Late Spring Honey Harvest

The Summer of 2011 was a hard year for my Little Girls where I live in Santa Cruz County, CA.  The days were cool and the nectar flow never really came on.  They worked so hard and when I went to harvest in mid-September they have no spare honey !  In fact, their hives were so light that I ended up feeding them over 50 lbs of sugar and added Honey Bee Healthy.  If I had not fed my Little Girls, they would have starved !  Good news is... they made it through the Winter, all 4 of my hives, and came into the Spring strong and healthy :)  I split 2 of my hives into 4, gave one of my hives to a friend because they had become a bit aggressive and ended up with 5 hives.  This seemed to be a swarming year and I caught 3 swarms from my apiary, and caught 2 others... one in the Los Gatos Community Garden and one in a friend's yard in Santa Cruz.  Not needing 10 hives, I sold the 5 swarms that I caught.

In June 2012 I harvested 140 lbs of honey, and left them a bunch of honey just in case the Summer cools down.  It looks like it is going to bee a great Summer so I'm hoping to harvest again in August or September.

Life is good in my little Miraflores Bee Yard and my girls are buzzing around !