Fresh Raw Honey!

[retiredwith4acres]

Saturday afternoon my son came by to give his old mom some help. He took off the supers of honey, brushed the bees off, handed them to his mother on the screened back porch, and my work began. My DH is sick with chest cold or something with fever and feeling really bad so having my son to do the heavy work was wonderful. I spent 4 hours uncapping, extracting, and draining the honey into buckets. Had to run an hour away to spend the night with my aunt who is in her last days, so I left a mess. Sunday afternoon I cleaned up my mess and bottled up my honey. I have 6 gallons of honey ready for sale and still in process of extra straining for some to show at the county fair. With all that hard work it is still worth the time, expense, and energy. Such a rewarding experience! BUT, what will I do next year if all 6 of my hives survive and produce, this year was only one good hive and one not so good. If I have six good hives, I will be spending several days working "bigtime"!

Folks that complain about the price of good raw honey need to have to help extracting and helping with all the work to go with the process.

I can't imagine one of my friends and her husband putting up 271 quarts in 12 days, and they are older than I am, but more experienced. lol

 

[lesa]

Good news! I am glad you were able to extract some honey, at last! It is a sticky mess- but I will say, it is very easy to clean up...

 

[so lucky]

4acres, I can empathize with you, as we find we don't have the strength and endurance to do the things we want to do, as we grow older. I have gotten to the point that my DH is not much help when it comes to digging holes and lifting things. He has to protect his back, and of course is not as dedicated to gardening and critters, so he has less interest. But regarding the honey harvest, Does it all have to be done at the same time? Obviously I know nothing about producing honey.....Maybe next year you could get a helper who is interested in becoming a beek. You could pay them in honey, and experience.
I am very lucky to have a local producer who has one of these "put money in slot" set ups, with different size jars of fresh honey there for the purchasing.

 

[vfem]

One day I will have this experience too... I have no doubts its a labor of love... I mean, raw honey tastes like what love would if it had a flavor. Or so I like to think.

 

[Carol Dee]

One day I will have this experience too... I have no doubts its a labor of love... I mean, raw honey tastes like what love would if it had a flavor. Or so I like to think.

You said it V , I really liked the raw honey I was given by a bee keeper. :bee I never could quite discribe it. You just did,

 

[desertlady]

yum ! I could sit there and eat it like winnie the pooh !!

 

[retiredwith4acres]

I have licked my fingers a lot the last few days. lol In fact, I had almost a half pint that I had left in a bucket over night on the back porch and it rained a little so absorbed up the moisture in the air and was very thin and couldn't be saved because it would have fermented, SO, into a picture of iced tea. MUM, good!

So lucky, definitely across several days with doing a few hives at a time next year if we have a good crop. My friend in the beekeepers group here did their 30 hives in four different three day sessions.

We have a hive a few miles away at my granddaughters house, but the bees are VERY unfriendly so we haven't robbed them yet. We might get a few frames out of our new hives when we do that one. We will just wait and see.

It is very rewarding with taste and accomplishment. I just wish I had started this hobby when I was younger and stronger. lol

 

[Smiles Jr.]

So glad to hear that you're enjoying one of nature's miracles. Local honey is not only good for you but it also helps your body handle allergies. When I read that you licked your fingers my mouth started to water. How do you extract the honey from the comb?

I worked with three other members of our beek club to rob 10 apiaries (67 hives) last Friday from 9:00 AM til dark. On Saturday we held our annual spring sling. The four of us got just a little over 500 pounds of strained honey. I don't know how much honey was slung Saturday but there were many pickup trucks full of 5 gal. buckets that pulled away from the honeyhouse while I was there.

 

[retiredwith4acres]

I bought a "cheap" extractor from Dadant, $200. It spins two frames at a time and then I flip. I had borrowed one the last time but thought if I was to continue with this hobby I needed something myself. Manual everything.

 

[jomoncon]

I recently "discovered" fresh, raw honey! Someone had an ad on craigslist for raw honey at $10 a quart. I bought one, and I couldn't believe the difference! I think the quart lasted about a week and just had to have more. I don't think I'll ever go back to store-bought honey again.