The first honey crop!

Last weekend, after getting back from holiday, I took eight frames from the bee hive at home, and extracted the beautiful golden honey.

The bees have been doing a great job, and they are fascinating to watch and learn about. It's a little civilization in your backyard. There are little victories as you see bees laden with nectar and pollen return safely to the hive, and concerns as you see hornets and wasps trying to get in to seal the pupae and honey.

The honey we got is very light coloured. The bees are collecting from a variety of sources in our neighbourhood, and although I don't like honey I'm told it has a wonderful delicate flavour.

Here's a slideshow of the hive and honey. From eight frames we got about 23 lbs (~10kg) of honey and there are another thirty frames to go! Obviously way more honey than we'll ever be able to use.