We are in the midst of mite treatment for our three beehives, so it seems like a good time to summarize our 2024 honey season.
To start, none of our hives made it through the winter, so we started with new bees. Last year was a very dry year, but 2024 was very wet, especially in the spring and early summer. We were worried that the rain would be beneficial to the garden, but limit the range of the bees. However, each hive slowly filled with honey. The Langstroth actually produced a medium super and a half, and the two Layens hives also did well. The bees in one of the Layens hives did create a problem, as they ignored the frames and built comb in the lid of the hive. It provided a lot of wax, but was a mess to harvest. In addition, when I would open the very heavy lid, all the bees were right there instead of being inside the hive, which would create a cloud of bees during each inspection.
Harvest day finally arrived. I suited up, filled the UTV with gear, lit the smoker, and went to the hives to gather the frames. The bees were extra protective this year, or I did a much poorer job closing up my bee suit, as I got stung several times on each arm. This was a bit of a test for me as I did not recall being stung by a bee before and hoped that I did not have a previously undiagnosed allergy. My airway did not close up, but my arms were quite swollen for a week.
I learned a lot last year, so the extraction went smoother this year. In all, we bottled 111 pounds of honey, which is nearly twice last year's total. I collected an additional 6 pounds from the bottom of the pail, for use in mead, with the remainder going back to the bees. One of the books we have on bees says that people get into beekeeping for the bees, but get out because of the honey, and I can see why as I am not sure what we will do with over 100 pounds of honey!
The following week, I washed and filtered the wax. We combine the wax with water in a stainless steel pail, and boil until the wax melts. The hot liquid then gets filtered through cheesecloth into a large pan. The wax slowly rises to the top and hardens into a disc. Because the disc still contains a lot of impurities, we melt it again using a double boiler. The wax gets filtered again. I pore the wax into disposable aluminum pans from the Dollar Store to create blocks for later use. Last year, Maggie bought candle molds, so while I had melted wax, made a single candle.
We probably have at least 10 pounds of beeswax, which is more valuable than the honey. Mann Lake is selling 1-pound blocks of beeswax for around $15 per pound, whereas raw honey is about $7 a pound. I am not a fan of the Layens hives for several reasons, but they do produce honey, and we get much more wax from them. I just need to learn how to avoid getting stung when opening those hives.
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