Honey Harvesting- worth it?

I must admit, as wonderful as having our own honey is, that was a heck of a lot of work. It wasn’t even the spinning that was bad but the clean up. Of course, we did harvest in our house, next to the wood stove (so the honey would be warm and easier to spin).

We had the fire roaring and took turns spinning frames as it was still a lot of work and required holding the spinner still so it didn’t rock all over.

Daughter is happily taking her turn

I had experimented with the hive by having some frames with foundation and some without. Of course, the frames without foundation did not have the comb aligned so that it would fit in the spinner. Thus, I removed it and stuck it in some cheesecloth to be squished and drip out with gravity.

Bottling honey

I wanted to have little, adorable jars of honey to give as Christmas gifts. These turned out so well and were so well received that I may get more bees just to do this again.

As the bees died I scraped all of the wax off of the frames and began melting it down, over and over and over and over and you get the idea. This is the final product. One candle jar full of clean bees wax. No idea what we are going to do with it.

All in all it was an experience. Again, I was pregnant, so the workload was really hard on me. We are enjoying the honey, we estimate 2 gallons worth, but I don’t know if it was worth it.

Installing Bees- 2017

We built two top barrel beehives many years ago. I’ve been trying to attract a swarm of bees ever since.

https://peacockorchard.com/2015/07/16/top-bar-bee-hive-construction/

I have finally called it quits and bought a package of bees. Whooo, nerve wracking.

I picked the bees up in their lovely little box. I believed myself fully prepared to install the hive. I’m great at being delusional! You should have been there. It was hysterical in a not so hysterical at the time way.

So I get my opening cover ready and remove the feed, immediately placing a block over it to prevent the bees from escaping. I turn around, place the feed down and bam, package tips over spilling a mass of bees out.

So I quick as lightening get the queen and insert the candy, hanging her on my bars. My husband flees the onslaught of angry insects but not before receiving a few battle wounds. I persevere in my protective gear. I dump some more of the bees out. The tarp is attached to the hive so they can walk right up. I drum on the back a little. I read somewhere they’d march right up if I did that. Bloody liars. So I decide I’ll just wait until after lunch and see what they are doing.

Well, miracle of miracles it did work. They walked themselves up and into the hive, mostly.

I had some hang on on the outside and I had to brush them off and put them in the hive.

Through some slats you can see the mass of bees around the queen. Amazing!

My bee feeder was found. Glory bee! It’s a chick waterer with glass stones and chicken wire tent to keep the birds off.

I nervously checked the next morning and they were ALIVE! I removed the tarp, and that board, which had been supporting the tarp. All is right with the world. Or at least it was until I decided I really should have insulated the hive BEFORE I put the bees in it. No worries, I can staple some insulation on. No worries. What do I do that is no worries. /sigh So I pull the insulation tight and thwack, all the boards fall off releasing hordes of angry bees, again. I manage to get them all back on, miracle of miracles, and finish stapling the insulation on. They all calmed down and went back in. What a relief!

It took them no time at all to release the queen. Now to wait and see what my bees can do!