Dear Bee Folk,

Robert and I have two hives on his property, one of which seems full of food and activity, one of which has been vacated. The latter is a two box hive, the bottom box left full of good combs.

At the kitchen pressing at Lise and Dan's a week or so ago, our super yielded a lot. It turns out that we strained 14 pounds yesterday, a honey deep amber and cloudy. Robert and I split the product, with some small jars going out to helpers at that very sticky pressing and straining duty.

We used a kitchen sieve and two honey meshes of 200 and 600 microns. We kept the kitchen warmI was baking cornbread, and the honey flowed well with a bit of paddling.

It looks like Robert and I will move one of our hives into my yard, so I would value advice about the best place to put it. I assume we will order a box of bees with a queen, unless we gather in a swarm.

Meanwhile, it looks as if Sunday, March 6, at Annie's will be a good opportunity to ask bee-related questions and get some good answers.

In talking with Peter Powers today we were wondering why our honey is opaque; also we were not sure how to detect late winter feeding needswhat should we look for? Also, can we feed bees at our remaining hive the pressed out comb or combs not pressed for honey but having some full cells, both from the vacated hive?

Anyway, how satisfying to harvest honey and look forward to our sophomore year of beekeeping! Thank you, David & Dan!

Erik