I was so excited about our honey harves day that I woke up at 4:48 Saturday morning!
The sliver of moon was still up in the sky and the stars were out as Louis Dean and I sat on the front deck with our coffee admiring them.
I even saw the sun rise!
We needed to be up and plenty awake before we went to the hives.
Sherry was down here about 7:00 and Rosey arrived shortly after that carrying a bag full of breakfast burritos and biscuits and sausage from McDonald's. Our new friends Ernie and Amanda arrived next.
Dean was teaching a weapons class for Karate in Waco so he didn't get to participate in the harvest this year.
By 7:30 we were all suiting up and driving over to the hives to start the harvest.
Louis Dean was such a good sport!
Six of us worked the hives from 7:45 to 8:30!
That's Rosey on the far left, Louis Dean, Sherry, Amanda and Ernie.
We pulled two supers (boxes) of frames from all 3 hives.
There is one hive - one of the two new ones we got this spring - that has overachievers working it!
Three weeks ago, Sherry and I inspected the hives and saw that one was full to the brim with busy bees and completely full of pulled comb!
We immediately put a third super on top of, not only that hive, but all three hives.
Sherry and I were shocked when we took the lid off and saw that every frame was full of honey and many of them were also capped....meaning the bees had sealed the cells closed with wax.
We took the top super off and set it aside, still swarming with worker bees ( who are all females!) going on about their business. After we had harvested the frames in the other two supers, we return the top super to each hive for the bees to continue working. They will keep the honey they are making now for their winter survival.
To harvest the honey, Sherry lifts a now heavy frame and gives it a strong shake up and down.
She is a tough lady but it was hard work even for her!
If you shake hard enough, most of the bees fall off and then I use a soft brush to remove the remaining ones. The frame is then put into a plastic tub and the lid quickly goes on to keep the bees out.
Once we finished, we loaded all the tubs up and headed up to Sherry's kitchen.
We started early and it wasn't too awful hot wearing the bee suits but I was SO happy to get out of mine!! By the way, Louis Dean did great! He had one tiny little sting through his suit.
It's best to buy a suit that doesn't fit too tight or the stingers can still get through.
I don't think his is really too tight but he may have been pulling his arm in such a way that it happened to stretch across his shoulder.
Rosey, on the other hand, received a sting right in the middle of her chin.
She soldiered on - and wasn't able to take the stinger out until she got to Sherry's.
Her chin had swollen up by that time but she was a champ about it!
No other stings from thousands of bees swarming all around six people.
Now we began the extraction process - which takes a lot longer than pulling the frames from the hives!
Rosey had brought her extractor so we had two going for the next few hours - non stop!
We all made a really good team!
Sherry is demonstrating how to decap the honey.....taking off the top layer of wax sealing the comb.
Rosey was a saint in that she kept her suit on - albeit she took the top part and wrapped it around her waist - so she could go out and bring in the next set of frames. She had to brush the bees off since many of them were still caught in the tubs.
Sweet honey!!!
This is the raw honey going into the bucket that is lined with a honey strainer.
Now the honey must drain through the strainer and into another container before it is ready to jar.
The handle on Rosey's extractor broke.....through no fault of the one who was turning it.
Although I immediately nick named her 'Bam Bam!'
Rosey and Louis Dean came up with a makeshift fix for it.
Vise grips are good for lots of things!
The straining cloth holds all the wax caps from the cells and extra bee parts that may be in there.
We then put all that honey into jar after jar after jar!
And thanks to having six people working together......the last jar was filled at 12:39!
Whew!!
Ernie and Amanda had to leave a few minutes earlier and we so appreciated them coming to help.
They are brand new beekeepers and will not be harvesting any honey of their own this year - but next year we will be helping them as they helped us. The same with Rosey. We see three great big bountiful honey harvesting parties for the summer of 2021!
We gave Rosey and Ernie jars of honey to remember the day and in appreciation for all their hard work!
It would have taken us all weekend to complete the harvest without their help.
Sherry, Rosey and I came back to the cool of the camper to sip mead from last year's harvest and talk about our plans for the next season.
Once you take the honey from the hives - it's time to prepare for winter.
But before we can return the wet frames back to the supers, they must be clean from all honey sticking to the comb. What better way to do that than to put it out in the shade (you don't want to MELT the wax in this Texas sun and heat!) and let the bees clean it up for you!
Honey harvest was done and we were all exhausted!
I felt like the energizer bunny Saturday night.
I was feverishly trying to get my shower and in bed before I completely ran our of battery juice!
Amazing how much better you feel after a good night of sleep!
This Sunday afternoon Sherry and I wiped down all the jars and counted up the gallon, half gallon, quarts, pints and half pints......
We harvested 15+ gallons of pure sweet organic honey!!!
The + is what is still dripping from the honey strainer bag.
We will deal with that another day.
What an amazing harvest for 2020!!
Sherry and I suited up last night to retrieve what we thought would be clean frames - but the bees were still swarming all over them. So Sherry got up at sunrise this morning to get them and - once again - the bees were all over them.
At 7:00 this evening we again suited up and found the frames super clean.
NO sticky honey anywhere on them!
We returned a super fullof fresh frames to Hive #1.....
This pic is of Hives # 2 and #3.
#3 is the most thriving hive and we put a second super on it as well.
Our bee harvest is now complete and Sherry has already put out bucket feeding.
We will add pollen patties and treat for mites next week.
It was with a thankful heart for our good harvest that we sat out tonight in the golden hour - which looked more pink than gold - and sipped our wine.
"The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul."
Proverbs 13:19
WOW! Super honey harvest! I am so thankful that you were able to help. It looks delicious. If I were a little braver and had a few more minutes of free time, I might look into bee keeping to have my own fresh honey.
ReplyDeleteLinda, That all makes me think of of all the little bear shaped bottles of honey...now I know how much work goes into to each little bottle. I truly appreciate them more. That was a great harvest . So wonderful to know tiny bees can do such a magical work of art. My batteries don't last so long any more either. Gee, I hope I can get more energy when this heat lets up. Stay safe and strong there my friends. Blessings to all, love you, xoxo, Susie
ReplyDeleteWow! Wow! Wow! What an awesome job your "team" accomplished. I've never seen that much honey all together! I eat local honey, but will think of you each time I have honey on toast...
ReplyDeleteEnjoy a few days rest in this heat.
How wonderful to do this and be able to take pics of the process too. We had hives years ago and it was a lot of work. I always liked the dark honey. Thanks for sharing! Hugs!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your honey harvesting. Its so interesting to see. Bees are very industrious! They cleaned those frames! Your honey looks beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThat is a lot of honey and a lot of work!!
ReplyDeleteThis is just an extremely amazing to me story of how we get honey and now I fully understand why when we buy it in the store is so very expensive for a small bottle. The six of you did a fantastic job and I would not be helping you because just the thought of getting one sting would keep me Far Far Away the thing that amazes me the most of all is that they clean up those frames who knew that bees eat honey haha
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful you had so many helpers the made shoet work of what could have been overwhelming for just the two of you. The honey looks wonderful and I'm sure from now on I'll appreciate the bee keepers more when I buy a jar of honey. I do love it so. And it's very good for us too. Congratulations on a job well done. those bees are busy workers for sure.
ReplyDeleteAmazing post Linda! I'm learning so much from you. I loved seeing the photos too, but ouch, sorry some of you got stung! What a great harvest! Thanks to the bees too! :)
ReplyDeleteSo interesting! And what a harvest! Hard work deserves a good reward all around. Hope those stings heal fast for both Louis Dean and Rosey. 🍯🍯🍯
ReplyDeleteI'm so impressed by your honey harvest! You all worked hard and the honey looks delicious. I'm amazed by those hard working bees cleaning up so quickly too! I love reading about your bee adventures! You and LD are very brave! Hope you both have a great Monday!
ReplyDeleteThis is such an amazing process. Bees just boggle my mind...how industrious and that honey..oh my.
ReplyDeleteWhat a haul. I'm glad you had a willing team to get it all done.
LD really was a trooper...now he has been officially indoctrinated into Bee-dom.
Rest well you two.
Sue
Wow! Now I know why honey costs so much. It is so much hard work! But thankfully only once a year. I love how you bookended your post with the sky shots. Those are my favorites, especially the beautiful sunrise. You also changed your background. Sunflowers! I think SOMEONE is getting anxious for Autumn!! I can almost hear Neil Diamond in the background...
ReplyDeleteNo harvest for us this year either unless we just take a frame or two. We still have honey from our last harvest as we do not go through it very quickly but we enjoy sharing it with friends and family.
ReplyDeleteFantastic work!
ReplyDeleteWhat a truly beautiful harvest, and the hives will be happy over the winter, I hope. They have certainly done their job! Glad nobody got stung badly, and was glad to see extra people helpinv. Luke's bee suit looks as cute as yours.😻
ReplyDeleteYour kitties are going to test you as far as getting out. Any mischief, you know! 😍