covered in beeeeeeeeeeeees

[ivangrozny]

I used to keep a lot of colonies, upwards of 50 at one time. Now I have just a few colonies, no honey extractor, and am enjoying the craft far more. I make comb honey and bulk cut comb, My interest was never realy in the honey. I always enjoyed spending time with the bees. I spend a bit of time each year rearing queensand it is one of my favorite times. I prefer new world carnolians over most other bees I have tried. Italians can be very easy to handle but they don't survive our winters well, I had colonies of italians that were so gentle that I even took off my veil when it was a good day with a good nectar flow. Carnolians are not as gentle but are a beautiful bee that survives winters well and puts up a nice load of honey. I've harvested 180 lbs from my best carnolian colonies in a good year. For those that are thinking of or new at it I highly recomend 9 frames in the brood chambers, and 8 in the honey supers if you are doing extracted honey, but you need to start with 10 on undrawn comb and then pull the extras when they are drawn out.