Lazy beekeeping has paid off in Hive #2 and we put up a mess of honey in the last couple of days. I actually extracted honey a couple of weeks ago and we bottled this and the honey we extracted in the last couple of days.
Here are some pictures of our "processing". My daughter and grand-daugther were big helpers. You can see some decapping on the right and bottling on the left.
My son did all of the hive manipulation as I am under restricted lifting currently. Most of this honey came out of Hive #2, it continues to be a strong hive, 5 medium boxes tall. We took 9 full frames of honey from the top two boxes.
Hive #4 appears to be finally building up, it is now three medium boxes high, we took two frames of honey from them, but left quite a bit since they are still building.
Hive's #1 and 3 still seem to be a questionable state. If they remain this way I will probably have to combine them with each other or other hives later in the year. Hive #3 seemed at least to have a bunch of newly orienting bees out and about, so I am hopeful.
I also put together a simple solar wax melter today. Of course it rained, so I don't know if it will work yet, I'll put it out again tomorrow and take some pictures for here.
Glad to be back!
