The Elvaton Apiary

After a very disheartening spring and wet early summer, I all but wrote off any chances of getting honey this year.  Well, color me surprised today when I opened the hive for the first time since June and discovered fully drawn, filled, and capped comb!  The honey super has all nine frames drawn and most are filled with capped honey.  A few of the corners on some frames have drone brood in them.  I am figuring about seven frames worth of honey - maybe 25 pounds.  In June, I thought I would be lucky to get one frame worth.

And let me tell you, this honey is very sweet and has a nice golden orange tint.   I feel like a proud dad who just watched his kid score the winning goal.

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Well, this isn’t a full blown inspection, I simply popped the top and had a quick look as I was removing the feeding pail. There is plenty of capped brood and a little bit of comb drawn in the honey super, but it doesn’t look promising.

Next year I’m going to start feeding the hive in March and get the honey super on before the middle of May. Not having any comb drawn is a huge problem. I am planning on re-queening next season, maybe that will help bring a comb building trait to the hive.

Man, it’s hot outside.

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No honey for me this year. The bees have not drawn out any comb, the ants have made a mess of the brood numbers, and now I have hive beetles. I’m waiting for a bear to show up now and eat what’s left.

I was hoping to get some honey this season, but the lack of comb in the honey supers will make that difficult. I’m putting a pail of sugar water on the hive to help offset the rainy days - maybe that will help them draw out some comb.

The queen seems to be doing well and there is plenty of capped brood now. I’ll leave the hive alone for a few weeks and see what things look like in July after we get back from vacation.

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