Modern Recipe: It's Adelle's Birthday!

I asked Adelle's to share her favorite recipe with honey in honor of her birthday. It's a pretty simple recipe... Enjoy!

1) Acquire honey

2) Open jar

3) Eat honey

Beekeeping Adventures: First installation!

Last night I installed one of the hives. This is a video my friend Leif took. There will be more video once I get it edited.

Honey varietals did not exist in the Medieval and Renaissance times as we know them now. They were named for the area harvested and the season. This hive is in the backyard of a Victorian house. I have decided to name this bee yard "Painted Lady."

Seven more packages will be picked up and installed today. Video and pictures will be taken of that too.

First hive is set up!
Posted by Leif Erik Carlson on Friday, May 22, 2015

Beekeeping Adventures: Hive Set-Up Day

Saturday was hive set-up day. Two hives were set-up in Dewitt and eight in Cazenovia. It was a beautiful day with just a bit of wind. Adelle, her dad James, my dad Marty, and Dad's girlfriend Chris all helped out. Andy, the land owner helped out too. Much fun was had as we chose the placement and leveled the hives. I will be back out there tonight to sink and lash down the hives with Andy and Carol, the other land owner. This area in Cazenovia can get very windy. We want to make sure the hives don't get blown over!

Cover me! I'm going in!

Simple beauty...

Burr comb at Four Weeks

Burr comb on the inner cover. 

Burr comb is when the bees build comb outside of the frames such as on the inner cover.                 

Honey bees working on a frame at four weeks after installation

Good Advice for Life and in the Bee Yard

Found on the Gold Star Bees Facebook page

Modern Bee Pic #3

This is a picture of Top Bar Hive (TBH) honeycomb being drawn out and worked on the bar by the worker bees. The cream colored comb to the left is virgin comb. It's comb that has yet to be used for pollen, honey production, or raising young. It is one of the most beautiful things in the world to me.

At the top right of the picture, along the bottom edge of the bar, there is a substance that looks like melted Bit o' Honey. This is propolis. The bees manufacture it from tree sap. It is sometimes referred to as "bee glue". It is very sticky when warm or hot. Bees use it to fill in spaces and cracks they deem harmful to the hive.

The best reaction I get when showing people this picture or comb I have on hand is from kids. They see the comb and they are already in awe. Then I tell them the bees built it without using a ruler. Their eyes go wide and they get very excited. After that, I am usually unable to keep up with all of their questions.

Modern Bee Pic #2

Filing this under Modern Bee Pics as it is a reproduction I made. It's about 1/5 the size of full-sized skep.

Skeps are the beehives most commonly associated with medieval and Renaissance beekeeping. A skep is an inverted basket made of woven wicker or coiled straw used in beekeeping for housing bees. The skep is over two thousand years old and is still used today in parts of Europe.

Coiled straw skeps were made only where suitable materials were grown. These materials were reeds, grasses, or long-stemmed cereals. Tools used to make a coiled-straw skep are a girth and an awl. A girth, made of leather or cow horn, kept the coils a consistent thickness. A bone or metal awl was used to make holes in the straw to insert the binding cane. Long stems, such as blackberry, were split and used to join the coils.

Long, thin sticks were often placed across the interior to help prevent comb breakage and anchor combs to the hive. Coiled straw skeps can have flat or domed tops and can vary greatly in size and shape. The flight hole could be placed anywhere on the coiled skep. The flight hole is the hole or holes from which the bees come and go from the hive.

Miniature example of a skep I created in 2009

Modern Bee Pic #1

A full frame of capped honey...