Time for Something Sweet

It is worth noting that the honeybee is not native to North America. While there are numerous native bees that are ultimately more important to us, none of them are honey producers and none produce as many other bee products as the European honeybee. Sugarcane, another natural sugar source, didn't even arrive in South America until the 1540s. I won't even get into corn syrup.

So what was a poor Native American to do without these major sources of sweeteners? Tap maple trees, of course!

Taking a lesson from before colonization of the New World, I decided to make some of my own maple syrup this winter. My bees were dead and left me little honey, but this winter in Maryland caused great sap flow and I ended up bringing home 5-gallons of red maple sap to boil down to sugar.  That's really all you need to do!  Strain out the bugs and boil it down.

5-gallons of sap . . .

. . . boiled down . . .

. . . to two of these containers.

The syrup was quite good and I used it for pancakes, priming beer bottles, and as a sweetener in my coffee. The most important thing I learned is this is not a project for an apartment unless you want to turn it into a sauna for the day. Most folks start the process outside over a fire.

Rather than build suspense . . .

My package bees arrived from Drapers Super Bee Apiaries (now they really are super bees!) just over two weeks ago on June 6th. There are quite a few things to report on between my last post and the current state of the bees, but I just want to show you a successful two week hive!

The bees released their queen from the queen cage and she had already laid eggs in most of the newly made comb by the end of the first week. I fed the bees a pint of simple syrup and went off to Minnesota for a fun wedding. Yesterday, I went back in to feed the bees again and was delighted in what I saw!

The bees had comb built all the way to the feeder! In all, 10 top bars had comb, most built almost completely across.

Most of the combs looked like this one (except slightly larger) with bee bread (pollen), honey, and plenty of brood. Zoom in and you can see the 'c' shaped larvae.

I was especially pleased that the bees had not yet built any brace comb, making my initial inspection of the hive quick and smooth. I did see the queen looking healthy and active. For the first time in over a year, beekeeping is more fun than challenging!