Helpers. Lots of helpers.

After processing out the honey in the extractor and then getting the honey that was in the uncapping tub (and also taking that beeswax out, to be cleaned and stored until we do a melt), the last task is cleaning everything. Fortunately, there are many thousands of helpers ready and willing to do just that.

Uncapping_tub_20150124

It takes a lot of them as there is still quite a bit of honey left, clinging to absolutely everything: extracting honey is not a pristine or entirely clean (hands-wise) process. Like Cecil B. DeMille, we have a cast of thousands.

Helper bees on the rack

The girls can be quite acrobatic when they are searching for every last drop of sweet honey to carry back to their hives.

Cleanup crew

They are also quite focused on their task, which allows Norma Desmond here to be ready for her closeup.

Norma Desmond

 

Let there be honey!

A late season frame pull for honey, as the bees in one hive were starting to approach the honeybound phase: storing so much honey that no cells were available for the queen to lay. Replacing a couple of full frames with empties can hold that at bay hopefully, until such time as we can pull more honey-filled frame and/or split off some of the bees from that hive to create a new hive with a new queen.
Late season honey

Mutants at the ranch

This is what happens when you miss something during a harvest – at least to some things. I had put some carrots at the end of the asparagus row, to utilize the space until I get the remaining asparagus plants dug, separated, and relocated. Instead of laying low for about 60 days, this guy was in there for around four months, give or take.

Giant mutant carrot

What do we do with such a creature? Not eat it, to be sure. At some point, many things will just become too woody to taste good. Okra is a good example of this: if those pods are not cut, they’ll often grow longer than your hand, and turn into something actually resembling wood as they dry and turn brown. Not good eating. If we had any chickens at the moment, we would cut up this carrot and feed it to them, but since we don’t, it goes to the compost pile, where eventually it will serve as nutrient for something else. The circle of life, and all that.