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Showing posts from September, 2020

How SWEET it is! Our First Honey Harvest.

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Early this spring, my friend called asking for help!  A swarm of bees had landed in her yard and were collecting on the base of her lilac bush.  I called my niece, whose husband (Andrew) is a beekeeper and he was here in an hour or so.   He brought all of the equipment needed for capturing a swarm.  He was excited when he saw how large this swarm was!  A prime swarm!  HUGE!   I wish I'd videoed him scooping the bees up by handfuls and shaking them into their new beehive home.  Pretty cool from a distance! We have sev eral apple tr ees, pea r, plum trees and a fairly large garden.  Alfalfa fields are nearby as well so our little hive of bees have plenty of blossoms to stay busy all summer.  Andrew told me bees gather nectar in a 5 mile radius of their hive.   When the hive was fully capped off (the bees had filled all their little honey holes and sealed them), Andrew and his wife Cassie brought their honey separator to our home and we got to work . This separator does 2 frames at a