my first wasp removal

When I went to pickup the bees from the crate cutout, I was informed that wasps/yellow jackets moved into another crate. Since i needed to put my suit one anyway, i removed the colony.

*UPDATE*

I think these are/were paper wasps

cut out: machine crate

This seems to become a regular customer of mine.

They make mechanical parts with CNC machines and ship those parts in crates.
They have a whole bunch of them stacked and the bees love them!

[CLICK ON PICTURES FOR LARGER VERSION]

honey laundering

Asian Honey, Banned in Europe, Is Flooding U.S. Grocery Shelves

A third or more of all the honey consumed in the U.S. is likely to have been smuggled in from China and may be tainted with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals.
Food safety investigators from the European Union barred all shipments of honey from India because of the presence of lead and illegal animal antibiotics. Further, they found an even larger amount of honey apparently had been concocted without the help of bees, made from artificial sweeteners and then extensively filtered to remove any proof of contaminants or adulteration or indications of precisely where the honey actually originated.
Read full article about honey laundering

organic honey impossible ?

I say it is possible, but don't expect to pay cheap prices for it.

On the wholesale market about $2 per lbs is paid for conventional honey.
They even ship if from other continents for that money (which sounds nearly impossible)

The honey we sell has been tested for 171 named pesticides in parts per billion by a USDA lab.

the results for this year:
on three barrels from three different timesof the year: none detected for all 171 pesticides.

Anyhow, I don't think honey gets any better than this, and we will be sure
to inform our buyers about the test results.


Now look at this article

drabble and bees

Death of the Bees. Genetically Modified Crops and the Decline of Bee Colonies in North America

I do not pretend to know what is killing the bees.

What I do know is that with beekeepers that let the bees be bees the losses of hives are _way_ less than "conventional" bees.

Look at this : article

cat/dog box cutout

[click on pictures to enlarge]

Cat/dog box in backyard in ventura

After turning the box upside down and removing one of the walls

Closeup, that is a lot of bees !



[here is where i started taking the comb out]
No pictures during the work because the amount of honey available.

Lots of honey dripped out.

General overview.
I placed 3rd box on top of the 2 stack. Will collect those before sunset