That was a close call for the hive glad to see the tree missed it, did you put on you moon suit when running the saw?. Was out in the bee yard over the weekend and pulled two full shallows and half a deep of honey off of three hives. Ended up pulling each frame, checking it to make sure there wasn't any brood in it and it was capped, knocked the bees off with a brush and then putting it in an empty super. Took a bit of time to sort it all out. There was a lot more honey in the hives but it wasn't capped so had to leave it alone for now. Ended up with 5 gallons of honey after extraction. Going to bottle some of it in 2 lb bottles for flea markets, raw organic honey is hot down here, the rest will go into 5 lb bottles for home use. Forgot how much work it is using a hand cranked extractor. The entire shop smelled like honey after a bit, a real treat smelling raw unblended honey, it almost made my eyes water it was so strong. I'm always amazed at the difference between the blended honey offered in stores and the "real stuff" fresh out of a hive, unblended, unheated, and just a little filtered. I'm not sure what flowers the bees used for this crop, there are a lot of palm trees and wild flowers in bloom so there's a good chance the honey came from them. The honey has a medium gold color with a wonderful sweet fragrance and flavor. It's also elderberry season (have 8lbs of berries in the freezer) so a summer mel will be in order. Been a good year so far, just found a chemical free treatment for mites in Bee Culture, garlic powder and powdered sugar sprinkled in the hive is supposed to work. Will give it a try later on in the summer.
