Honey for the X County Fair!

Tomorrow is the day I take our Honey to the X County Fair for the Honey Judging Contest! We've won the past three years in a row, and have hopes for yet again, another Blue Ribbon. We must defend out title!

The bees this year are all new hives, as you will know if you've been following along with the Boss and the Birdchick. And it's been a kind of odd season so far. First it was a very cold spring, and things didn't start up with their pollinating quite as soon as they should have, and now the past couple of weeks have been HOT, and no one, even the bees, feels like doing all that much. Lots of days I see them just hanging out on their Bee Porches, fanning away. This means there is not a great deal of honey, so far.

Both the Boss and Birdchick being unavailable, I went, taking Kelly McCullough (who volunteered willingly, more or less) and Woodsman Hans (who had no choice, he works for us) down to the hives to see if there might be some honey we could steal.

(Longtime Gentle Readers will recall this was the reason I spent so many years opposing the hives in the first place, KNOWING Boss would be gone, and I'd be nipping out for a comb or two. I am still reluctant, but have overcome a LOT of Bee Fear thru sheer determination. Almost, I like it.)

The Hives out in the woods, pictured first, didn't have much, and I didn't want to take from them, so we closed things up, gathered our smoke and disappeared in a puff of it.. Here is the Garden Hive, which has been going at the honey thing like all tomorrows parties.

I think they Suspected Something. Angry bees, swarming around, flying, BUZZING and lots of bonking, which is Bee Talk for "Get the hell out of here now before we pull out the stingers" Yes, they knew what we were up to. We wanted their honey, and they knew this was no "Hey, here's another frame of supers" mission.

We only took the two, as you can see, they have been working overtime. I stayed calm, cool and collected and closed up the hive, (Lorraine talk for "Didn't run screaming") replacing the frames, of course, but left it to Hans to talk the bees into leaving the frames, while Kelly hooked up the Bear Proof Electric fence.

At the Fair, there are two Honey Categories: Extracted, and cut comb. Cut comb is most often in what's called a Ross Round, a handy round thingie bees can buildcomb in and pops right off, perfectly shaped, when one wants it. Sadly, none of the Ross Round Hives had anything going on in their rounds, so I had to try and cut some, and get it off the frame intact and perfect.

Pretty much worked, and I got about four little boxes of cut comb, one of which will sure to be perfect. Sticky Fingers crossed.

All honey tastes differently. I am trying to think how to describe this years. It's from the first of the Spring Flowers, so very light, tho not the pale white you sometimes get. Very golden, sweet of course, but with a hint of spice. I will solicit some opinions and let you know.

For the extracted honey, I use the high tech method pictured above. I call it the Bucket Method. Get some cheescloth to stay on top of a bucket with a rubber band (the most difficult part of the process) and scrape the comb and honey in, and Voila! (I think that's French for "there you have it") The honey drips thru, and you can then jar it up!

And then I take it to the Fair. Judging on Thursday, I believe.

One final bit, because it's a topic I love talking about, the Leopard Lounge is getting trees this Friday. We're all set with Truck, Chainsaws and Beer. (I use that word "we" rather loosely. I believe I help haul logs, and fetch beer. Quite possibly make lunch.)

To that end, I found this Tree, and am hoping it will work nicely (ie come down without smashing anything or killing anyone) as it has lots of crooks and odd branchlings and will make lovely places for the Leopards to lurk upon, basking a while in the sun, while waiting for prey, and, finally, playing Death Drops From Above.

Somehow it looks BIGGER here.

Ah well..

Love and Adventure,
Lorraine