In memory of Paul and Dorothy Hess

Paul and Dorothy Hess died after a car accident this month. Words are inadequate to express the sadness we feel. They were wonderful giving people, generous with their time and knowledge and had so much yet left to share with us all. October 17, 2011

More tests were done on this honey than usual, in fact, most marketed raw honey has no laboratory testing at all. Notice that the high profile microbes are all less than 3/gram, or better. The mold count, probably comes from viable spores, since no fungal structures were microscopically observed in product. Most of the honey now has been extracted and put in jars of all sizes. Several pounds remaining will be sterilized and made into honey-butter, whipped honey and just sterile honey for Max.

collecting honey

After Hilary opened the hives and smoked the bees slightly, Paul used a leaf blower to brush off the bees remaining on the frames removed from teh hive. This was fairly gentle and a lot faster than by hand. The bees were later given sugar water, not a fair trade, but it pacified them somewhat.

Golden rod and wild asters are abundant but not many other flowers are available now. Lidino clover planted this spring did not do well, the area is probably too wet.

We have not weighed the extracted honey yet, we also saved several frames for comb honey, actually our favorite for eating.



Tomorrow Hilary and I will test composites for Salmonella, Listeria, total coliform, E. coli, staphylococci, streptococci and clostridium. We do this periotically when we remove honey, with satisfactory results.

The new queen was accepted, she looks healthy and larva are seen. We tasted honey from the other two hives and it is wonderful. We will not bother this hive again for a few weeks then we will check for mites. I hope to have enough time to do some cultures simular to what I did when I started this project. (refer to start of blog and early entries).

left behind bees are without a queen

No viable larva is seen, no queen or queen cells are seen. since the workers live only about 6 weeks, this colony will be extinct unless we can add another queen. Paul brought a queen cell from one of his hives and a queen emerged on the way here. She was carefully introduced to the hive. We will examine the hive in a few days.

bees need attention, one hive swarmed

The swarm stayed 40 feet up for 24 hours then left for the woods.

dead bee count

The metal sheet was cleaned with peroxide and tomorrow will do a dead bee count and cultures on them. Worker bees live only about six weeks, according to several books, including my latest, 1975 "The Hive and the Honey Bee" a gift from Neale Koening.

visiting bird

There are a few warblers here, and other birds; orioles, wrens, grossbeaks, barn swallows, finches, nuthatches, tufted titmouse, chickadees, cowbirds, red wing blackbirds,others, including one we can not Id, but have seen only one hummingbird.

bees are taking care of themselves so other interests:

Lung cancer cells used to test compounds inhibiting growth, if you are interested in techniques or can make suggestions, questions or comments are welcomed.

Nice weather!

The bees survived the brief snow and are now happy and healthy on this sunny day(the first in quite a while.) They've been busy collecting pollen. Since there are very few flowers yet we suspect they are perhaps utilizing the willow tree, though we have not actually seen any bees over there. A small scattering of local flowers will hopefully spread enough to provide the bees with something more soon.

April 19th snow

This is the hive built by Mr. Kendhammer, thicker than the other purchased hives. When the lid is lifted it feels warmer than the other two hives. Old rugs and blankets draped over the other two to give more warmth and prevent the opening from being blocked by snow/sleet. Bee have a supply of sugar water, last years honey and bee cake. Although they do not use the glass feeders becasue the solution is probably cold.

The New Hives

The queens arrived and were put into the three hives that we set up for them. Each of the hives has at least two frames of honey on the bottom. The jars on the front are full of sugar water. Since the flowers are not quite around yet we put artificial food in top for them to eat. The tin can is also full of sugar water.

Clean Up

In preparation for the new bees we had to scrape out the old frames. A few of them that were still pretty clean and full of honey we kept for the new hives. All of the boxes and frames were cleaned with UV light.

We will keep some of the honey for ourselves, but first we'll check to make sure it's edible.

last of the winter

The bees died, all frozen, bodies tested (AOAC or BAM), in two 20 bee lots. Results cfu per BEE: total coliform : 50; Strep. species: <4; Staph. species/S. aureus : <4/<4; Listeria species: negative per 20 bees; Paenibacillus species: <2; Salmonella species: negative per 20 bees; APC (SMA 24/48 hr 32'C): 1500/63,000; molds/yeast: 1,100/1.9 million; A dilution of 1 bee:10 mL buffered water gave a strong positive on a standard bio assay (B. sterothermophilus) for antibacterial antibiotics. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------