Friday, June 20, 2014

Light Sweet Honey and the Last Jungle





I only got about half the amount of honey from this first pull as I was hoping for. Not because the girls haven't been working or there wasn't much honey in the hives but because although they had full frames it wasn't ripe and capped yet. I suspect it has just been too humid for them to get it cured very fast. The next pull should be much better in volume but this late Spring honey is worth it's weight in gold as far as I am concerned.

Around here the Spring Honey is my absolute favorite by far. It is light, sweet and almost as clear as weak tea and I never get tired of it. I will admit the Summer and Fall crops are tasty but they are much heavier and kinda make me feel like I am eating one of those chocolate deserts my wife is so fond of, you know like three bites and any one with testosterone has hit chocolate overload and their teeth are melting. To this day I cannot eat a whole piece of chocolate cheesecake. Late Summer and Fall Honey is like that with me too but not this Spring stuff.

Although I fell short of what I was hoping for I think I have enough to cover the demand and with luck I can do another pull in two or three weeks. My goal is to get enough hives that I only need to make two pulls a year but with this dismal swarm season I am having I am not going to hit this years growth goals that's for sure.




Muddy Valley asked me why I don't set my extraction equipment out for the bees to clean up so I took this picture of my extraction tank. It seems no matter how hard I try the honey flows slowly enough that I always get a build up in a corner and then lose many bees to drowning in honey. This doesn't always happen but it happens enough that I rarely mess with it. It's one thing to clean up the de-capping tank but I am not going to try and clean dead bees out of my spin extractor.




Squash-Inni anyone? I have three volunteer squash plants that are producing what I am almost certain is a fruit cross pollinated between a Crookneck Squash and a regular Zucchini. We have eaten several of them so far and they are quite tasty but we have limited it to grating them and frying them up in cakes like a Potato Pancake type thing.  I really like this variety actually it has more pulpy mass on it than the other types and grates up nicely. We will probably never see it's like again after this season but I just wanted to see what it would produce.




Here is a trellis of cucumbers with several volunteer Pole Beans I planted in with em. They will all grow together but I don't care. I had enough volunteer Pole Beans sprouting around that having to take down the one trellis of Beans due to the weeds isn't going to bother me too much.

Speaking of which here is the last weed jungle I still need to deal with....




You can see the weeded areas on either side but these last two trellis are a complete overgrown mess of things. I lost a number of bean plants to the wet and Bindweed so it isn't too much of a disappointment to take the back trellis out but I am still going to try and save those cucumbers. I would have finished it off today but once again got called into work but I should finish tomorrow since I already told them I couldn't do any runs this weekend.

After this last piece of jungle it will become much smoother sailing. I actually enjoyed the Sunset this evening strolling around and tying up wayward Tomato vines and after this last part of the jungle is done I only have two projects sitting in the back log. Whatever will I do with myself?

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!

  

17 comments:

  1. That honey does look good and good luck with the rest!

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    1. Thanks Bubba. I'm going to need it apparently :)

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  2. I see! Another five or ten hives and maybe I'll have to get something to use my pressure washer on. Sure is a shame to waste honey, but I see the problems.

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  3. You kept a gallon or two of that spring honey for yourself I hope. :-)

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    1. MV -Nah I kept a little back for my son but there were several people calling me for some. I had just enough to cover demand this time.

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  4. Nice. Good luck with the garden

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    1. Rob - Thanks. Garden is looking pretty good except for that last section.

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  5. Those are neat looking squash, make sure you let one mature to save the seeds! They look like spaghetti squash in shape but they would be running like pumpkins.

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    1. Sf - I think with all the meat on em they would be good for grilling.

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  6. PP,

    That honey sure looks good!!

    The squash looks very healthy and I bet tastes amazing. We didn't plant squash this year so far. I didn't want to have to battle the squash bugs.

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    1. Sandy - I squish the squash bugs when I see em but really they don't bother me. I find by the time they kill off the plants I am pretty sick of squash and Zucs anyway. Along with my relatives and neighbors :)

      Many years I am cheering the squash bugs on to be honest.

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  7. I noticed a job in the paper where they needed a bee keeper. Want to move to North Georgia?

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    1. Harry - My guess is it would be for a big outfit and I doubt I would be able to stomach their methods. I admit I am jumping to conclusions but those large operations are about the only ones who hire people.

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  8. Harry - don't you even try to move my brother unless he is coming up here to the manor! AND bringing his bees! PP - that is the most gorgeous-coloured honey i have ever seen and i love honey! i can only imagine that since i haven't called you a wiener in this post that you would send me a jar. i'll send you a fat, lazy project managing cat in return. you would make out better on the deal than me but i would get some honey.

    oh and buddy - you know it never ends with the animals and the gardens and the maintenance. you'll have enough to keep you busy for the rest of the summer and hopefully keep you out of trouble too!

    yer mah bee-heroe! much love buddy to you and yours! your friend,
    kymber

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    1. Kymber dear. Ya know what. I am gonna try and mail you a bottle of honey just to see if they will let me. I know I am not suppose to but I bet I can claim ignorance :)

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    2. buddy - don't get yourself into any more trouble....remember the windsor incident??? bahahahahh!

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  9. The honey looks delicious. I saw someone's picture of their honey. The first one looked like yours and then the honey they got 2 weeks later was a dark gold. So neat. I can't wait to have my own bee's!!!!

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