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Finally, honey

The comb in the drone frame had a 5-inch long by 1-inch wide band of capped honey across the bottom of the comb. Yay! Honey! We cut out ...

Sunset

The comb in the drone frame had a 5-inch long by 1-inch wide band of capped honey across the bottom of the comb. Yay! Honey!

We cut out the clean comb (avoiding the dead drone bodies) and mashed it in a sieve to strain the honey overnight. By the next morning we had about a half a cup ready for tasting.

But would it taste like the mite treatment we put in the hive last month?

Thymol is the active ingredient in Apiguard, and it makes the honey taste like Listerine. It supposedly won’t hurt you—it’s used as an herbal remedy and antiseptic for many things, including mouthwash and toothpaste. People on the Bee Source forum say that the Thymol will volatize off the comb and honey if it’s left in the sun to air out.

Funny thing was, those of us who had experienced the taste of Thymol (when applying it, we’d accidentally gotten it on our gloves, veils, and, worst of all, into our mouths) thought we could taste a little bit of it. But other people didn’t notice anything, although they did comment on how “intense” the honey tasted.

But really, on a toasted English muffin with some butter, our first honey wasn’t that bad. Not bad at all.