Honey Harvest

This is our second year as beekeepers. My mother and I got a hive last spring. There is always some hope that the first season will yield honey, but it didn't happen for us. The poor bees suffered through a late spring that killed a lot of good nectar gathering time. We were afraid of the same thing happening again this year. It rained consistently all the way through the end of June. Most people here weren't even able to plan gardens until July. We were sure that the honey crop would be meager, if we were able to harvest at all.

To compound the issue, our queen died in early May. The bee population fluctuates greatly from season to season. In the winter the queen stops laying eggs, and the existing crew just hang out during the cold months. In the spring the queen machine guns out thousands of eggs a day in preparation for the nectar flow of spring and summer. To have a queen right at that exact moment is pretty much the worst case scenario. The hive is capable of replacing the queen (a worker bee will lay about a dozen queen eggs and let the ones that hatch fight to the death for the crown) but it takes at least a few weeks for them to hatch, mate and begin producing eggs. Then it takes a couple more weeks to begin producing worker bees. So were talking about a month of down time at the most important part of the year. Needless to say, we did not have high expectations for the year.

The queen that the hive produced has surprised us. She began producing vast amounts of eggs right off the bat. The eggs were laid in an almost O.C.D level of organization. She runs a tight ship! We let them do their thing for three months with out checking on them much. In late July we check to find, to our surprise, that 6 frames were ready to be harvest! We took them out and replaced them with empty frames.

Today was extraction day. We got a two frame extractor and all the equipment together and started working. We tried the more traditional method of cutting the caps off the frames, but we felt like too much honey was getting cut out that way. Instead we scrapped the seals off of the frames and put them into the extractor. I think we ended up straining out more wax bits that way, but I think we ended up with more honey. We extracted the 6 frames and started straining it. While we were waiting for it to strain we decided to take the old frames back to the hive. After they're extracted they're still coated with honey, but the honeycomb can be used the next year. In fact they're awesome to use, because they already have honeycomb built and saves the bees lots of time. The best way to clean them up is to put them next to the hive. The bees will find them and lick 'em clean. The next day they'll be totally free of honey.

So we decided to open up the hive to check on them while we were there dropping off the hives. To our surprise there were 6 more frames loaded with honey, just begging to be extracted! So we took them out, and replaced them with the extracted frames. We took them honey and extracted them as well. Interestingly enough, the honey from the two batches was quite different. The first back is a lighter color and has a strong floral taste. The second batch is more mild, and a darker amber.

After a year and a half of care, and a solid Saturday of extracting, we have 3.25 gallons of the sweet golden nectar! Not bad from a year that started to poorly.

I kept all the wax trimmings, and I'm planning on melting it down, cleaning it up and making something with it. I don't know what yet. Any suggestions?