Wednesday, August 07, 2019

Harvest time

My intention Sunday was to harvest honey from all my hives. After coffee, I suited up. While the bees are fairly docile most of the time they get testy when you start fooling with their honey.

I can't imagine why. It takes 60,000 bees a month to collect a super of honey. OK, just reading the previous sentence makes me feel a little bad...but I digress.

When I put on my coveralls, a long-sleeve shirt, my bee suit and leather gloves I headed in. By the time I popped the top of the first hive, I was pouring perspiration. Did I mention that bees are tidy insects? The only thing they dislike worse than sloth is a beekeeper that's sweaty. They were NOT happy with me.

The suit keeps me safe from stings but I thought I could hear them talking bad about my parents as I worked.

When I lifted the first super from the beehive, I grunted. It was heavy. Setting the super onto my cart, I went about some hivish routines.

I looked inside a second box, but instead of frames of amber honey, these were almost black. I was freaked. I imagined all kinds of disease, locusts, pestilence, and other maladies.

Closing the hive, I knew my internal thermometer was telling me the fun was over.

I pulled the cart back toward the house with hundreds of angry bees buzzing BRING BACK OUR HONEY YOU SCALAWAG.

When I pulled the frames from the super (the box that holds the frames) they were all filled with capped honeycomb. This is a beekeeper's dream.

When I harvested all the frames, I weighed the bucket. The scales showed 30 pounds.

Today, Jilda sterilized all of our jars and I drew six quarts and four pints of honey from the bucket and there is still a gallon left.

When I called the old beekeeper about the black honeycomb, he laughed. He said that all the honeycomb turns that color as it ages. I smiled when I heard those words.

Hopefully, it will be a little cooler this weekend so I can harvest the other hives.

I'ma loving this work.





11 comments:

  1. It won't be long and Jilda will be designing and printing labels and you will be coming to an arrangement with produce stands to sell your honey.
    Alphie

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  2. Wow. Well done. Both you and the diligent workers.

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  3. Nice honey harvest. It amazes me how much honey bees can produce from flowers nectar.
    Hugs, Julia

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  4. That is some beautiful honey. You did the light just right to catch the PURE honey color. We are enjoying a pint from our (NEW) bee keeper in the family, Steve. He got stunk 7-8 times when robbing his a couple weeks ago. My uncle was a bee keeper in the 40's and I do not remember him ever saying he was stung. Then maybe that is just the side pleasures of 60K bees at a time. WOW!
    Sherry & jack

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  5. That is a surprisingly large amount of honey in such a short amount of time.

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  6. I did not realize that it took that huge number of bees to produce honey. You are doing nature and us humans a great favor by having bee hives and taking care to keep the bees alive and work of bees going. Thanks.

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  7. The honey looks delicious. And it will keep forever. I chuckled when I read about the black frames. My uncle raised bees so I knew they were fine.

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  8. Dear Rick, a friend in Stillwater, MN, where I lived for 36 years, was a beekeeper and I recognize in this posting the same joy that he felt and the same camaraderie with the bees. What a gift those jars of honey are--they sweeten our lives. Peace.

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  9. That's some beautiful honey, honey.

    Love,
    Janie

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  10. Very nice, and I imagine it is delicious too! Btw, what do you do with the beeswax?

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    Replies
    1. I’m saving it. I watched a video on how to render it down into chunks.
      I’ve read that there is a market for it.
      I’m hoping Jilda will learn how to make scented candles.

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