Week #40: Honey and Potatoes

On September 30th we cracked open our hives to take out all of the honey, whether capped or not, from our supers. The reason being that the bees will start to move the honey from the supers down to the deeps as temperatures cool.  This may lead to the displacement of brood cells which would weaken the colony over the winter. 

We brought in the frames that were close to 80% capped, squeezed out all the honey, and filtered it through cheese cloths.  Altogether we got over 12 jars of liquid honey. 

Our hives now with just 2 deeps.  Bees are still actively pollinating from our flower garden, along with New England Asters that are in the surrounding ditches.

We are probably the last people in Essex County that have yet to dig up potatoes.  That finally changed this week when Marianne and her Mom dug up half. We would have dug up more to let dry in the sun but it began to rain.  In fact, it has been raining quite a while on and off this past week which is delaying this year's soybean harvest.

Half of our potatoes attempting to dry on the deck.  Photo by Marianne Balkwill