Beekeeping has been incredibly rewarding. Bees are magical, selfless little creatures that work for the common good. Their colonies are fascinating, industrious and unique. We have fallen in love with our bees.
First year beekeepers often don't get a honey harvest. Or, they get a very small harvest as the colonies are new and need to have the honey they produce the first year for themselves. We were more than happy to provide them all they need to get a good start and survive our sometimes harsh winters.
Labor Day is often the time it is suggested to check on the bees, evaluate the honey stash and begin thinking about the upcoming Fall and Winter. If there is extra honey it is time to harvest.
Hubs planned a warm sunny day to meet with our "bee mentor" and check on what was up in the hives. I secretly hoped we would at least get enough honey to taste what our bees had been up to all summer, but was content to let them have all they needed as their own.
I wasn't home the day Hubs and The Mentor suited up and headed out to the hives. I wish I had been.
Harvesting honey is a big job and takes 2 or 3 people. In all honestly...we weren't completely prepared for what transpired. We weren't expecting a honey harvest.
From what I have been told...there was HUGE excitement when the hives were opened up! There was honey galore! Rich, fragrant honey abounded. Honey in every nook and granny and frame! Thousands of buzzing bees producing this nectar of the gods.
Our Mentor was a bit shocked and surprised! He indicated the bees were almost "honey bound"! A term referring to so much honey they had little room to work! He asked Hubs to get the "honey box". Huh??? We don't have one! We weren't expecting a harvest! I hear they scrambled and improvised and pulled 11 frames of closely guarded honey! The bees weren't quite as docile as usual. They didn't seem thrilled their honey was being robbed!
Hubs called me with high levels of excitement. He was surprised, he was thrilled, he was kind of having an adrenaline high. It took a few hours to harvest this beautiful golden treasure. We weren't prepared! Next year we will be!
Frames of honey. Capped with beeswax. Have I mentioned how amazing bees are???
A frame of our uncapped lovely golden gift.
We took it to another "bee"friend who runs a little beekeeping shop and has a honey extractor. No heat involved. This is raw, minimally filtered honey. As nature intended...with all the amazing benefits of raw local honey!
Isn't it gorgeous???! Liquid gold for sure! Oh...did I mention how it tastes??? It's unbelievably good! No, really...it's outrageous. It's thick and gooey and sweet with a hint of clover and lush flowers.
We ended up with about 35 pounds of amazing honey! Woot Woot!!!
The raw beeswax...oh, the possibilities! Candles and balms and salves! Wait...do you see how amazing bees are???
Cubes of beeswax ready for some fun...It is surprisingly firm and smells really yummy.
One of my beeswax projects...skin salve. I LOVE working with the beeswax. I'm still amazed at all the products our bees are blessing us with!
We also decided to experiment with a few "foundation less" frames in hopes of getting some legit honeycomb! A few members of the family were feeling nostalgic and remembered chewing on honeycomb when they were kids. We decided to accommodate and see what happened! Harvesting these frames was more difficult and I'm not sure we will do it again for awhile. The upside??? We had some pretty excited family members!
Pretty spectacular! Those bees are something else! Squares of unique honeycomb...
We are pretty proud of our first year honey. I guess we can't take much credit for it as the bees really do all the work! I'm not lying when I tell you it is truly amazing and the taste is beyond description. On a whim I decided to enter it into our State Fair! Ha...yeah, I'm that proud of it!
See...you don't have to just take my word for it! 4th place in the amber category. Oh, and I won $4.00!
Beekeeping...so rewarding! #savethebees
You guys are AMAZING. Ervisa.
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