Today, April 3rd, has been a relatively busy day.  I got my third  5 gallon batch of metheglin for the year started.  Each batch is a little different.  It is pretty much based on a general recipe with a few changes here and there dependent on the available resources.  The current batch uses a 50/50 mix of Earl Grey and black tea this time.  I have been consistent in using my other ingredients of cloves, cinnamon sticks, coriander, allspice, nutmeg, and malto-dextrin boiled up for about 5 minutes or so in a medium pot with water.  In the mean-time, I filled a plastic carboy with 5 gallons of room temperature water and put in 12 pounds of honey in as well.  I got my yeast must going in a few ounces of warm water and a pinch of sugar as well.  After my spices were boiled, I strained it through a funnel that has a screen with a clean cloth patch over it into the carboy.  I stirred this mix for a few minutes and then pitched the yeast into the carboy and stirred the batch for a few more minutes.

I put the lid and the airlock on the carboy and set it alongside my two clarifying glass carboys.   After a few hours, I checked to see that the mixture was percolating.  As it was, I added some Fermaid-K and energizer to the mix, stirred it again and left it aside.  I will check it in a day or so and begin stirring up the mix each day or so for about a week and a half and then add a bit more Fermaid-K and energizer again as well as about two and a half more pounds of honey and repeat the stirring process for another week or so until the perking begins to fade.  Adding the extra honey is supposed to up the alcohol level but I don't know about the actual outcome.  My intent is to get a bit sweeter mix at the tail end with more of a honey flavor.  If I get a bit more rocket fuel going too, I will just have to adjust my altimeter when I crack open a bottle.

In my last post, I mentioned we got in our bees.  I have added a few quarts of sugar water in the new hive this week.  Today, I did a quick inspection as it was warm, but not too warm out (around 55 degrees or so).  I removed the queen cage as she made it out.  I added a frame in the gap where the queen cage was and removed a couple combs that were made to bridge the gap in the frames.  These needed to be taken out so that the new frame could fit in the box.

The bees were active, but not aggressive.  They do land on me, but are rather gentle and easy to move off of me if I want.  I'm not brave enough right now to open the box without veil and gloves and may never be, but my wife seems to be able to wander in and out and pretty much get high fives from the bees.  It seems I have noticed how much I missed having the bees around once we got a new hive installed.  Watching them careen about on their daily runs and their frenetic activity in the hive was a pleasure I really missed last year.  Robin would like us to build up a couple more hives on the property.  I am planning on building the boxes from scratch, but purchasing the frames and foundation for our next hive.  I think for a backyard beekeeper, three may be my max for now.

I remember it took me about 15 to 20 minutes to really look over a hive.  Pulling full boxes of honey off from the stack is not a light chore.  A western box can weigh 20 or 30 pounds or more depending on how full it is.  Our first hive had about four western boxes and three shallow boxes.   Taking off boxes, examining frames in the summer heat got a real sweat out of me in the gear I use.  I really appreciate what a job Rod Jackman does with the amount of hives he checks over routinely. I feel like a real pussy when I feel tuckered out over my one little hive!

This weekend, I hope to do a real hive inspection.  We had a bee club meeting tonight.  Rod spoke for a few minutes.  He said he was not really impressed with a portion of the queens he got.  I was impressed with our batch, but will take a critical eye on the hive.  I'll look for egg laying activity.  I know there is prodigious work on building out the combs right now and have seen a lot of pollen brought into the hive.  It is, however, the queen who will make or break this hive and if she is not laying well the hive will be at risk.  The one solution, if this were the case, would be to get a new queen and destroy the current queen.  I would not look forward to that, but that would be the right thing to do for the overall colony.  Any of you Star Trek fans (Robin is watching a Next Generation episode at the moment--recessive gene I imagine) can recall Spock intoning, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

I think I will devote the next post detailing the precise recipe and process I am currently using.  For those who may stumble onto this blog, I can tell you that what I do works and the results are pretty good and is a pretty clear product.  I have shared a few bottles out and for the most part people have liked the metheglin.  Until then, cheers and good honey thoughts.