Red hibiscus mead... bee swarm almost stopped me.

[Arpolis]

I racked off the pulp today on this mead. It smells really really good. Just like raspberries. Gravity is at .994 as is. A racked into a 3 gallon and a 1 liter bottles because the raspberry purée I added did not condense well so there is a lot of list volume. I will let it sit for final clearing and then will finally back sweeten.

I tasted the gravity sample and a bit more left in the siphon. It is really good now. If you like dry reds then this is great. Only a slight bitterness and not too acidic or tart. I think I will just incrementally sweeten this one to just bring out the raspberry fruitiness a bit.

Here is a pic:

 

[pghfett]

This is outstanding !!! The mead and the side story with the bees.
Thanks for sharing the pics.

 

[Arpolis]

No problem this one has been fun. I just ordered a full NUC of bees. This spring I will be able to have them installed in my hive and give it a go with a full hive this time rather than a small late season swarm.

 

[BBBF]

This is outstanding !!! The mead and the side story with the bees.
Thanks for sharing the pics.

Yeah, I don't know how I have missed this thread.

 

[WVMJ]

Just one? Really better to start with 2 so they can help each other and you can see if one is growing better than the other, and keep the nuc box to refill and make a queen bred from your local drones. If your single hive gets weak can someone help you with some brood if its needed, not to late to get another, and another, and another. I have to warn you friend, hives are like carboys, somehow they multiply in the dark while you are not watching WVMJ

No problem this one has been fun. I just ordered a full NUC of bees. This spring I will be able to have them installed in my hive and give it a go with a full hive this time rather than a small late season swarm.

 

[Arpolis]

Just one? Really better to start with 2 so they can help each other and you can see if one is growing better than the other, and keep the nuc box to refill and make a queen bred from your local drones. If your single hive gets weak can someone help you with some brood if its needed, not to late to get another, and another, and another. I have to warn you friend, hives are like carboys, somehow they multiply in the dark while you are not watching WVMJ

Actually I planned 2 for this year but here is what happened. Last year I planned to take the bee keeping classes they have going here because the two guys that sell bees here in my part of Oklahoma teach that class. As a bonus those guys let class members get first orders of the year. I could not take the class because my wife is finishing up a college degree and her class was the same time as this one so I stayed home and watched the kids... However! I got my step mother wanting bees and got her to take the class. So she is getting two hives and I was going to have her order me two. For Christmas she bought me one NUC so I did not have to. I think she was confused as to if I wanted one or two. I think she said that guy already sold out of this next years NUCs already. I do want to get a second but I need to get with the other bee keeper that sells around here. Heck I may just call it good because I am sure I will be over at my parents house all the time checking their bees out and if need bee we can swap brood out between the 3 hives to keep them strong. Also surly by next year we may be able to split hives or get them to swarm.

I think I can have 4 hives on my property. I am sure over a season or two I will have that filled. Then to find more land!

 

[WVMJ]

Man sounds like a good plan, always nice to have a backup, a few nuc boxes of your own sitting around, dont count them in your hive count, they are temp hives Make sure your new property has enough room for a big shed to store all the new beekeeping stuff you will need when you expand to 50 hives. One new beekeeper hint for happiness, always clean your doorknobs off after checking your bees, they will smell hive stuff on the doorknobs and sit in the knob to check it out, seems they like to set on the backside of it and its an easy way to get stung. I almost have my wifey trained to look at the doorknob to the house before she reaches for it to open up, I think I used negative conditioning or something like that WVMJ

 

[Arpolis]

LoL yea I am excited to see where it all goes. And that is a great esoteric bit of info there about the doorknobs. I will keep that in mind.

 

[pghfett]

For anyone who lives in and around the greater Pittsburgh Pa area and interested in our main mead suppliers - bees - and want to learn what Arpolis already knows, here ya go

http://burghbees.com/

 

[Arpolis]

I back sweetened this mead today to 1.010 and bottled it. I have 15 really nice looking bottles. Great color, smells super super great. I think I can get almost as much enjoyment by just looking and smelling rather than tasting. It also tastes great. I do think it needs some age in the bottles to meld some of the flavors a bit but overal it is on a great start.

 

[kc_in_wv]

The mead sounds good. I like most of my wines and meads sweetened back to 1.010 also.

 

[Arpolis]

Just a quick update to anyone following this thread for the bees. I dropped off a new hive body with an apiary about 4 weeks ago and just brought it home and un-packed t filled with bees. He gave me a queen and 5 full frames of brood, workers and honey. And they are working hard on filling the other 5 empty frames in there. I will give them a few days till I peek in there to see the progress. Here are a few picks for you:

 

[Arpolis]

 

[Arpolis]

 

[WVMJ]

Raise it up off the ground and put a big rock on top so a tornado dont relocate your hive! Congrats, it can be a lot of fun. We put 2 nuc boxes on fence posts around our orchard, mostly because they looked cool, and then last week both caught swarms! Just hoping they werent my bees swarming. Good luck, WVMJ

 

[Arpolis]

Gratz on the swarms. I'll get the hive a bit higher off the ground. I think it'll be fine from the high winds. I have the hive surrounded by a 6ft privacy fence with some serious concrete to hold it all down.

 

[WVMJ]

Good on the fence, that will keep most of the bears out Get your supers ready and wishing you a good flow! WVMJ