Wild Honey Rumpus

Forgive the giant post, I am just warning you right now this is going to be a long one. Videos and Pictures of our honey harvest....

First off let me explain something, we aren't using an extractor, because the one we wanted sold out and won't be in until late 2010 if not 2011. So we opted for the crush and strain method of honey harvest. That is exactly how it sounds, crush comb and honey then strain the wax out. We are going to do this again next year, yes the bees must make more wax in order to do it... but it's natural and we won't have any plastic, however small in the hive.

Sunday August 15, 2010

The Equipment:

Strain bucket bottom with 3/16" wholes drilled in.

Honey gate bucket with platform lid and two strainers in place.

A video of Jacob explaining it and putting it all together.




We put the honey supers inside a large tub with a sheet and a lid and stuck it outside to warm up. The hotter the honey the faster it runs, making extraction easier.

11 Frames of sticky goodness.

We did some measurements before we got carried away and this is what we came up with.

10 frames and box empty = 10.4 lb.
10 frames and box with wax and honey = 54.4 lb.
1 frame with wax and honey = 6 lb.
Total of 11 frames with wax and honey= 60.4 lb.

So that's 60.4 lb. of wood frames, wax and honey, subtract that 10.4 for the box and frame empty weight and you come up with 50 lb. of wax and honey!

Now mind you honey weighs more than water but still we should get quite a bit.... here we go!

In the video to follow you'll see I started out with a kitchen spatula that quickly turned into using the hive tool. The spatula was just no match for the strength of the wax.

Just to give you a perspective on the frame/insert and how much the bee's draw out the comb. The insert is all you start with, then the girls do the rest.

Jacob giving scraping a go!

Now it's time for the fun part. SMASHING!!




Monday August 16, 2010

A quick video about the strainer with some action shots. Overall I am really happy with the crush and strain method. It does take some patience because you can't bottle and enjoy the same day. With that said, really it's only about a 24 hour period to wait.



I couldn't get a video of the jarring process because of the honey gate leak. Plus it's usually good to have someones hands that are not sticky with honey holding the camera. But I did get a few pictures of the honey in there lovely jars. Ohhh....Ahhhh.... it's a lovely light golden color, and of course it tastes the best!

I am not sure of our total weight, once I get all the wax cleaned I'll weigh it so that we'll have a rough estimate of the total just honey weight. As far as volume I could probably figure that out but for now I am going to just rough estimate it at 2.5 gallons. Jake and I will go though about 5 gallons in a year. With baking, and using honey as our main sweetener for everything it's easy to do. But still it's a start.


Thank you lovely hive for teaching us patience and gratitude. Oh... and thanks for only stinging Jake when we robbed you!