Honey...It's Sticky Stuff

So Saturday was the day we set aside to harvest our first batch of Honey. I say we, but really I mean Chris. I played more of a supporting role...until I realized how sticky and messy things were getting. Then I asked to go on vacation next year during honey harvesting time. Chris got all suited up, smoked the bees nice and good and then opened the hive. Beekeeping protocol dictates that the bottom box is for laying eggs, the middle box of honey is for the bees and the top box is what we get to keep. The bees must not have read that memo because they were pretty ticked off at Chris. Luckily he had his "bee suit" and was fine.
Here he is scraping all the bees off with a soft brush so he can bring the frames inside...without bees.
Here is the extractor we rented to get the honey out of the frames.
Here is what the frames looked like before taking them out of the box.
This was a frame that actually broke. They were so heavy, it was really amazing.
The first thing they did was to scrape the caps off the honey. After the bees fill the comb with honey, they cover it in wax to seal it up. So you have to scrape that layer off to get to the honey.
Then you put three frames at a time into the extractor and start spinning. The force of the spinning draws the honey out and then it is drained out of the bottom into a bucket with a fine mesh bag like cheesecloth to be strained. The kids all had fun taking a turn at spinning.
This is how the frames looked after being spun and most of the honey is out.
We got roughly 3 gallons of honey from 8 1/2 frames. We saved one for raw honey and comb, and then the broken frame was too flimsy to spin everything out.

Liquid Gold

Here is a piece of the frame we cut up

When we were all done we had about 2 gallons left and 8 little honey bears.
We learned a lot about harvesting honey. Honey is VERY sticky. It is fairly simple but much harder than it looks. Honey is VERY sticky. There are things we'll do differently next time. Honey is VERY sticky. It is really heavy which is surprising because you wouldn't think those tiny little combs would be that heavy but they are. Did I mention it was a sticky process? I think we'll be finding honey for the next year in random places. It was hard keeping the kids out, the honey in one place and not tracked all over the house. But, it was very satisfying to see this process through from bee swarm a few months ago to honey on the table now. Sticky, but satisfying! By the way, did you know I don't even like honey? Weird, huh?

Bee Update

So here's the "rest of the story". After the bees all funneled into the hive boxes, life went back to normal. They, meaning the hive, was still kind of in the middle of the yard though. However, we all ventured back outside and all was well. The kids were ok playing outside and the bees didn't bother anyone. At midnight Chris went out (after the bees were sleeping...just kidding, chillin' I guess) and moved the hive over to where we were planning on putting them, tucked in a corner in a low-traffic area of the yard. You can't see from the picture but there are about a dozen bees just buzzin' around the boxes there. They just stay in their little corner of the yard. Roxy has been over several times sniffing around and so far, nothing's happened. The kids have been playing outside all day and no bee stings. So all is well in bee land. Oh, and the best part? Not one kid had nightmares about bees!!

If you build it....they will come.

The pictures don't really do the scene justice. It was CRAZY! And, noisy. You'll probably want to click on the picture to see it full-sized. Trust me, there were lots.

Chris has been working on cleaning up some old beehives we got in the hopes that we'd get bees later this year or next. They needed to be cleaned out and spruced up a bit. It's quite a tedious process and isn't even half way done. Today I was standing in the kitchen and one of the kids yelled for me to look out the window. What we saw was straight out of a killer bee movie. Thousands and thousands and THOUSANDS of bees were swarming our yard. Sky high and as wide as we could see out our windows. Yes, I was a little freaked. The kids were all screaming and worried about Roxy and the chickens and there was no way to get to them through the bees. I called Chris and he was like a kid in a candy store. He was so excited and so jealous that he wasn't here. Slowly they started funneling into the hives and the coast was clear. It was a pretty freaky scene. I'm sure I'm going to have several kids in my bed tonight with scary dreams involving bees. I guess we'll be starting this little bee adventure sooner than expected. Apparently, from what Chris has gathered from bee experts around town, we are very fortunate. Usually you have to find a swarm and move it into your hive. Ours just showed up. We still will have to wait and see if they stay permanently but for now, we have bees.