Giving Back to the Bees

After this weekend's harvest, there was still more to do.  The crushed wax with the honey was put in a nylon mesh bag and suspended over a bucket for two days to allow the honey to drain out.  Once this was finished, there was still a fair amount of honey within the crushed comb, not enough to make it worthwhile to go after, but more than I wanted to deal with when we went to refine the beeswax.  There are several ways to separate the residual honey from the comb.  Our preferred way?  Let the bees do it!

We set the comb out on trays on a table a ways from the hives.  The first few hours were too cool and cloudy for the bees to take any interest.  But once the sun came out, they went to work.  Bees will take out whatever honey is left in the comb and return it to the hive.  The comb gets cleaned out, and the bees get an easy feed.  We like it because it strengthens the colony, doesn't waste any of the precious honey the bees have already made, and cleans the residue out of the comb with minimal work on our part.  Win win!

Another day of good weather (that's two in a row -  a rarity this spring!) and the beeswax will be ready to go in the solar wax melter.  Thursday promises to be warm and sunny, so we will get a first true test of our new tool.  I'm looking forward to watching the wax melt.  Hey, that's what we do for fun here in East Pomona!