The Harvest

I don't get it.  This summer was like most with the exception of a July that was a little wetter than most, which one would think would be beneficial to gardening.  Our garden had dismal results this year.  Normally the foliage on the beans is so thick that you have to search for the beans.  This year we still see the poles that the bean vines are climbing on. Nearly everything else in the garden was dismal as well.  There were few blueberries, though the raspberries are still doing well.

On the other front this is the worst year I've ever seen for honey production.  Normally I have one or two colums of bee boxes stacked floor to ceiling; ten to fifteen boxes waiting to be extracted.  This year I have three boxes.  There is some honey still in the hive but the bees aren't curing it.  If I take honey that isn't curred by the bees it will be apt to ferment.

It was a bad year for the bees.  The colonies dwindled, queens died and had to be replaced or colonies had to be joined.  To top that off a bear has found one of my hives on the back end of the property.  I only have three colonies up there.  I suspect it was a young bear because it only ripped apart one hive.  An adult bear would have distroyed all three.

There is a lot of work involved in harvesting, extracting and bottling honey.  It is sticky, messy work, but it feels so good to have several cases ready to be sold as the end result.  This year I expect it will only take a couple of hours.  I only hope I'll have enough to share with all of my usual customers this year.  With only one-quarter of my normal production there may be some have-nots.