Now that's more like it!

Some of the 21 deep frames of honey I collected today

Deep frames, foundationless frames, new comb, white, new comb. Twenty one frames full of capped honey. That's impossible everyone says. I am just so glad we can say - We're back in business!!

OK, let's start at the beginning. In my last post I told about collecting seven frames and getting bees in my veil. Then I ordered the zipper veil for my new bee suit. I got that, but July was such a busy month, I barely got those seven frames extracted by the end of the month. Now it is August and my calendar is blissfully empty. How nice. Today was a really nice day and I had time, so I put on the new suit with zipper veil and wheeled out several boxes of empty frames to replace what I hoped to take out of the hives.

I opened the blue long hive first. The bees were testy and were pinging my veil. So, I went back and got out the old smoker. I had it out from a presentation I did last week, so I didn't have to dig far. I had fuel with it, and patiently made sure it was really going before I went back out. I did need the smoker with the blue hive. It had about five or six empty frames in the back, but other that that, was full of honey. I removed six fully capped frames of brand new white foundationless comb honey. I was moving from the back of the hive and the next frame up had brood in it, worker brood, so I stopped taking frames. I replaced the frames I took with empty frames and closed up the hive.

Next, I went to the tan hive. I tried to pry the lid off, and it just wouldn't open. Finally I got it opened and discovered it was glued together with honey comb. Every inch of the hive was full. It was full of capped honey all the way to the back, then the last frame was glued to the wall with more honey. I really didn't need the smoker with that hive, despite being packed with honey and bees. I started at the back and removed a total of FIFTEEN full frames of honey. All those frames were foundationless and started out the season completely empty. I stopped after I got to the place where the frames straightened out again. In my haste after my last hive adventure I had thrown two frames in and closed up the hive. They were crooked and because the hive was so full, there was some crooked comb. I will say I got all the frames out and most of them intact. About seven frames will need to either be crushed and strained or cut into cut comb honey, but I should be able to extract at least fourteen or fifteen of them.

So, the total today was 21 frames of honey. No brood in these frames, these are packed to the gills, full of brand new white beautiful comb and stuffed to overflowing with honey. I estimate at least 105 pounds of honey from what I collectected today. I got a total of 24 pounds of honey from my last collection, which should make around 130 pounds of honey. I will be satisfied with that from two hives!

My new bee suit, which worked very well collecting honey today

Baby chick with its new adopted mother

Everyone is invested in the little survivor chick. We are still not sure if it is a male or female, but are leaning toward female since it doesn't have much of a tail. Since I posted last, two hens jointly adopted the little chick. This one is one of the regular Buff Orpington hens, like the chick's real mother. The other adoptive mother is our white silkie hen, which is quite a comical sight to see - the two very different hens with the little chick between them. As of now, they have taught the chick how to climb the ramp into the coop at night and all three of them snuggle down in the nesting box for the night.