It is now almost January but I must apportion something that is very exciting for a first year apiarist . I was able to reap 12 jars of dearest last evenfall from 3.5 bars of honeycomb before I put the bees to bed for winter last October . I still left them 14 prevention full of honey and brood to survive the wintertime which should be more than enough food for them . This was my first year with Italian Apis mellifera . I put them in an empty topbar beehive ( there is one more established topbar hive with Russian honeybee on the prop that I did n’t take any honey from this year ) . The Italian girl did outstanding , grow many bars of dearest for the first class in a rather dismal year for flowers and ambrosia . Molto Bene ! I started them from a 4 lb package of bees I received last April and I did subsidise their nutrient for a turn while they establish their hive to give them a respectable start and I remember it avail them give up ass later . That plus having my huge veggie garden for them to visit and I grew many flowers that they wish such as borage , old maid and waves of sunflowers . I also have get ‘ bee gardens ’ in other parts of the property with drought tolerant plants that equal like for ambrosia . My new motto is ‘ to only plant new perennial that the honeybees like ’ .
The bees are located on the back one-half of the property so after walking out to their hives , I opened it up and cut off the BAR of comb adulterate with love , ( you must leave the combs with brood in the hive for the bee ) . Then I put the combs into a 5 Imperial gallon pail , put the lid on ( the bees will endeavor to get it ) and took the combs up to the house . I crushed up the combs with a Irish potato masher and strained the honey about a day and a half through a kitchen colander into a bighearted roll to get as much of the honey as potential . Then I re - strained the honey with some okay muslin to take out any impurities . Afterwards I poured the honey into the jars which you may see above . The beautiful jars are Bormioli Rocco Quattro Stagioni ( wow - that ’s quite a mouthful ! ) and can be bought from Amazonhere . How appropriate ! Italian jars for Italian bee beloved ! My good acquaintance Mernie turn me on to them .
My bee instructor , Les CrowderfromFor the Love of Bees , a bee master whom I studied with this year recount us in family that we could take the leftover cockscomb wax which is still awkward with some dearest ( that wo n’t drain out ) and put it outside and the bees will take any leftover honey from it . So I put the mucilaginous wax on a cooky flat solid and left it outside by the bees water source . ( If you are new to topbar beekeeping and last in New Mexico , I highly commend Les Crowder as you willlearn so muchfrom him and gainlotsof assurance in wield bee . )
Within one hour they started visit it .
By 2 hours I could scantily see the wax - there were so many bee on it .
Within 2 days they had cleaned up the wax so thoroughly that it was no longer sticky and they were no longer interested in it as they had take all the remaining honey from it .
I put the clean wax in a charge plate baggie until I resolve what to do with it ( the bee wo n’t reuse the wax ) . Since these coxcomb were new this class , the wax is a beautiful milklike - favorable color . Older combs turn dark-brown or dark as they get quondam .
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