With fall coming to a quick close and snow flurries blanketing campus, winter has finally arrived. If you are like me, you have already begun preparing for an annual hibernation, stocking up on Swiss Miss and holiday cheer. Along with us are the unsung heroes of our global food and environmental sustainability: the honey bees. Every winter, honey bee colonies prepare for the cold by forming tight clusters within the hive and slowly eating away the honey they worked so hard to produce all year long. Beekeepers find themselves busy insulating the hives and, most importantly, harvesting the excess honey from the fall flower blooms.
The process of harvesting honey is a simple, yet fascinating one.