Preparing Honey Harvest
Work is sometimes a pleasure. Preparing to bottle an ample honey harvest is truly pleasurable work. It is the reward for all of the spring labor on the bee hives.
We had another honey harvest on Monday, August 5. We only visited 2 locations with a total of 4 hives but we harvested about 70 pounds of honey. Two of these hives are located between apartment houses on lower Queen Anne Hill near Seattle Pacific University (98119) and two are located in a private backyard near downtown Bothell (98011). Both locations have been exceptionally productive. The Bothell location makes sense but the apiary shadowed by apartment houses on lower Queen Anne breaks all rules of locating bee hives. It is well protected by a fence and a locked gate but it is shaded all day long and the bees have a near-vertical take-off and landing pattern.
Raw Honey from Bothell, WA
One of the Bothell hives produced lots of honey despite being queenless. We remedied that situation with a Buckfast Queen, trying survivor-bred stock in hopes of better winter survival and more predictable behavior.
We needed the queen immediately. When we harvested the Bothell honey, the bees spilled out of the hive and clustered four deep on the exterior — alarming the homeowner. The queen cost $40 from Corky Luster of Ballard Bees, a high price, but she came with strong credentials and we were in immediate need. Queenless hives do not behave in a normal or predictable fashion.
Additionally, on Friday we were expecting 3 queens from Oregon, bred by Old Sol for gentleness and heartiness ($28 each). The Post Office was not thrilled to hear about a bee shipment, but they cooperated.
The last queen we mail-ordered rode around in the mail carrier’s van all day. The Post Office is supposed to call when the bees arrive so we can pick them up. She arrived alive at our mailbox and is doing a good job repopulating a queenless hive.