Queen Caging

Finally, I caged the last of my queens yesterday with the help of a couple foreign exchange students  (One from Poland and one from Norway).  We have two others staying with us for a week (one from Italy and one from Israel).  They have really enjoyed learning about honeybees.  I am still killing any drone comb or queen cells as I'm trying to prepare for the end of the beekeepers calendar.  In three weeks, I will pull any honey supers or brood frames with honey in the corners so I can extract.  I will save some of the brood frames for insulation next spring.  It really hasn't been as good a year as I had predicted.  I had hoped to get between 40 and 80 gallons of honey this year.  My top bar hive swarmed and I have one hive that is queenless.  Out of 8 colonies, I have three that have really done quite well and one of those will produce around 124 lbs. (10 gallons) while the other two I estimate, about 5-7 gallons.  If it was your first season as a new beekeeper and you did not do well, don't get discouraged!!  Every year is different.  We had a pretty cool summer with quite a bit of rain.  The bees have eaten a lot of their honey during rainy days.  I will let you know when I plan on harvesting the last of my honey.