Cherry Lane Farm is a very low key operation. It took me three visits to notice this bell all but obscured by grape vines.
Farmer's friend?
The vegetables are coming along nicely and the apple tree branches are bending with the weight of their bounty.
I discovered that a few raspberry bushes had survived the flooding. Sadly, no-one had been picking the fruit and much of it was just falling onto the ground. It broke my heart. Miles generously allowed me to take some home along with some beans and zucchini. But no beer.
After scraping and toasting some frames we decided to take a look inside two hives. "Let's go get stung," the Beekeeper said. "Speak for yourself," I replied, and zipped myself into a full suit. We were able to take off about six frames full of honey and a bit of extra burr and comb.
The second hive we examined was very aggressive compared to the first one. The Beekeeper has very gentle bees of his own, so he was unprepared for the cantankerous assault. I felt badly every time he got stung. Next time he'll wear a full suit and I will have two smokers going so I can get those bees gorging on honey instead of stinging.
One of the hives was lacking a frame so there was extra space in the hive. The bees built comb between frames, which we harvested and I took home to pick out what we call "hive debris." Miles gave me a pyrex dish and the honey leaked out of some of the uncapped comb into the bottom of the bowl. It's a very light, delicate spring honey. Thanks bees! Now go out and make some more honey.
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