The magic of comb honey

-Posted by Isaac

I walked in the kitchen yesterday evening and found our four kids fighting over a square of cut comb. It wasn't the typical screaming fight with tears. It was more of a giggling fight.

gig·gle

ˈɡiɡəl/

verb

gerund or present participle: giggling

1. laugh lightly in a nervous, affected, or silly manner.

   "they giggled at some private joke"

As in, 'Dad will never miss this!'

We've been withholding the candy lately. I guess they found an alternative- the natural candy.

We're just about done with this year's comb honey and I thought I would take you through the process of producing this delicacy. As with the normal liquid honey production, some years are better than others. This happens to be a down year. But we don't know that when we start assembling the comb boxes in February.

We do about 45 boxes total, half cut-comb and half Ross Rounds. I'm guessing 20-30 hours go into the assembling, as usually Lafe can finish the project in under two weeks in addition to all his other tasks. Unfortunately I don't have a single picture of this tedious winter work. Because... I like to ski.

Once spring arrives I pick out the strongest hives from about four nearby yards and take them down to one deep super. This happens during the normal spitting process.

The above hive produced two boxes of Ross Rounds and got a good start on a regular medium super. It was one of the few that didn't swarm. When you pinch all the brood into one box, the swarm tendency is strong because you have a population explosion in limited space. Some years you can time it right- where the bees are thinking about honey production instead of swarming. Some years you strike out. This year almost all of the comb producers swarmed!

But at the very least, with any kind of nectar flow, they'll get a good start before they go. And once they've started drawing that delicate wax foundation, you can add another brood box to prevent swarming, or simply move the comb box and let another hive finish it.

It's all very dependent on the nectar flow. And of course having strong hives. This year the bees were looking great, but our spring flow was intermittent. We didn't finish with most of the comb until the soybean flow came on in early July.

And even then, not everything was filled out to the brim.

The comb continues to be tedious and time consuming after coming off the hives.

Every section needs evaluated and either packaged as a single piece...

... or cut into chunks and put in a chunk honey jar.

The rounds are packaged "as is."

The squares get cut into 4.5'' by 4.5'' sections. 

And everything then gets put in the freezer. 

For various reasons it's best to store comb honey in the freezer. Last year we needed to buy another deep freeze after running out of room. Over 1000 sections came off the hives. This year I think we'll be somewhere in the 600-700 range.

Which means you'd better get it while it lasts!

Plus, if we continue the candy embargo,  our kids will need at least a couple hundred sections just for themselves.

A few pics from market

-Posted by Isaac

For about the first time in a year, I had a chance to work the Worthington Market. Jayne took over the running-of-kids duties.

And wouldn't you know it, it rained.

I haven't been back to Worthington since last August when I had a little tiff with a guy about bees. We had ourselves a scene. (It's a long and involved story and if you catch me on a good day, I'll be happy to fill you in.) After a week of me fuming about the idiots of the world, it was sort of decided that the markets are best left to the cool headed professionals, i.e., Jayne and Jess.

But this week with soccer in full swing and four kids going in four directions, the second-stringers got another chance! I vowed to redeem myself.

After the rain bestowed us a colorful gift in the sky, sister Becky of Tilley Farmstead set up next to us and had her normal morning rush.

Sometimes the line reaches thirty feet. I love it. People stand there, desperately hoping to nab their weekly organic produce...

...and a few of them notice the honey tent next door. Hmmm, maybe we should stock up on our local sweetness too? Hmmm... 

Quickly we have a crowd.

And what a crowd it is! Worthington has got to be the premier market in the state.

Had I thought ahead of time, I would have walked around early and given you a pictorial tour of the market. As it was, by 9 a.m. we were so swamped that there was no getting away. You'll just have to come out and see it for yourself. Especially if you're like me and haven't had a chance to see Worthington in a while.

Working that market in its full glory helped me to realize that I sort of miss the scene. The people, the energy, the honey talk, the kids begging for honey sticks... the moms and dads trying to keep up... it's kind of fun. And on rare occasion, I'll actually admit that I like it!

That is, on a sunny day, with lots of product leaving the table, no annoying kids spilling samples, no pushy loud-mouthed seniors, no one shedding their bee expertise and buying nothing, no stupid questions, and no idiots... I actually like it!

Big Things

-Posted by Isaac

What do you get when you cross a biker with a cowboy?

...I don't really know, but it's pretty funny.

Yesterday Jayne took the kids horseback riding in the Hocking Hills. It was part of Maizy's week of birthday celebration. Big things! Our princess turned eight last Friday, and the Barnes Kingdom has been rejoicing with one thing or another just about every day.

The week started with a roller rink party and about 30 screaming kids.

Most were second graders, some were younger. A loud and frantic three hours loaded with ice cream, cupcakes and Kidz Bop. For better or worse, a learning experience for one and all.

At some point early in the week, a beautiful present showed up at the Honeyrun Farm doorstep.

Last year Jayne wanted me to build a "face board." After a little eye rolling, and dragging of the feet, I finally got it done, and promptly forgot all about it.

We needed a real artist, so we sent it to our long lost employee Julia Thompson. Julia is now studying to be a pharmacist. This summer she found a little time to work on the board. It surpassed all expectations!

Come on out to the farmstand and take a closer look. Bring the kids!

For what seems like years, Mason has been counting honey sticks and doing odd jobs in the honey house. We pay him and encourage thrift -- Instead of spending his hard earned cash on junk, think about something he'd really like, and save up. For once, he listened. Now he's the proud owner of a fluorescent green kayak. 

We took it out for a spin on the mighty Dry Run creek this week. 

Unfortunately, in August, the big waters are no more.

A different sort of white water...

At some point, Jayne and I had put up with about enough of our kids. It was time to dump them on Grandma. We had a Gillian Welch show to catch in Nashville. 

Making our way to the Ryman, we ran into an old friend. Another great singer / songwriter. 

Look at Miss Ohio.

Jayne is a big bluegrass fan and an accomplished mandolin player in her own right, so running into Bill Monroe on the streets of Nashville was quite a turn on.

But what got her so unhinged with the PDA, I haven't a clue.

"Drink a round to Nashville, before they tear it down..."

We sat down and simply asked to sample some local honey.

Apparently the bees forage on something different down there.

That's right, let's get back to the bees!  Enough of the playing around. Focus!

On Thursday Dan Williams had the Scioto Valley Beekeepers over to talk about queen rearing. Dan is the largest queen breeder in the state and a wealth of knowledge to boot. Over the years I have not only relied on Dan's great queens, I pick his brain any time something comes up.

Speaking of Dan's great queens, last night 32 more of them went into the pumpkins. These nucs, started in mid-June, are now employed at Circle S Farms.

You can see how strong they are already. It takes a little love and a good mama.

So that's the last of the pumpkin pollinators. Most of the hives on the vine crops have been employed a month or more. Circle S is a little late with their planting, but they'll be the first to want the bees out. It's a pick-your-own pumpkin patch.

Back by midnight, it was an early night. I was even able to see Jayne off to market at 5:15 this morning.

We'll see the girls again in a few weeks for some more love.

So that's the end of our big week. But not the end of our Big Things. Maizy is already working on her Christmas list, and soccer practice looms large on this beautiful Saturday morning.

vox clamantis in deserto

-Posted by Isaac

Another one for the beekeepers.

Feed me!

Farmer Bill, followed by many, loved by many more, thought last week's post had enough merit to share with his admirers. So I'm thinking there may be a few more beekeeping eyes present at the moment, and I don't want to waste the opportunity. (With the usual blog blather.) Make hay while the sun shines, right Farmer Bill?

It's time to feed those bees! Vox clamantis in deserto. It means, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness."

(Impressive, huh? You didn't know I could speak Latin? Sure, why, all the time back at Dartmouth we used to get drunk and have wild Latin parties. Good clean Ivy League fun, just for cacat olim, et giggles.) 

A voice crying in the wilderness. Aside from trying to sound smarter than I am, I referenced that bit of Latin in my last post because sometimes it feels like the preaching and drum beating falls on deaf ears. No, not exactly deaf ears, maybe beginner ears. And truthfully I'm right with you. I didn't know the importance of summer mite control and feeding protein until learning the hard way- years of watching my bees dwindle into fall. And of course I have gleaned some good tips from commercial beekeepers who are always ahead of the curve. At huge expense, the commercial guys are feeding protein!

Why? Because the bees need it. If you haven't noticed, July and August are horrible pollen months. Just stand at the hive entrance and watch what little comes in. And I sometimes wonder if what little is coming in, is actually benefitting anything...

It seems a little absurd, being the middle of summer and all, but we're in a pollen dearth right now. The days of weedy fields and diverse forage are long gone. It's clean mono-crop as far as the eye can see.

You can do your bees (and yourself) a real favor by giving the girls a few pounds of protein. Whether it be in block form that you have to cut, powder form that you have to mix, or the easy, lazy way of feeding patties. They're expensive, but I like the patties.

We feed a lot of them.

I've learned that during this mid-summer dearth, the more, the better. They need something to help build brood until the coming goldenrod. Ideally, every hive will get four or five pounds. But what makes it hard is you can't feed it all at once. Hive beetles can get bad when the bees take longer than a week to finish the patty.

We start in August with two pounds, and continue making it around to the bee yards right up until the pollen starts flowing again in mid September. If the bees have made a lot of honey, it means a lot of lifting. A workout! You have to place the protein where it's needed- between the brood boxes.

It's all about nutrition. Recently there have been some great articles in American Bee Journal. 

Not ideal, all this work and expense, but definitely worth it based on what I've seen. The bees are bigger, stronger and fatter by fall and they'll be ready to take advantage of that beautiful goldenrod flow.

Or go out and gather you buckets of tasty goldenrod pollen...

Either way, your bees will go into winter much stronger. Between controlling mites and feeding protein, a little TLC right now can pay big dividends later.

The time is nigh

-Posted by Isaac

Lock up your daughters! Look who's back in town.

The Seth man! Back from the Air Force and now officially trained in EOD. That's Explosive Ordinance Disposal, for you civilians. That's right, like one of those guys in The Hurt Locker, Seth is a military bomb man.

Which is good news because this week we were disposing of varroa bombs. Seth helped for a full day, but then he had to run off. He's due in South Korea by mid-August and before that, he's got girl matters to attend to in Washington state. He's busy! (Like an old bull who's work is never done.)

This week, and for the next month, our target is this:

And really, over the next four months... it's time to do something about the mites!

You don't have a mite problem, you say?      

Bahahahahahah! Everyone has a mite problem! Everyone with a beehive, that is. If you really don't think you have mite troubles, and are a bit green to beekeeping, then this blog post is for you!

(No, I still don't know the blog audience. And the one "like" or comment I get every six months doesn't help much. I assume that there are beekeepers in this group, and I also assume that you're somewhat new to it, simply because a more career oriented beekeeper wouldn't take the time to read a bee blog with corny jokes. I know I wouldn't!)

The varroa mite photo and caption above is from this month's Randy Oliver article in the American Bee Journal. If you are interested in learning how to keep bees alive, I would highly recommend subscribing to ABJ. And reading Randy Oliver! (If you like to talk about beekeeping and chickens and woodworking and gardens then get that other magazine.) 

This is for those of you who want to do more than talk about beekeeping while your bees die in the meantime. In this post we confront enemy #1-- Varroa Destructor.

 Check for mites- Not exactly necessary this time of year because, yes, you have a mite problem! But just to show you, and to see how much of a problem you have, here's how you check. Find a strong hive-

And pull a frame of brood. Young bees give a more accurate mite count. 

Take a second or two and look for the queen. If you find her, than pull another frame, dummy! 

You need about a half cup of bees (300) to do this right. I like to bang them off the frame into a pan, then scoop them up. From there, they go into your alcohol wash. 

(If the bee police didn't come after me for the knee stinging video, than this will surely do it.)

Isopropyl alcohol works fine. If it helps, you can pretend that you're only getting the bees drunk. (See... corny!) But in actuality, you're killing them. Dummy.

Shake your wash about 30 seconds. You are removing the mites from the bees.

And take a look.

Wow! Look at all those mites! If you see over 9 mites (3%), you have a problem. The above picture is a little deceptive. That is actually five hives worth of mites. We don't like to waste our valuable alcohol, so that day we simply reused it, subtracting the previous total from that particular hive's wash. Seth has good eyes. And he can do math. A bonus! 

With Seth's help, I like to do a mite wash on one or two hives per yard. It's good to keep track of certain hives through the fall, know your numbers, and make sure your treatments are actually doing something.

When I'm by myself, especially this time of year, I don't bother mite washing as much. Maybe two or three washes the whole day. Why? Because I already know I have mites! And it's time to treat. Believe me! Vox Clamantis in Deserto. Am I the lone voice crying in the wilderness? It's time to treat those bees!

Yes, it's time to treat! This sort of came up a month ago. We had a bunch of beekeepers out, including the great Pickaway County bee inspector Bill Huhman. The subject of the day: MITES.

One old fella asked, "If you're telling us we already have mites, and we already know we're going to treat, than why are we wasting our time with these washes?"

Bingo! The old fella nailed it.

Whether or not you feel like doing a wash, by August you've got mites. Or you will soon. Trust me. Mites are real!

And mites are hell on bees.

Sure, a mite wash will tell you the extent of the problem, but if one hive in the apiary has a mite load, they'll all have mites eventually. Disease and crashing colonies will soon follow. You can take mountains of time and do a lot of washing... or you can just treat. And that's what we do.

Treat those bees.- This time of year, with the supers on, we go through tons of formic acid.

Don't let the skull and crossbones fool you. It's just acid. But don't put your nose on it!

As you can see, in August the hives get the full dose.

If I have it, and because I'm already in the hive, I like to throw in some protein. Hey, kill two birds.

A week later the protein will be gone. And (hopefully) most of your mites.

To find out, go ahead and do a wash. Did it work?

Even if it did, don't let your guard down. It's only August, and those little devils come back! From now until December, Ms. Varroa Destructor will be a big concern.    HELL IS REAL- ?? - Hotly debatable. But there's no debate about mites. I'm telling you, VARROA IS REAL! And varroa is hell. 

It's time to treat those bees!