*all cleaned up!

Bees are great housekeepers!  Remember I reported to you on our honey harvest? After Henry and I extracted as much of the honey as we could from each frame, we laid them out on a make shift table about 100 feet from their hive.  Sure enough the bees had the frames cleaned within 24 hours.  The honey bees did a great job as well as a few lucky bumble bees who got in on the goods!

I made the rookie mistake of leaving a honey covered plastic bag inside the barn on our way into the house with the full frames in hand. We discarded or tossed aside the plastic bag when we went through the barn.  I also left two frames in the barn when I had meant to go back and get them to put on the make-shift table to get cleaned up by the bees.  Eric and I later went out to the barn to feed the animals for the evening and WHOA!  We were met at the barns entrance with numerous bees swarming around that had been busy cleaning those two misplaced frames as well as investigating the plastic bag with great interest!   I had to now carefully removed the bag as well as get those two frames out in the field with the other ones.

I have read A LOT about managing a hive, keeping bees, being a good beekeeper, and the likes. I however have not given the same amount of time to learning HOW it is that the bees make the honey.  Today out of a healthy respect for the bees and a grateful heart for the flow that they produced for us,  I decided to do a bit of reading on this topic. I am amazed the amount of laborious efforts that have to be put forth to simply produce a tablespoon of honey.  Check THIS link out with some curious facts about the worker bees process of making honey.

When I went out to check on the frames to see how the cleaning was coming along I saw many dead bees. I was, as you can imagine, a bit alarmed.  I also saw all the bumble bees and thought perhaps a fight had ensued over the honey, and thought perhaps the bumble bees had won.  This was not the case at all.  I later found out that the life cycle of those bees had come to an end. I thought, well it is a good way to finish up life!  In the midst of what they OWN, that honey.

Tomorrow will be the day we open the hive one last time until spring!  I am excited to work the hive and see my little sugars one more time before they begin spending the next few months getting ready to weather the fall and winter months.