2011 has come and almost gone

Well, I had the best intentions this year - to blog as much as I did the first year, chronicling my adventures with the bees as a second year beekeeper. What happened? I'd like to say it was my work (employment) that kept me from blogging, and to some extent that is true. I really wish I could say it was the amount of time I spent golfing at Norfolk Golf Club, but, it wasn't. I think it was a combination of a lot of things ... work, family, vacations (count them, 3 - Italy for a week, CapeCod for a week, and California for a week), time spent revamping NorfolkGC.com website (the real reason I didn't write), and some degree of laziness for sure.

Today is Sep 25th, and the season is winding down. We started with 2 nucs this year, and we've been fortunate enough to get a honey harvest - despite all of the rain we had. Of the 2 hives, one seems to be more fond of putting honey on the medium super than the other, and therefore more productive. However, all told between the two hives the total tally is 24 pounds of honey that I have taken. And at this point, I think each hive still has approximately 30-40 lbs for them for the winter. I am not taking any more for me.

For as long as I live, I will cherish the memory of walking into the house with my first medium super of honey. Charlotte asked me what I had, and when I described what it was, she immediately came over with a spoon. Scraping down the comb, breaking it slightly, and scooping up that honey, it couldn't get any fresher that that. The smile on her face is what I live for, and she was smiling from ear to ear as she tasted that honey. She hordes it now :).

Charlotte has bought some 1/2 lb jars and come up with some labels. We have 2 different names on the honey labels: The Literary Bees and The Quotable Bees. Each label is unique and personal with quotes from famous people. We have given some honey away to friends, and we have saved some for Christmas gifts. We have had some (truth be told, more than some) that we've mixed with bourbon at 10 at night. It's been a good year, I've let the bees do their own thing, and they have done it well.

It is an amazing process to watch these bees do their work. Busy as a bee really does describe how they act if you ever are able to sit back and watch a hive. They come and go so quickly from the hive, it's like watching time lapse of planes landing at an airport.

Ever wonder what it takes to make honey?

How many flowers will a bee need to collect nectar from to make one tablespoon of honey?
The answer is 2000 flowers

How many flowers does a bee visit to make a pound of honey?
To make a pound of honey the bees need to visit about two million flowers, and in doing this they will fly something like 55,000 miles -- the equivalent of more than twice around the world.

How many bees does it take to make one pound of honey?
A single bee can collect about 1/12 teaspoon of honey in its lifetime, so it would take the life's work of about 560 workers to make a pound of honey.

The product they make is so very good, so very tasty.


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