A year on the mountain

A year at the apiary.

The order of the work repeats every season, give or take a week or two depending on how the spring turns out.

Loading the season…

Beekeeper holding a frame full of bees
A row of painted hives along a wooded slope
An open hive from above, bees on the frames
A beekeeper in a yellow suit holding a frame of bees
Jars filled with comb honey and pieces of comb on a board

Twelve months

From the first inspection to wintering.

  1. 01

    January

    Nothing is opened. You listen for the cluster humming and clear snow off the entrance.

  2. 02

    February

    First warm day, the bees come out for a cleansing flight. We count who survived.

  3. 03

    March

    The first real inspection. Queen, stores and any sign of disease.

  4. 04

    April

    The brood nest is opened up. At the end of the month the hives go out to Vlasotince for the first acacia.

  5. 05

    May

    Acacia twice: extraction at Vlasotince, then the move to Svođe.

  6. 06

    June

    The move to the slopes of Čemernik. Watching for swarming, second acacia extraction.

  7. 07

    July

    Oak and maple honeydew, if there is any. Forest honey is extracted.

  8. 08

    August

    The Vlasina flow runs out. The last extraction of the year.

  9. 09

    September

    Coming down off the mountain. Fresh Vlasina honey goes on sale.

  10. 10

    October

    Weak colonies united, varroa treatment, winter stores checked.

  11. 11

    November

    Wintering down. Entrances narrowed, mouse guards on.

  12. 12

    December

    Repairing frames and rendering wax. You go to the apiary only to look.

Extraction

Five steps of extraction.

The supers come off as soon as a flow ends, and each one is extracted on its own. What stays in the jar is only what the bees brought in over that period.

A frame of capped comb above an open hive
  1. 01

    Wait for the cap

    A frame is extracted once the bees have capped the cells with wax, because by then there is little enough water in the honey for it to keep.

  2. 02

    Lifting frames

    Frames come off in the morning, while it is cooler. Bees brushed off, smoke used as little as possible.

  3. 03

    Uncapping

    Wax taken off with a knife, by hand, frame by frame. The cappings are rendered separately and go back into frames.

  4. 04

    Centrifuge

    An electric extractor empties the cells evenly, so the comb stays whole and goes back to the bees.

  5. 05

    Settling

    Through a coarse sieve, then a few days to settle on its own. There is no pump and no pressure, so the pollen stays in.

What we never do.

  • We do not heat above 40 °C
  • We do not filter under pressure
  • We do not feed syrup during the flow
  • We do not blend two flows into one jar
  • We do not buy other people’s honey to fill a season