvest - 1 1/3 gallons, but the mother hive made me a whole super of honey. Even though it swarmed, I split and it threw another small afterswarm. I'm hoping for good things from this hive next year.
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Congrats Robin. Enjoy the bounty!
what where they on? I like the light color. almost morning sunshine.
john
Congratulations. I bet it is the best honey that you've ever had. I know my first harvest was. I've got honey the last 3 years and its always good. Yours look a little lighter than mine this year. Hope your bees are doing well and continued success.
Congratulations !
After reading of your ups and downs over the past few years, I am left wondering who worked the hardest to create that honey - the bees, or You ?http://www.beemaster.com/forum/Smileys/beemaster/happy.png
Nice job.
Nice and enjoy!
Congrats! You are one patient beekeeper! You deserve it - keep up the good work. What kind of bees sis you end up finding were the 'right' ones for you/your area?
Good looking honey! I'm happy for you Robin!
:grin: :cool:
The thrill of victory. Kudos to you. You earned it.
Good job
Thanks everyone!. It's sweeter knowing you all appreciate it, too.
I was really surprised at how light the honey was. We have a lot of locust trees, but that's early and the bees didn't fill this super until late. I also have acres and acres of goldenrod and totally expected dark, strong honey. This stuff is light and tangy like clover honey, only it's not clover. We have a lot of wildflowers on in September - lots of aster this year. Maybe that?
tjc1 - I paid extra for Russian queens on 2 packages two years ago. They promptly requeened when they got here [ARG!], so they're Russian crossed with feral. I had one colony make it through the winter. She swarmed in the spring and I caught it. I split the mother hive to prevent more swarming, but each of the splits threw an afterswarm, I lost one and caught one, so I ended up with 4 hives from that queen.
I also figured out how to use quilt boxes for the winter and I think that made a huge difference getting them through in my little microclimate. I got 2 local nucs this year and one is good but the other never thrived and went queenless last month so I combined it with one of the swarms from my Russian cross. I've got 5 colonies going into winter. Fingers crossed I get 2 or 3 to make it through.
Quote from: Dabbler on October 09, 2016, 05:56:22 PM
Congratulations !
After reading of your ups and downs over the past few years, I am left wondering who worked the hardest to create that honey - the bees, or You ?http://www.beemaster.com/forum/Smileys/beemaster/happy.png
That made me laugh! Too true!
I was wondering what type. It was. I had a special hive on sucluded flow. Wisteria and honeysuckle. Was very light also. Had the aroma of wisteria with very sweet taste. I only got one gal. Before I broke my shoulder. Its now my special reserve honey.
John
Congratulations Robin, you dang shore deserve some honey. You worked mighty hard to get this far. We're happy for you!
Never ceases to amaze me how light that northern honey is....Mine is always medium amber to dark amber ;-P
Enjoy the honey Robin!!
The colour of honey is the so interesting to me. How each type of flower and plant creates totally different honey. Around where I live my general rule of thumb is that I like the darker honey until we cross a line just south of Dothan and then it can be different and once you get to the coast and the Tuepelo Honey nothing compares to that.
It really is amazing. And also the viscosity of them. Mine is very dry and viscous. And light too. Like Robins'.
Tuepelo...I've never tried that. I want to try that and sourwood. I picked up two different honeys in Belize last year. They were both very different. One was more floral and the other I think was a forest honey. The forest one granulated quickly into nice small crystals. I was thinking of using that as a seed for whipped honey. Until I saw my own honey crystalize. It turned into the finest rounded smoothest little crystals I've ever had any honey crystalize into. Seriously blows me away.
What does your honey taste like Robin?
I have a business that sells it. PM your address and next time we have a truck or someone down that way I will get your some and send it your way. We buy it straight from the beek and resell it for him.
That'd bee awesome!
Way to go, it's great you finally got some honey from your hives. I still have a 8oz jar from my first honey harvest. it was from Poplar trees and is real dark.
Quote from: MT Bee Girl on October 18, 2016, 11:41:26 AM
What does your honey taste like Robin?
This is pretty tangy - like clover/wildflower honey.
My sister gave me a jar of Florida honey and it was really wonderful - very floral, not like ours at all.
My favorite is early spring locust tree honey. Wow. Very light and thin and really floral. I'd really love to get a super or two of that some year.
Quote from: Rurification on October 18, 2016, 08:39:23 PM
This is pretty tangy - like clover/wildflower honey.
I think tangy would not be clover or wildflower but some herb or multiple herbs. Catnip, oregano, peppermint to name a few. These are also plants that would supply your hives with essential oils naturally. You might acquire a taste for that tangy honey if it keeps your bees alive.
Very true, Ace! I do have a lot of Blue Spice Basil and they're all over it all the time. Plus a lot of oregano and wild mint...and some catnip, too.
Side note: I highly recommend the Blue Spice Basil [got the seed from rareseeds.com]. It smells heavenly all season long. Blooms early for a basil and continuously until frost. Hack it down occasionally to encourage more leaves and newer blooms. Leaves are smallish. We cut a bunch and dried it for tea. The bees LOVE it.
It's not my favorite for pesto, but it's passable. I prefer the Sweet Italian basil for pesto. The Blue Spice is great for just having around the garden. I'll never be without it now.
I forgot to mention basil. We plant rows of it. It is a bee magnet like barrage.
Quote from: Acebird on October 19, 2016, 09:20:40 AM
I forgot to mention basil. We plant rows of it. It is a bee magnet like barrage.
Do all types of basil work? In my garden extension I am hoping to include just flowering plants for my bees.
I have not seen an herb that the bees did not go after. I razz my wife and call all herbs weeds. They grow like weeds and propagate like weeds some might even taste like weeds. You only need to plant them once and then pull up what you don't want in subsequent years.
Great. More herbs for me next year.
Nice :cheesy: