We were happy to see that our bees had not thrown us any curves while we were gone for our trip. We made our own food grade honey bucket by installing the spout or honey gate. We brushed off the bees from the capped honey and headed for the Talberts at Sabine Creek Honey in Josephine (our past instructors). As part of the beekeeping scholarship Sophie participated in, harvesting the honey was one of the requirements that could not be met due to Covid and the students having low amounts of honey last year. The Talberts generously extended their facilities to harvest the next year. That's what we were doing.
Though it was a hard year for beekeepers because of Snowmageddon in February and a poor nectar production, our bees did produce enough for us to harvest some. Given our two hives, we were able to harvest 21 pounds of honey. When polled this year, local North Texas beekeepers shared that 75% got 0-20 pounds off their hive this year, with 50% harvesting 10 or less pounds. 60-80 pounds per hive is normal.
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| Getting every drop from the cappings |
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| Giving back to the bees. They lick it completely dry. |
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| Perched on my knee |
Next up, we needed to test and treat for mites to make sure our hives had a fighting chance to survive the winter. This year we used sticky boards which are not quite as accurate as an alcohol test but it doesn't kill the bees and it is a whole lot easier. Here Sophie is counting the mites as our eyes are too old.
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