Monday, September 6, 2010

Honey


I did it.

I was really really scared, but I did it. While Mr. Boom and Chirp-chirp watched from the safety of the indoors, I went back out to the beebox (fully suited up this time), and grabbed myself a big old box full of honey and bees, and carried it back up to the porch. I smoked out the bees and I got me some honey.

I did it.









Sweet, sweet, sweet success!

This will make the appointment with the hand surgeon
on the 15th much easier to bear. I'll just lie back and think of honey...

3 comments:

  1. How exciting. Very proud of your bravery too by the way. I do have one question...is it normal to be able to harvest honey this quickly or did the hive you got in already have a significant build up already? I am impressed with your extraction method too as I had heard that you needed to by a centrifuge set up etc etc which equalled $$$ so I'm really glad to see it doesn't have to involve a lot of money. I forgot, did you buy the smoke pot? If so how much approx and any other suggestions about that?

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  2. Tanya~ Had this been an actual "new hive" I wouldn't have been able to harvest honey this year. In fact, the man I bought the set-up from told me that I wouldn't get honey this year, even though it was a pretty well established hive. However, just a few weeks after I brought the box home there was evidence of overcrowding and LOTS of honey-making happening, so Mr. Boom built a honey super and those little gals started to put honey in. There really wasn't a lot of honey, but more than enough for me to be happy with for a first little mini-harvest.
    I'v ebeen searching for the site where I learned about the crush and strain method of honey extraction. There was a gorgeous shot of two mason jars on a deck railing with a little bee licking at the side of the jar. The image is clear in my head, but I can't find the website for the life of me.
    Anyway, the method is working, although it's a bit too cold here right now so the honey stopped flowing through the cloth. Patience, patience, patience!
    In a previous post (http://thebobwhites.blogspot.com/2010/07/been-shopping-by-kat.html) I talked about the equipment I bought, although I do seem to have left off the bit about the smoker. Smokers range from $15-$50. I think I paid about $20. I use newspaper in mine, not the fancy fuel pellets you can purchase. I also tried burning burlap, but my allergies went into serious overdrive and I'm not going to do that again!
    Hope this helps!

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