Peace and Love

Honey harvest, done not according to the book. We took five boxes full of bees off the hive and spread them individually around us, without covers. On a whim, I decided that, as we had dug our way all the way down to the brood nest, we might as well have a 'quick look', so we worked our way through the brood combs, blowing on some of the bees to move them out of the way (a no-no, according to some authorities), shaking some off for a better view. We acknowledged the queen, gave them a clean bill of health, and then put one of the boxes back on top

We then worked through the other four boxes, frame-by-frame, shaking bees unceremoniously off each frame and into the partly reassembled hive. Having removed the bees, we took each box in turn to the car. Literal daylight robbery

With many colonies, this would have been a recipe for mayhem - disturbed, alarmed, outraged bees, flying in clouds around their home, looking for someone to blame and pay back, primarily me! These ones just went about their tasks as if all this disruption was an everyday event

I wonder if I'm still in a euphoric state from the new arrival, and my well-being has communicated itself to the bees. We have told them directly about his birth, and his full name, of course, as it is traditional to do. Bees that are excluded from family events are liable to take offence and abscond. Somehow, they have absorbed that all is right with the world

The rest of the day was sticky chaos: uncapping, centrifuging, filtering (three times), transferring honey from vessel to vessel, and lots of washing up. The extracted frames are now back with the bees for them to clean off residual honey, before we put them in winter storage

The picture is honey flowing from one container into a second one, passing through a 0.2mm cloth filter as it does so. I do not understand the physics of the trajectory it is following as it flows