I see honey being made

As I did a quick inspection today, the new super I added last week has honey in it already.  The bees are building comb and honey was loaded inside!  I removed just one frame, and pulled out the third frame to inspect and that's where I saw the honey.  It's still pretty clear.   Apparently that's how it starts out and then mellows into various golden colors, depending on the pollen they carry into the hive.

Then I went down into highest deep hive when the bees began buzzing all around me.  I think that they were protecting their food source.  Because they seemed especially protective today, like a few weeks ago, I decided to cut my inspection short and I didn't go into the bottom deep hive at all.  I'd already been there for more than the 10 minute maximum.  But I need to get to that bottom deep to see if I have a queen and new eggs but for now, I'm going to stay positive and let them do their job.  Things look active everywhere else and surely productive so I'm hoping there's a queen down there and that everything is AOK

Next time I will try to do the bottom hive first.  (I fear I said the same thing last week)

All this honey is making me think of the next step in this beekeeping process.  I'm beginning to look at honey extracting equipment because I'll want to have what I need on hand when the time comes.  I will begin putting an order together.  If I decide to purchase it all, it'll probably be another good sized investment in the $300 - $400 range based on some window shopping.

Another side note...the beeswax candles I made last week burned beautifully last night. I decided to try one of the smaller ones first because I didn't use a weight on the wick so wasn't too sure if those would burn well.  But this one did so I should be set to make more of these candles very soon.  I'm collecting any beeswax I clean off the hive weekly, but today there wasn't that much to take.  I'll get most of the wax when I extract the honey.  That should give me a bunch to play with making candles and perhaps some soap and lotion