Batches

Batch 1: Honey harvested on 10th June 2022 (Jars labelled 07-22 yellow)

This honey was foraged throughout the months of May and June.  All of the bees moved consistently from the hive towards Rothampsted Park, most likely foraging on Horse Chestnut (rather annoyingly there was quite a bit of red pollen stored in the supers!) and the avenue of lime trees (broad-leaved) which were in bloom throughout the month. The honey had a typical "Linden Honey" character;  clear/golden, runny. Delicate flavour with a slightly smokey taste and a citrus/minty finish. The total harvest was 15.5kg and the honey had a 17% moisture content so should store well. This batch was transferred to 190ml (~225g) round jars (Freeman and Harding Ltd) and labelled "07-22" - all of this batch was given to friends and relatives.

Batch 2: Honey harvested on 21st August 2022 (Jars labelled 08-22 yellow)

The hive population increased massively during this foraging period (11 June -> 20 August). There were 4 supers in place. The nectar was foraged throughout mid-June to mid-August. During June and early July the bees moved consistently from the hive towards Rothampsted Park, perhaps again foraging on the later-flowering small-leaved and common limes which were in bloom for the first couple of weeks in July. 

It was a very warm couple of months (record breaking!) and the bees showed "bearding" behaviour with many of them hanging around on the front of the brood box. During July and August the bees started foraging in local gardens -flying off in all directions and many of them foraged in our own garden. They loved the marjoram, rosemary, lavendar, rudbeckia, cosmos and globe thistle (Echinops).  

A note on Honey Yield:

During a 'typical' midsummer day, the bees entered the hive at the rate of approx. 5 bees per second: If each bee carried 40mg nectar (which reduces to perhaps 10mg of finished honey) that should give 50mg per second of finished honey - which means..... 0.05*3600*8 ~1.4kg honey per day!!. so that would give 100 kg in 70 days!... of course the stored honey yield is considerably less that this because the bees have got to live (and make baby bees etc.) and they also have to make lots of wax!.. However, as you'll see below, it's surprising how much honey they actually make.

When harvested, all 44 frames (11 frames * 4 supers) were beautifully finished and capped. We weighed a few capped frames: They were between 1.45kg and 1.7kg (average ~1.5kg). After extraction, the empty frames (+comb) weighed 260g ... but some had trapped pollen and weighed up to 360g (average about 290g). So, each frame should give about 1.2kg of honey + wax cappings. 

The final yield of filtered honey, weighed 47kg (e.g. 1.1kg/frame) and the lump of cleaned wax weighed 0.91kg (e.g. 0.02kg/frame). I probably discarded 1kg of honey that was trapped in the cappings. So, the numbers (compared to the paragraph above) match up fairly well.

The honey has a more floral taste than the earlier (May/June) batch. It is light golden in colour and has a slight opalescence from the pollen. It is runny but slightly more viscous than the earlier batch. The honey from the lower two supers had an average moisture content of 16% and from the upper two supers it was ~17%.

The honey was transferred to a mixture of 190ml (~225g) round jars and 280ml (~340g) hexagonal Jars (Freeman and Harding Ltd) and labelled "08-22"

Batch 3: Honey harvested on 13th September 2023 (Jars labelled 09-23 pink)

By way of a BLOG.... In spite of my early inspections looking for swarm cells the bees got in under-the-radar, made several queen cells, that were undetected, and then swarmed (several times) early in the season. My lovely neighbours were amazingly tolerant and helped hugely in letting me collect one swarm from a neighbouring garden... which I kept it in a nucleus for a few days.  One should say that swarming bees are very alarming - buzzing and whirling around - but they are nearly always completely harmless - they just want to find a new nesting site and since they have nothing to protect they are not hostile or aggressive. 

To collect a swarm  you just scoop the biggest lump of bees  (hopefully with the queen at the centre of the cluster) into a box. Put a lid on top, open up a lower entrance hole and wait ~ 2 hours for stragglers to wander in to join the cluster.  Then, bung up the hole and hey presto, you have a swarm in a box!  If you have any spare brood frames (preferably with some honey in) you can put those into the box and also perhaps a couple of empty frames with wax foundation so the bees can spread out a bit and they have something to do.

When I inspected my main hive, it was quite depleted of bees and I found several empty queen cells, one full one and a couple of "cups".. I snuffed them all out. There was no brood and no eggs etc... so, a few days later I simply dumped my collected swarm back into the hive! Three weeks later, I opened to inspect the brood box and there she was! ..a new queen walking around over the now-cleared central frames, where she was busy laying  eggs BRILLIANT.  As it turned out, I was double-lucky because the new bees are more docile and well-behaved than the last lot. Very easy to inspect etc.

Anyway, docile and lovely though they are, they did not collect as much honey this year. I suspect this is a simple matter of the low number of bees and also a very poor year in terms of weather conditions. They also got absolutely hammered by a freak hail storm and the top of the hive now looks like someone has gone over it with a ball-peen hammer!

This June/July the bees did not make an obvious "beeline"  for the Rothamsted Park lime trees and instead went off in different directions so, I believe this years' honey is probably foraged mainly from local gardens - maybe I should talk to the harmonic radar experts at Rothamsted they can track individual insects over distances of hundreds of metres.

When harvested, I had  2.5 full boxes (11 frames * 2.5 supers). The fully capped frames (as above) weighed ~1.5kg  before uncapping and extraction. After extraction, the empty frames (+comb) weighed ~260g . The final yield of filtered honey from all boxes , weighed 24kg  (e.g. 0.9kg/frame)  - bit lower than last year because some frames were not completely full.

The honey is golden in colour (slightly darker than last year) and has the usual opalescence from the pollen.

The honey has a moisture content of 17%  and was  transferred to 1lb circular jars (Freeman and Harding Ltd) and labelled "09/23"

All the honey will be "given away" as before with a request to donate to SENSE. All jars have a QR code with a link to this site and then on to the donation site... Please give generously - SENSE is a wonderful charity caring for deafblind and people with complex needs - Our beneficiaries really need, and hugely appreciate, your help. 

As a guide..... 1lb of locally-produced honey usually sells for ~ £8 -to- £10 

Batch 4: Honey harvested on 18th July 2024 (Jars labelled 07-24 orange)

The bees swarmed (several times) mid-may and early June. My lovely neighbours were amazingly tolerant and helped hugely by letting me collect swarms from their gardens. I gave one swam away and kept another in a nucleus box for a few days (just in case!).  The main hive was quite depleted of bees most of the honey stores were gone and there was very little brood - so I moved the nucleus very close to the hive entrance for a week and then dumped all the bees (including the queen!) back into the hive.  They soon got used to their "new" home and the colony settled in and multiplied very quickly! They are a very docile and friendly colony of bees.

During June and July the bees flew directly towards the Rothamsted Park lime tree avenue and were incredibly busy bringing nectar back to the hive. They soon filled two supers so I added two more in early July. 

When harvested, I had  4 full super boxes (11 frames * 4 supers = 44 frames). Every frame was beautifully filled and capped with basically no empty cells - amazing. The honey was clear and light gold in colour with a greenish tinge. It was very thick in consistency and had a 14% moisture content. Typical "Linden" honey taste is amazing I have to say!  It was quite difficult to centrifuge the frames because the honey was so viscous. The total yield was 42kg. I returned all the cleared supers to the hive and the bees were delighted because there was quite a bit of residual honey in the frames. I also made about 1kg of cleaned bees' wax.

The honey was  transferred to 80 x 1lb circular jars (Freeman and Harding Ltd) and the remaining honey was put into about 40 x 1/2 lb circular jars. All labelled "07/24" (orange tag) and additionally labelled with the usual QR code.

All the honey will be "given away" as before with a request to donate to SENSE. All jars have a QR code with a link to this site and then on to the donation site... Please give generously - SENSE is a wonderful charity caring for deafblind and people with complex needs - Our beneficiaries really need, and hugely appreciate, your help. 

As a guide..... 1lb of locally-produced honey sells for between £10 and £13 per jar (Jeremy Clarkson sells 12oz jars for £13.50)

Batch 5: Honey harvested on 19th Sept 2024 (Jars labelled 09-24 white)

This honey was harvested from local gardens - the bees were going off in all different directions from the hive. Removed the supers two weeks ago - before the ivy started to bloom - (ivy honey tastes pretty foul and crystallizes in the combs... a real nuisance).

Twelve frames were nicely conditioned and capped off the rest were mainly uncapped. Kept the honey from the nicely capped frame (about 12kg total yield with a moisture content of 17%). Collectd the unfinished honey+ nectar from the remaining frames had a final moisture content of about 22% (about 10kg total) - This is unsuitable for storage and really quite runny so I will feed it back to the bees. They now have only one super on the hive and I will remove the queen excluder and let them over winter in the "Brood and a half" as it is sometimes called (i.e. the main brood box and one super on top.. (with NO queen excluder). 

The honey was  transferred to 1/2 lb circular jars. All labelled "09/24" (white tag) and additionally labelled with the usual QR code.

All the honey will be "given away" as before with a request to donate to SENSE. All jars have a QR code with a link to this site and then on to the donation site... Please give generously - SENSE is a wonderful charity caring for deafblind and people with complex needs - Our beneficiaries really need, and hugely appreciate, your help.