Making Up For Last Year

The bees did it!  We have honey this year.  I don't know what is going on in that first hive, no honey there. 

 They didn't make us any last year either.  They are very calm bees but I am disappointed in their work ethic.

 Now the second hive was one J was able to capture last year when a friend found a swarm in their cow pasture.   These are very aggressive bees.  J got 2 stings through the leather gloves and I had to retreat to inside the house.   The horses that were very curious up to this point even left when J was working on this hive.

 But they made some beautiful honey.  The third hive was a swarm from this spring and they had honey too.  They must have swarmed from the first hive because they were on the mean side too.

J had to retreat to the trees for a bit to get them off of him.  We did learn that you should not leave the super out for very long after transferring the frames.  The bees got right back on it even with it being out in the yard.  We ended up having to put them in the back of the truck and I drove up and down the driveway until the majority of the bees gave up.  We then carried the supers to the garage where over the next hour or so the bees started collecting at the windows so we could let them out.  Then this morning they were still flying around just outside the garage.  I haven't finished straining the honey yet but this is our biggest haul yet.