Honey

It's Official! We finally have honey~One whole Quart!!
It is early in the season so we hope for a sticky delicious harvest.
Does anyone want to guess how many hives we have, and how long we have waited for honey? If you are correct I will send you a sweet little reward.

Just to give you a little hint, we lost some hives this winter and Sean's father, Ivan, brought us an extra queen he had. We artificially swarmed one of our strong hives in hopes of another colony.

Both of these men really like their bees! Ivan drove 3 1/2 hours to bring us our new queen, stayed for a couple hours then drove 3 1/2 hours home! That is commitment.

The picture of Taylor above happened recently when Sean got a call to come catch a swarm, I was putting the children to bed so I could not go help. Taylor went and they both ended up getting stung pretty bad. Fortunately, Taylor only got stung once but it was right on her eyelid/eyebrow area (the one area she did not have covered). Sean did not fair as well, he was wearing his Chacos and got 5 stings on one foot.

I know it does not sound very compassionate, but the swollen appendages really make me laugh. They look fake, without any wrinkles or prints. Every time I look at it I laugh, Sean doesn't like that.
Taylor has been quite the trooper and still enjoys helping with the bees. It is a sweet reward made all the sweeter by the work we have invested into it.