Nectar source makes a tremendous difference in honey color and taste. Here, a late summer wildflower blend (left) is contrasted with linden honey (right) harvested earlier in the season from the same hive.
Supers full of ripe, capped honey await extraction.
A beautiful frame of ripe, capped honey ready for harvest.
Beekeepers will often mark queens to render them more visible. The color is standardized to correspond to a particular year; blue paint indicates this queen was marked in 2010.
A beekeeper holds a frame of capped worker brood.
Beekeepers have long known that smoke calms bees, preventing the colony from mounting a full defense against intruders. Here, a beekeeper smokes a hive before opening it.
A beekeeper examines a frame of honey.
A beekeeper examines a frame of honey.
Bees in a Langstroth moveable-frame hive.
Beekeepers will often mark queens to render them more visible. The color is standardized to correspond to a particular year; blue paint indicates this queen was marked in 2010.
Beekeepers will often mark queens to render them more visible. The color is standardized to correspond to a particular year; blue paint indicates this queen was marked in 2010.
Beekeepers will often mark queens to render them more visible. The color is standardized to correspond to a particular year; blue paint indicates this queen was marked in 2010.
See photo in original gallery.
all images and text © Alex Wild 2001-2013