It's been a busy year in the apiary! We've done some splits and I caught a swarm all by myself. [Exciting!] I now have 8 colonies, and all are doing pretty well. We've expanded the size of the apiary to accommodate our growing numbers and I'm excited to be getting some honey.
This is our spring harvest. We got 6.5 quarts [very little compared to what commercial beekeepers will get off a single hive]. I'm hoping to get that much more before the end of the season. The harvest is small because I've been producing a lot of bees instead of honey.
I study beekeeping every single day. I have learned a lot more this year, but still feel pretty ignorant about beekeeping and bees. I'm still trying to work out what is a good working size for our apiary. If I can get these colonies through the winter, then next year I should be able to focus on a few hives for big honey production.
In the meantime, there are a lot of stings and sweet rewards.
