Bumper Crop . . . One of Cindi's "Glorious Days"

[utahbeekeeper]

You all have been in this place before, I know, but man O man what a harvest yesterday!  Ya know, NOTHIN' flies better that honey out of heavy 9 frame per super combs on a 96 degree day!  Went through 6 medium supers in just a couple of hours in the heat of the afternoon.  Had to have fan on me as well as my cap and sweat bandanna.  The tally is 18 honest gallons of very light first crop inner city honey plus 4 perfectly capped frames for cut comb in our pint jars.  This is the first year all three hives are in sync and strong.  Cool thing is that the city flow is only half over.  Japanese Knottweed, some yellow clovers, rabbit brush . . . . lots more still out there.  The honey I get at the end of September is somewhat darker.  Also finished the cappings processing today and between last year and this we have enough beautiful beeswax for three batches of Millcreek Valley Farm Bee Butter solid lotion bars.  We have been to some awesome arts festivals with our products so far with more to come.  My wife came up with a Ginger Peach cold process soap new this year for Brigham City Peach Days in a few weeks.

Our last show a week ago was pre-harvest for me so I purchased some bulk raw Idaho Mint honey from a trusted friend to sell in 12oz bears just to have something.  Folks loved it.  It is dark, but soooo good in herb tea.  I have but a few left and will offer a swap for the mint and/or our very unique honey in the swap section.

Some notes . . . all that honey was produced over excluders.  They are not honey excluders when there is a flow.  I do, however, place the first super with some of the previous years comb on the hives with out excluders to allow the queen to lay in them for 2 or three days.  This "primes" one or two frames of comb, keeping the bee's interest after the excluder is inserted and another box of foundation is placed on top of the comb.  Only concern is making sure the queen is not on that first super at time of excluder insertion.   Second . . . there has been some frustration here with BeeQuick.  It works for me very quickly.  I build a fume board an inch and a quarter deep, zig zag wire the top, stretch some felt and staple, then nail on a piece of tin.  I paint the whole thing black.  Having come from using Bee Go in So Cal in the 80's, the BeeQuick is heavenly!!

Our long holiday was great.  Hope all of you had a safe and fun 4th also.

[Brian D. Bray]

Sounds like you're one of the fortune beeks that has discovered the correct way to use excluders.  Congratulations on a fine harvest.