This year has been a terrible year for bees in California. The Varroa Mites are becoming more resistent to the miticide that is typically used and so lots of hives just haven't survived the winter, causing great grief to the farmers that rely on bees to pollinate their crops (some useless information for you - the typical commercial bee keeper in California does not get the majority of his income from honey production but from renting his bees to farmers. They start in the southern end of the valley when Spring breaks and move up north as the season progresses).
For whatever reason, my bees survived this last winter and they are now getting pretty active. Its time to put on a new box on the top of the hive. I usually leave two full size boxes on for the duration of the winter and then in the spring add the third box on top for the honey that I will harvest. With my small scale operation, the only reasonable way of harvesting the honey is to destroy the wax comb (it is just not economical to rent a centrifuge and recycle the wax comb). So, each year I buy a new set of wax combs that costs around $40. Not a very economical operation this bee keeping. It would make more sense if I really liked honey but I don't see the attraction.
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