Here are a few hives we have at the Puget Island site. We have a few
other sites with a total of 18 hives. About five of those hives are
swarms caught or hives that are slower growing and will not be
producing honey this season. If you look closely the upper boxes are
shallower, those boxes are honey supers. Each honey super when full,
will have approximately 50 pounds of honey. Approximately eleven pounds of honey equals to one gallon of pure, raw wonderful honey! The two larger
bottom boxes are the brood chambers. A healthy hive will have 30-50
thousand bees. A honey bee works 24/7 (it never sleeps) for the
length of its life which is 45 days. Except when the queen lays late
summer/early fall eggs! These bees will be winter bees, they live for
6 months. Their job is to keep the hive at 92 degrees and keep the queen
safe.
These insects are the only bugs that manufacture human food that
literally lasts forever at whatever the temperature. Archeologists have
found clay jars of honey in tombs over 2000 years old that are
wonderfully good and still have live enzymes! I feel that if folks
don’t believe in God they should keep honey bees, they truly are a
miracle!!
The video is of a swarm of feral bees I caught with a swarm trap I
built out of old cedar to imitate a hollow tree.
The two purple photos are honey bees on some of my lavender!
