Honey harvest...kind of

One of two top bars of honeycomb

I went into Olea's hive today to take honey.  I had a big pot with a lid into which I would put the dark comb and a plastic lined wastebasket and a cardboard lid into which I would put the clean comb for comb honey. The wastebasket was the right size to hold the ends of the bars so the comb could hang vertically and not touch the bottom.   Only two bars had mostly capped honey.  There were two bars with comb and no honey and two bars without any comb.  The other three combs I looked at had only a little capped, mostly nectar and the last one had some brood, too.  I had planned to take only honey more distal than bar 12 (there are 21 bars), something I learned from Les Crowder.  I brushed the bees off the comb back into the hive and hung the comb in the wastebasket.  I then put the hive back together, rearranging the bars so all the comb was toward the front, one empty bar, then the back board.  I put an empty bar behind the backboard, as well.  I plan to cut the comb and put it into plastic containers- yum!
I took a quick peek under the Vivaldi box on #3.  It looks and feels like the bees are making some honey, presumably using the sugar I've been feeding them.  I still haven't figured how to get them through the winter.  I'm sure I'll have to feed them until the eucalyptus bloom in December.  I wondering if I should condense their space to one box or even a nuc.  I put the entrance reducer in place so they can defend better against robbers.  Now that the honey flow is over, the stronger hives could take advantage.

Entrance reducer in place