11:00 AM Class 1:00 PM Class

The top bar hives are growing nicely. I built these unique hives last year as an expansion of natural beekeeping efforts. It’s grown quite large, however all bars have brood, so no honey from these yet.

On Friday, I shared with you excerpts of our spring Harvest. We extracted beautifully sculpted pieces of honeycomb from our Warre hive. Abbe Emile Warre (d. 1951) designed what he called “the people’s hive” after experimenting with over three-hundred different hive systems. In his research he found advantage in reduced size and eliminating foundation to let the bees draw their own comb in natural shapes. Saturday, we were serving this beautiful comb to guests. Here I show a slice of comb sprinkled with spring pollen. As gorgeous to look at as it is delicious. This spring variety impressed our 60 guests. It had a light, mellow blossom flavor, with notes of grassy hay. Quite unique. Each bite is as if you are tasting a specific time and place that can never be duplicated again. Pure joy!

Friday, we opened up our Warre hive. This is a hive system invented by Abbe Emile Warre, a French beekeeper who spent a lifetime studying bees and designing hives. This system has no frames. The bees are free to draw comb as they feel inspired. Pulling off the super, we get an aesthetic surprise: Look at those beautiful works of art the bees have made inside. Taking the box inside, we begin to carefully dissect the comb and remove it from the box. The honey inspires more than the taste, but creative imagination. Like clouds of sweetness, we take turns imagining what the bees were thinking as they sculpted in wax. This one looks like an octopus! So beautiful. It even has an eye. We can’t wait to share them with our guests.