With the Whidbey Island wild blackberries pretty much done, it is almost time to harvest honey. In fact I did harvest some honey from one of the backyard hives. A nice taste, strong honey with a slightly spicy touch at the end. Lighter in color from last year though. Always interesting to see how it turns out each year – and every year it is different somehow. 2015 Whidbey Island Honey! Woot!
On top of that I’m expanding and in order to do so, I’ve been raising some queens. Most of these queens will go into “mating nucs” – a smaller hive that supports the queen while she firms up, takes her mating flights and starts la
ying.
After that she is either transferred into a normal hive or is overwintered in a nucleus hive.