This past week, I was able to harvest our honey for the year. We captured part of that process and I've put together a 1 minute overview that should give you an idea of how this happens.
https://rumble.com/v1ft4lh-2022-hone...4uowq&mc=346v4
I've bottled a couple of buckets already to fill orders. Each time we spin the extractor it's 20 frames, basically 2 boxes. In some cases there are 2 hives that make that and in some cases 1 hive can make 2 runs of honey. What I really noticed this year is the difference in the colors of the honey. From bucket to bucket there are several shades of difference in the honey. They're in the same apiary, in the same field with access to the same flowering plants. They just choose differently, or made most of their honey at different times.
The first creamed honey batches I made were ready today. I delivered a few small orders and dropped some strategic samples in those visits. People are going bananas and I think this is going to be a great seller when people figure out what it really is....I'm excited about that.
Now...yesterday.
My old scout broke down, my daily driver truck broke down and I went to do mite treatments at my second apiary in the evening....in the past 2 weeks, all 7 of those hives have died. All of them. Every hour of my summer of chasing, catching and trapping bees....****ed. The weekends I spent catching and cutting them out instead of at the lake with my kids....wasted. Today I got up at 5 am and took a kid in for a second knee surgery. Real banger of a week.
I'd lost 9, not I've lost 16 hives since June. I'm baffled. I'm going to call in some help to help me figure out wtf is going on, because it's demoralizing to work so hard at something and have it blow up in my face...in the summer....not even winter yet.
The excitement of the people sampling the creamed honey re-energized me a little and I bottled 2 buckets tonight and will make more tomorrow.