Finally, nearly four years after setting up our hive we have been able to harvest a small amount of honey...And boy does it taste sweet!
It's been a steep learning curve and we now realise that bee keeping is not as simple as it seems. The weather plays a huge part in how productive a hive is and bad weather means less flowers for the bees to collect pollen from. In fact we have had to provide a substitute over the winter months, in the form of fondant, just in order to keep the bees from starving!
We also had problems with the first Queen Bee we had, as she was laying eggs that only produced Drones and not Worker bees. The Worker bees go out and collect the food, so
starvation was imminent. Therefore, we had to bring in a new Queen but she was eventually replaced by one that the Colony bred themselves. They seem to have chosen well as they have filled their section of the hive with lots of honey, enough to spill over into the section that we can harvest! (We have to leave enough for the bees to feed themselves over the coming months).
Needless to say, we were itching to taste the produce and fortunately, my Sister and her family just happened to be visiting when we harvested our first few frames of honey. We each had a go at removing the beeswax and uncapping the frames to reveal the golden liquid, (so satisfying, and you can see a video on our Social Media). Next the frames had to be spun in a centrifuge, to release the honey without damaging the honeycomb, as we could then replace it in the hive with the hope that the bees will refill it for us!
Finally, we had around 2 pints of honey to decant into some pretty little gift jars...If you're staying with us you may get the chance to buy one to take home!..I can honestly say it's the best honey I ever tasted!!
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