We checked our two hives on June 21st and found they were both doing very well. Interestingly, our left hive has surpassed the right one in status even though we established this hive about 3 weeks after the right hive. There are more capped honey frames filled in the left hive than the right. We also notice more bees in the top honey super on the left than the right. Also, the bees in the left hive drink their sugar-water supplementation about three times as fast as the bees in the right hive

showing the golden honey in the sun

note the small section of capped honey on top

We’re not sure if it’s the reason why the left hive is more robust and is growing faster, but the bees in the left hive are also much more aggressive than the bees on the right. Could they have a touch of Africanism, we wonder?

left hive: large capped area

right hive – less honey capped so far

More photos of the honey build up in the top supers of our hives:    

Last year, we had not even rescued our first hives of bees by Memorial Day. This year, we added two new hives and got them early in the season (February in California).  We’ve also been feeding both hives steadily with 1:1 sugar:water syrup, and prior to when we added the honey supers, we also fed the hives Pro-Bee cakes.  Our hope is that these two factors will allow us to take one small draw of honey prior to the fall.

Today, we decided to reward ourselves with a first taste of honey. Our bees have been busily filling the honey supers (two medium on each hive) with honey. It’s still too early to do a full honey draw because the honey isn’t full in either super, nor is it capped.  But in inspecting the hives today, hive 1 had several pieces of comb that the bees had built up between frames. For hive maintenance – and conveniently to collect some honey – we removed the extra comb.

I had brought a large metal bowl down to the honey grove just in case such a situation presented itself. Of course many bees came with the comb into the bowl, but we gently and patiently brushed them off the comb, and back into the hive, leaving us with beautiful comb dripping with honey. Rand showed me that I could chew on the comb, much like chewing gum. What a pleasure! Our honey is indescribably sweet and flavorful. I can’t wait to do a proper draw and share it with our friends and family!

bees on the honey super’s frames: