Bittersweet

I was out examining our remaining colony of bees today, since the clouds ran out of rain and the weather changed to cold and misty. There are still a significant number of cranky girls in residence, so I again left them alone for a clearer day with better light, and a chance to do an inspection in my veil with another set of hands. There is still the possibility that I missed a queen in residence, so I will make very certain I know what's going on in the hive before I decide what to do next.

The comb that had been accumulating in the kitchen was partially dealt with over the holiday slowdown, and I cut out just the parts of comb that were completely capped - signifying finished honey that won't spoil or ferment in storage. I then broke that comb down to put through my very basic honey extractor.  The usual method for honey extraction when you're keeping a top bar hive is called 'crush and strain,' which is a very apt term.

In the kitchen, I separated out only the comb that contained capped honey - the remainder of the wax, and the top bars were put to the side.

With some patience and my large potato masher, I made sure that I broke up the capped cells, reducing the wax and honey to a mixture that could be strained through the three grades of mesh that came with my handy-dandy crush and strain contraption. 

Yep, a food-grade bucket with a 'honey gate.' Don't worry - it wasn't expensive!

With the help of the heat from the woodstove, and lots of towels and newspaper to catch any spills, I slowly added the mashed mixture to the first of three sieves, scooping out the spent wax that remained between additions, and we patiently waited.

In the end, things got quite sticky, but it smelled wonderful while I was working, and after a couple of days we were able to cover more surfaces with towels and gather our small harvest of honey.  

The wax itself will be rinsed outside to make sure we don't add wax debris to our plumbing, then melted several times in water, to allow me to remove as much debris as possible. Finally, I'll strain it through cheesecloth or an old t-shirt into the waxed milk cartons we've been collecting. The cartons can simply be torn off the cubes of pure, cooled, solid beeswax in the end, and the wax can be used to make candles and salves in the future.

The Latest Buzz

Last week I finally buckled down and dealt with the comb I had been gathering from the hive over the past season.  I knew the process would be messy, so it made sense to do this small amount of processing in one go.

In the height of summer, we accidentally broke some comb in the heat... then there were a couple of off-centre bars we mangled to protect the borrowed brood on a Langstroth hive... and then there were a few empty bars we removed as the weather grew colder in October, to consolidate the area the bees would have for overwintering.  These last bars showed a bit of mould - possibly because the humidity in the hive was increasing as the temperature dropped (I had put the bottom board on when we had our first frost), or because there weren't enough workers to keep everything tidy in the comb furthest from the busy brood chamber.

 

I set everything up on the kitchen counter, and proceeded to get sticky.

Honeycomb darkens over time as the bees use the cells for storage and for rearing the young.  There were pockets of capped (fully evaporated and finished) honey in both the light and dark areas of the comb.  The newer comb I crushed and strained for household use, and the darker comb (some not fully capped), I cut out, and put on a cookie sheet to feed back to the bees. 

The sieve didn't work as well as I had hoped, so I pulled out my jelly-making tripod and left the crushed honeycomb to drain through the fine material. Much better, and easier to use all around.  I did purchase a buckets with three nesting sieves for processing larger amounts of honeycomb, but this set up was fine for the amount I was dealing with.

I kept busy with school and chores, and checked back on the dripping jelly bag a while later. After I had allowed the honey to drain, I swished the remaining crushed, sticky comb in some water, and dumped it into some cheesecloth. There are bits of pollen and debris mixed in with the wax.

 

I managed to drain a half pint of honey out of various bits of comb - equivalent to about one full top bar.  I will use this very sparingly, and keep a few tablespoons back to add to any herbal sugar water I might need to brew up for the bees in the Spring.

 

I crushed and rinsed the remaining, empty comb, and added that to my cheesecloth sack (note to self - trim off excess cheesecloth!) which then went into my jury-rigged double boiler with several cups of water - enough to cover the cheesecloth. 

This small pot conveniently nested an inch off of the bottom of the larger one. The double boiler method is used to prevent direct contact of the wax with the heat source - wax is flammable.  It's also important to note that the small pot will now by used only for processing beeswax.  Apparently, it's impossible to completely clean the wax away. Personally, since I don't use any chemicals in the hive, I'm not worried about a bit of beeswax or comb debris on my kitchen mixing bowls, or on a wooden spoon - but I will mark the pot.

 

I brought the water up to a very gentle boil, and watched for about twenty minutes as the wax melted  and formed a floating layer. I made sure to turn the ball of cheesecloth over to get all of the wax heated and melted, and stopped when it seemed that the volume of the bag was no longer changing. (Very scientific).

I removed the cheesecloth, pressing it against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon, and placed it carefully aside to cool, then turned the stovetop heat off and left the wax to harden.

The girls have still been flying in the sunshine - even though the temperature is below 10 degrees most days.  I set the comb out by the hive entrance over three afternoons, and they cleaned all of the honey up for me.  One girl had gorged on honey and lost track of time - I found her, apparently too chilled as evening fell, when I went to bring the pan in for the night. I heated her with my breath before convincing her to walk off of my finger back into the hive.

 

My first wax harvest.  There is a bit of  dusty debris on the bottom of the wax disc, but most was easily brushed away.  

 

I'll be giving some to my neighbour, who makes herbal salves - she has been so accepting of all of our crazy backyard projects. I intend to treat myself to a small candle in one of my canning jars, and there will be enough left over for me to melt 'start your comb here' lines on the top bars for next year's hives. 

Thank you girls!

Thrilled

An exciting verification today in the top bar beehive.  Last weekend, we found capped brood when we had begun to assume we had lost our queen - again. At the time, we were unable to verify the presence of brood at any other stage.  Had the queen laid successfully, then died?

Today, with some trepidation, I did a very quick hive inspection to see if there was any more progress, and found more brood, several stages of larvae, and the queen herself!  I put the three frames I had disturbed quickly back into position (it is overcast and a bit cool), put the cover back on, and let out a deep sigh of relief. Okay, there may have been a fist pump too.

I'll leave things alone for another week, then do a more thorough inspection with Adrian to figure out where things are going as we head into fall.  We will need to assess the honey situation, and decide if we will need to move some frames around, and if we will be needing to 'help' the hive with some sugar syrup to survive the winter; they have had so many upsets during the time when they should be setting in their stores.

I couldn't be happier to *not* be harvesting honey this year!