On the 4th of July, we decided to check the honey supers that I had on 3 of my hives and add brooding boxes to the two hives that I have at Burr Farm. We harvested 17 frames from the original hive that we placed at Burr Farm and we also harvested 17 frames from the two hives on my property. That is quite a haul for a small time beekeeper this early in the season in my opinion.
Typically, most beekeepers in Connecticut wait until after the all nectar flows have been completed for the year, around August to September, but I like to try to capture the different nectar flows during the season when the bees have provided me a harvest worth collecting. Different nectars provide different tastes of honey.
I also kept the honey that I collected from the two area separate during the extraction. Which was something new for us, and I’m glad I did. There are two different tastes to them. My home harvest seems to have more of a floral taste to it while the harvest from Burr Farm has a deeper honey taste. They are both dark honeys and they are both delicious.
On another note, the swarm that we captured at Burr Farm, filled out the first brood box, and they were really due for another brood box when we placed it on. Also, this year we are planning doing something different with the extracted combs. Usually, we put them in the yard for the bees to rob, let them clean them out. It really causes a bit of a bee frenzy and can attract bears. This year we are placing them on the newer stronger hives. Maybe we can get a little of honey out of them, maybe not, but we won’t have the battle of the bees in our yard and less worry about bears.
So if you are interested in honey, please text me at 860-990-2658 to make arrangements. As always, please bee kind and thank you for reading.
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