Our Very First Honey Harvest!!!!

For the second morning in a row - I was up before daylight!

And trust me - that second morning is harder than the first.

Louis Dean got up when I did and we sat with our coffee watching the morning sky.

He was nearly as excited as I was about today's adventure!

Sherry drove up right at 7:00 - just as we planned.

I was a tiny bit late so it was 7:10 when I was pulling my bee suit on.

Here we are fully outfitted!

Thanks to Dean for the pictures today of us working the hives.

Both father and son are so supportive of us!

We are back behind the hives getting the smoker going.

This is a talent and we are working on it.

Today we used waxed corrugated cardboard and burlap rolls. 

You can use twigs and grass and such, but you need a smoldering fire in that smoker that will last for the length of time you are with the bees.

Our smoker worked well today.

Sherry and I work well together.

I smoked the bees and she did the hard work of lifting each frame out - shaking it HARD to drop most of the bees off - and then I brushed the last few away with our bee brush.

THIS was probably the most exciting moment of the whole day!

Our first frame and it was yellow gold!!

We worked the gentle hive first.

Since it was early - it wasn't as hot as if we had waited until 10:00 or so.

Each of the two hives has a bottom brood box and then two supers (boxes) on top.

The lower super has the honey made from the spring flowers.

The top super is made of summer flowers - which around here include bitterweed.

We had four tubs and labeled them. Tubs 1 and 3 had bitterweed and 3 and 4 did not.

The bitterweed honey is still good and is of excellent medicinal use.

Still we thought to keep them separate.

We went on to the second hive which had the more aggressive bees at our last hive inspection.

However, the prayers of our friends and - I confess to praying for our bees - this hive was as well mannered as the first one.

By 8:20 this morning, Sherry and I were sitting in the truck by her house basking in the AC and so full of pure delight from the harvest that we just sat there for a good 5 minutes or more.

It actually took us less than 45 minutes to harvest these 36 frames of honey.

Frames loaded with honey!

We only had ONE frame that had brood in it - baby bees.

We left it in the hive and replaced all removed frames with new ones.

Tomorrow we will go down and do a 'bucket feed.'

You put a heavy mixture of sugar and water in a big bucket and then add some branches and grasses for the bees to crawl on. You do not want the bees to drown.

We just took a good supply of their honey and they are going to be diligently working to replace that.

There is not much blooming at the present time so they need a bit of extra groceries!

Our first honey harvest!

It was such a beautiful sight!

NO wax moths! NO dark frames. NO bee stings.

A totally successful honey harvest!

Harvest from box #4!

Ruth Ann gave Sherry the big vintage bottles on the far left and right.

Something tells me she's going to get one of those bottles back! 

FULL of golden honey!

All these jars are from box #1!

We even had some extra comb that was along the bottom of a frame.

We cut it up and put some in a few of the jars.

We leave the wax on the frames and after the bees  clean them off, they are returned to the hive so the bees can continue with their honey production. This honey will be their winter food.

All this honey is such a beautiful thing!

It was mess - but a controlled mess.

Sherry had plastic on the floor and we  had a system going that worked well for us.

What Sherry is holding in this photo is the beeswax from our harvest.

We could have had a lot more if we did not return the wax to the hives, but we think it is in our best interests to give the bees a head start so they don't have to work as hard.

Next year we may get two harvests! A spring and a summer one.

The honey from box #1 and #3 went into larger jars.

These will be used to make mead - yet another adventure awaits!

Today was such a good day!

Praise God and thank you for the prayers.

I'm going to bed tonight with a grateful heart......

God is so good to me.

While I wish I could give everyone a taste of our honey - I can at least do a honey giveaway!

Starting with this post and continuing through August, everyone who comments will be entered.

And now - I am going to bed after being up 17 hours with only sleeping 5 hours the night before.

I am so going to stay in bed tomorrow until noon!

But - oh, my goodness!!! 

This was so much fun!