Honey Show

Those of you who know us and have followed the saga of our bees this year will be aware of the angst we had trying to get the bees to go up into the supers to store honey in May and June.  We had swarms and our original hive has now ended up being four hives. So the bees had to build up their strength before they could get out there and collect surplus honey. We tried smearing honey on the frames, changing queen excluders and Mary kindly gave us drawn frames to try and encourage reluctant bees to give us some of their bounty!
So, at the end of the honey season we have been very proud of the bees efforts this year- we collected about 50 lbs of honey in total from the 2 Cordwood hives and the Garden hive. From the Cordwood bees there was light and very dark honey; taken in July and August. The garden bees gave us about 19lbs in August- classed as light honey but a richer colour than that earlier in the year. Maybe not the most prolific harvest but nevertheless we were happy.
This week was the Notts Beekeepers Honey Show and we decided to have a go with our three types of honey- I thought they would be light, medium and dark- but in fact when it came to it we had 2 light and a dark. So I entered the garden honey in the beginner's class and  the Cordwood honey in the light and dark classes.

Well done bees!!!