Yes, I’m a slacker with blogging!
But that doesn’t mean we quit the most expensive hobby. I’ll give a list of updates and then try to remain consistent throughout this season.
1. This has been a very successful year with honey and lip balm sales. We’ve really gotten to know more of our neighborhood, which is awesome!
2. The lip balm container problem may have been resolved.
3. Mighty Mite Thermal Treatment is our current attempted method for dealing with mites.
4. We went into winter with 6 hives and entered spring with 3.
5. We did another on-site presentation with some of our neighborhood children.
6. We attended the annual Geneva Bee Conference.
7. Two more package bees were purchased and we briefly had 5 hives.
8. One of our hives that swarmed (quite an event that I’ll write about another day) actually absconded.
9. With 4 hives left, another one swarmed- much too high to catch.
10. For the first time, we purchased a queen.
11. With 10 queen cells brewing (as potential replacements for that last swarm) several hive splits were attempted.
12. More than anything, we really want to figure out queen rearing. $$$
13. We’ve decided to enroll in the eCornell Master Beekeeper program.
Here’s a little swarm video:
Interesting Fact: Our hive that absconded? That was the last of the mean-queen descendants, so we are glad they left.
These tubes fit the tray perfectly, which had me so excited. I was able to fill 50 tubes at once. You can overfill the tray to prevent the sunken in effect. Once it dries, you can use the scraper to remove excess wax and leave it with a perfect, even top. The labels fit perfectly. 
First you take the beeswax and you shred it. You shred it. You shred it, shred it, shred it! This isn’t easy. It might look like it is as easy as shredding cheese in this picture, but it actually feels like you are shredding a brick.
Next, you mix in some of the oils with the beeswax, and you melt it in a double boiler until it is pure liquid. If you are feeling risky, you don’t have to use a double boiler. However, if you aren’t careful, and it actually starts boiling, hot oil shooting out at you can not only be painful, but also a serious pain to clean up. We’ve done that before, and it wasn’t pretty.
We’ve tried several methods of pouring this hot concoction into lip balm tubes. With some 6th grade students, we tried using a beaker from science class. We tried using a teeny tiny funnel that was special ordered. Both of these ideas were effective but messy. Finally we discovered the beauty of little disposable pipettes. We also found this cool contraption you see on top of the lip balm containers. This holds them all in place so that they can cool down easily without accidentally knocking them over while being clumsy.
After it dries, we cap and label them. Then we sell them for $3.00 each, or 2 for $5.00 if we are feeling saucy.
Besaw's Bee Sauce 