Tag Archives: austin

The rains in August and September have made Austin green again and the fall nectar flow is on. I decided to do one last honey harvest before winter given the amount of available blooms that should be present at least for the month of October if not early November.

I was completely spoiled by using the bee escape for my first two harvests in early summer. For this harvest, I had two supers mostly filled with honey but wanted to mix and match frames to make sure I only took ones with completely capped honey so I had to use a bee brush to clear off the bees. By the end, they were not please with me at all. No stings, but a lot of angry buzzing around my head and the entire yard. I even had to put the chickens back in their coop in a full bee suit due to some unhappy girls.

I had two helpers for this harvest. The across the street neighbors have two young boys who were very interested in the process.

Even Harley wanted to share in the honey harvest and by sharing I mean making a bed out of my bee suit and gloves.

This honey was very different from the late spring/early summer harvest. From my previous post on the pollen analysis, the early honey (on the right) was primarily crepe myrtle, very light and clear, with a low viscosity. This harvest was a lot darker honey (on the left) and much more viscous with a richer flavor.

There is a slight chance I’ll get some more honey if this flow continues, but either way, I had a great first year, and the next steps will be preparing the hive for the winter months.

After a very hot and dry August, September has seen a higher than normal amount of rain due to some tropical storms in the Gulf working their way up to central Texas. When we left for India and France on August 31st, everything was brown and dry, but after a few short weeks of good rain, Austin is green again and all the plants are taking the opportunity to bloom once more.

The girls are also taking advantage of this new nectar flow and have drawn out comb in the 3rd super and have filled it almost all with brood. This is the super I added right before our trip so in three weeks they have drawn out comb on 8 new frames and already have capped brood.

The 4th super is now a mix between brood and honey with the 5th and 6th supers entirely honey. I really don’t want to add a 7th super on the hive which would effectively make the hive taller than me. Instead, I’m going to take advantage of this nectar flow and harvest some more honey next weekend.

Last inspection I also noted a lot of white pollen being stored in the hive and was curious about its source. We think we have solved this mystery. Bind Weed is everywhere now and upon closer inspection of the blooms, we noticed lots of white pollen on the tips of the stamen.

Our closer inspection also turned up lots of bees who are quite taken with this plant.

All in all, this hive has totally exceeded my expectations for my first year as a beekeeper, and I’m hoping for a good fall so that Large Marge and the girls will be prepared for the upcoming winter months.