Award Winning Honey

 I had submitted honey to the Morton Arboretum Honey competition and received third place in the Dark honey category.

I am just learning about how they judge honey, but they have many points from taste, water content, any sugar cristals to finger prints on the jar. 

The Smoker

It took me some time to get my smoker to work well and not burn out just as you get into the hive. I had tried several fuels from cotton, pine nettles and pellets.  What works best for me is twine.  I ball up 30 feet of it and light it with a propane torch.   It is cheap, simple and easy.  One ball will last just over one hive inspection and then I put in the next one.

Uncapping stand

 I built a stand to hold the frames as remove the capping wax.  Each frame 2-3 lbs and akward and sticky, so this really helped in the process.

Propolis

Here is a good photo of the bees filling a gap with propolis.  In the photo you see the brown goo between the lower hive body and the queen seperator.  Propolis is a resinous mixture from tree sap and other plant extracts they collect.  Click the photo to get a better look.

Two Tyeps of Honeybees

 Of the three hives I have, one of them has bees of a darker color.  They both are honey bees, but of a slightly differnt type.  The light color is an Itilian Honeybee and the darker one is most likly Carniolan.  The queen bees must be from these types of honey bees so all the worker are of they type.

An afternoon out drinking

 The bees like a close watering hole.  Collectivly they drink a fair amount of water.  I seem to be filling up thier bird bath more than the other ones.

Early Start

 Just at the end of March, I checked the hive.  There already has been a hatch of brood, and collections of nector and pollen.  So I added a supper to give them more room and start to collect honey for me.