2017 First Jar of Honey
Things are pretty rough in our hives right now. The wet weather this summer made it so hard for the bees to gather nectar and produce honey. Last year, we had a bumper crop and this year, it's the opposite. We're hoping that the goldrod nectar flow will help them build up their stores over the next few weeks. Here's hoping and praying for a hot, dry September, because our bees do not have enough food for themselves for winter right now, let alone extra honey to offer us. But my trusty volunteer and I did manage to pull and spin a little bit of honey this week so we could have some to enter in the Paris Fair. So here you go - a wee glimpse of the honey harvest of 2017.
Today Russ and I moved some hives off of their old stands after my foot had gone through the rotten platform more than once. We dragged some new pallets into the yard and shifted the six hives over to their new spots one by one. The poor bees were so disoriented and frantic! A worker bee's GPS is so accurate that if you move her hive even a few inches, she will land exactly where the opening used to be. So many bees were landing in the grass where their hives used to be, unable or unwilling to trust their eyes when they told them that their hives were four feet away. So, after we moved the hives, we set some branches up in front of the hive openings which will force the bees to reorient when they leave the hive and enable them to return to their own hive safely, having recalibrated their GPS. I hope they are going to find their way home now that we have rocked their little worlds. Sometimes we all need an obstacle or two to force us to stop, get our bearings and find our way home!
We chose a crazy, cold, windy day to wrap our hives in big pieces of plastic and tar paper. Talk about challenging! But at least the bees decided to stay in their warm hives instead of bothering us so that made our task a little easier. And now they are all done! Tucked in, all warm and cozy for winter with a little bit of insulation and windproofing from plastic and solar gain warmth from tar paper. We also tilted them forward to allow for moisture to drain down and out instead of dripping on the girls. Moisture is their worst enemy in winter so we have allowed for lots of ventilation. Here's hoping they all make it through the winter!
