Wierd thing is that the bears each the larva, and leave most of the honey... We only had one incident with bears when we moved hives to the southern tier of NY where they exist.
My dad had a thriving bee keeping business for years before South American honey showed up and sunk the market place.
It’s how we spent our summer weekends traveling to the places (typically in brush rows) where our Colony’s were, I’d mow the lawn (they love that), and we’d check the health of the hives and put supers (smaller frame holders vs. hive bodies which are the 2 bottom big frame holders they keep for the winter). IIRC we had a special screen between the hive body’s and the supers so the queen couldn’t lay eggs up there.
Ah so many memories, and bee stings.
We’d fill a garage with supers in the fall and fill 50+ or so 5 gallon Cans with honey... Dad used the hot knife to remove the comb wax capping, and I’d run them in the extractor.
Cover honey in the spring, buckwheat honey in the fall, and we’d haul hives around to pollenize orchards for people every year.
