Healthy Happy Honey Bees in Charlotte
  • Honey for Sale
  • T's Bees Blog
  • Swarm 911!
  • Contact
  • Honey Uses
  • Links

T's Bees Blog

Wherein you learn all the trials and errors, successes and failures of a simple city beekeeper.

Getting Prepped for Honey Extraction

5/11/2012

 
Picture
This was a month ago, and I'm only now getting a chance to write about it. For the trap-out at Cory & Nolans, I needed some empty comb. I didn't have any, since I'm in my second year. However, I'm now putting my nucs into comb-production mode. Still I had an immediate need, so I decided to take two honey frames from Boris and Natasha, and give them another empty frame to draw out each. This will also bide me some time. Both brood nests are getting back-filled with honey. Each has a full super of honey on top. I've got to convince them to draw out a second super. Aaaugh, so much to do and so little time. So, I took two honey frames and had to extract them. It was time to get out my simple bench extractor and get reacquainted, so come harvest time, just around the corner, I'll know exactly what's going on. I can't tell you how pulling a few honey frames is a remarkable learning experience. And, guess what? You get honey out of it! Each deep frame can hold 8-9 pounds of honey. Since I'm running 9 frames in a 10-deep, my frames are in the 9-pound range.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
I've eaten a lot of honey over the past year and a half. I bought nice, new comb-styled jars for my customers. But I broke out my big old used honey jars I'd gotten from Hillbilly Produce and others to take care of this extracted honey. So, while extracting, I had to first uncap the frames. Then, after uncapping, I decided it'd be smart to put the cappings in the extractor along with the frames, you know, to spin out the honey. Big mistake. What came out of the extractor was honey and wax, and all kinds of extra bits. Yes, I'd forgotten the part called straining, which comes before bottling. Good grief, I won't make this mistake again. So, I kept all of this honey from mid-April in various jars and a bowl. I waited a couple weeks, busy with other things to do. And I realized that if you let your honey sit, all of the foreign particles, wax and other bits, float to the top for easy removal. Still, I had a much better tool, a straining system and storage bucket with honey gate. I waited until Yvonne had no more patience and demanded her glass bowl back. I strained all of the honey, and then bottled it. I originally told Yvonne that this was most likely left over sugar syrup stores from when I'd fed the bees sugar syrup last fall, prepping them for winter. I should've known I was wrong. I was delighted to see this beautiful early spring "top shelf" light honey chock full of Spring 2012's pollen. So, even though I'd have to wait another month or more to do my spring harvest, I was able to put aside my first bottles ever of my very own honey. I put a sticky label on this highly prized jar, and will enjoy this first bottle by the fire on a brutally cold day in winter, remembering what a glorious Spring we've had, and my first harvest ever.


Comments are closed.
    Picture

    Tom Davidson is the owner and beekeeper at T's Bees.

    Subscribe by email

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Categories

    All
    2 Queen Hives
    2-queen Hives
    9 Frames
    9-frames
    Apiary Inspection
    Autumn
    Bait Hives
    Bee School
    BPMS
    Cartoons
    Combs
    Cut-outs
    Drawn Out
    Early Spring
    Early Summer
    Early Winter
    Extracting
    Feeding
    Flora
    Foundation
    Foundationless
    Hardware
    Inner Covers
    Insecticide
    Late Autumn
    Late Spring
    Late Summer
    Late Winter
    Mentoring
    Mid Spring
    Mid Summer
    Mid Winter
    Mid-winter
    Nucleus Colonies
    Nucs
    Orientation Flights
    Oxalic Acid
    Packages
    Plasticell
    Pollen Patties
    Queen Cells
    Queens
    Small Cell
    Splits
    Swarms
    Tanging
    Trap Outs
    Trap-Outs
    Treatments
    Washboarding
    Wax
    Winter

    Archives

    March 2021
    March 2020
    September 2019
    February 2018
    July 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    October 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    December 2010

  • Honey for Sale
  • T's Bees Blog
  • Swarm 911!
  • Contact
  • Honey Uses
  • Links