Honey july 2002 newsletter

We have just completed our first round of putting honey supers on all of the hives. The second round will be done in early July. This month we checked each hive to see if our new "splits" were sucessfull by checking for the presence of a queen (looking for eggs). Most colonies need 1 - 2 honey supers at this time.

It is a real experience visiting our bee yards. Most of them are at fruit farms or orchards. At an orchard, during fruit bloom I usually drive through hundreds of blooming trees and the smell is fantastic. In the fall I reach out my window and pick an apple for lunch on the drive to the site. At fruit farms, I usually take a long road into the back (we locate our bee yards way in the back out of the way) passing acres of corn, melons, strawberries, onions, pumpkins and other crops. I like to watch how the farmer rotates his crops every year.

We also pick one bee yard to use for comb honey. To produce comb honey you need very strong colonies. I remove any extra honey super from the colony, put a queen excluder (a special frame that the worker bees can pass through but the queen cannot) and then 1 -2 comb honey supers. Comb honey supers are slightly different as the foundation (sheet of was that is used to start the frame) is much thinner since it is used only one time and then it is cut out for us to eat.
Click here for more comb honey pictures.

Just a note - my poor old trailer that I purchased many years ago from an old retired beekeeper just rolled its last mile. I am having a new one (6 x 14 - tandem axle) being built and I hope I have it in time for our July honey supering. I do most all of our beekeeping work out of a pickup truck and a trailer. It does not take massive equipment to run a bee farm as compared to the large fruit and vegetable farms I visit each month.

Combine sugar and honey in large mixing bowl, beating well. Add egg, cinnamon, cloves, ginger and salt, beat well. Dissolve soda in water; add to honey mixture, stirring well. Stir in flour and almonds. Press dough evenly into a greased and floured 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Cut into 3 x 1 inch bars. Remove cookies to wire rack to cool completely. Yield: about 3 dozen. NOTE: cookies may be stored 3 to 4 weeks in a cake tin with an apple to mellow.

You may also want to check www.honey.com website from the National Honey Board. This site has lots of honey recipes & information.