Hi, this is Nathan today. Aaron and I tried bees for the first time this year. Just looking for a father son project. We made 2 different types of hives, one is called a top bar hive and one is called a Langstrom hive. The Langston hive is the "normal" box hives. The top bar is a actually a more primitive hive and as the name suggests, you have bars that hand along the top and the bees build their comb suspended form the bars. Anyways, we have not gotten any honey from the Langstrom hive. The bees are healthy and are reproducing like crazy but not enough honey to harvest and still give the bees enough for the winter. I had already harvested twice from the top bar hive so did not plan to even open it up but decided to open it up to just check on everything. That hive was packed full of honey. We probably took 5 gallons off of it and still left the bees more than recommended to get through the winter. The honey is good too. Very light colored and mild. I thought it was Alfalfa honey but the professional beekeeper who is helping me and has several hives out here said it is too mild for alfalfa and he will sell it as "summer surprise". Great marketing.
See you all again tomorrow.
Hmm, interesting facts about hives! Bees are really pretty neat- once you get over a fear of them stinging you! That is amazing that you got 5 gallons plus left them tons! Bees are very hard workers.... :D
ReplyDeleteHaha- now I know what "Summer Surprise" is!