Sweet Success
Last year you might recall that Bubba decided to take up beekeeping. Ya know, just something to do in all of our spare time. I was pretty sure that Bubba had fallen and hit his head the day he came home and asked my opinion on keeping bees. He actually wanted to take a class (because they have such things) about how to keep bees and at the end of the class he would be on official bee keeper and be in a bee keeping club (no kidding). My response amounted to, “Sure why not? This is your project, I’m not going to get involved in this one.” And so Bubba went on his merry way to school one day to learn about bee-friending (sorry couldn’t help it). You might remember some of our postings with photos of progress in building a collection of hives and some of the surprises along the way.
Last week Bubba got his sweet reward: Nearly 4.5 gallons of honey were extracted from our two supers this year, enough to give us a few cavities and share with Mike and Katherine (our bee buddies). We also had to leave enough honey behind in the hives for the bees to eat through winter and the first part of spring when things start to bloom again. So how does one, “harvest” honey? Well, we went a little old school. Below are some photos of the extraction process, done using a hand crank extractor where the frames filled with honey are placed in a drum and the honey is spun out of the honeycomb using centrifugal force. The honey then settles to the bottom of the drum where it is poured out into jars and can be stored in the pantry for many months to come (or at least as long as we can keep our fingers out of it).
We are very excited about this highly successful project. We weren’t expecting to get any honey for our own consumption in year one, we thought we would only get enough to keep the bees fed through winter. We were so glad they decided to share. Thanks to Mike and Katherine for being awesome bee buddies- we’re excited to do it all over again next year!
*Keeping bees isn’t for the novice. Honey bees live in swarms of approximately 10,000 and while they sting (just ask Bubba) they are vulnerable to predators and need protection but also get sick. For some current information about the honey bee crisis go here. If you want to bee cool like us and keep bees too, talk to Katherine and Bubba, they’ll get you in touch with the right people who can help get you started.
Honey Extractor
Liquid Gold!
Thanks bees!
Two Fer!!!!
When I took my bee keeping class one of the instructors, Herb, who was a pilot in the Air Force, told us that keeping bees is like being a pilot; “extreme amount of waiting with brief strikes of terror.” I found out what he meant this last Saturday.
Some friends and I went camping for the weekend and when I was elected to go to town to pick up a buddy who had to come out late, I was a little bummed. As I was waiting I got a text from a friend at work, who had a customer call looking for me because they had a swarm of bees in a tree. When I took the class they showed us a video of a guy catching a swarm. When I saw this I had that strike of terror, but I knew that I wanted to do it. In anticipation I bought an empty hive so when I got the call, I would be ready. And ready I was! I met up with my friend Justin and we raced back to Newberg to get my bee suit and get up to the swarm of bees.
When we arrived to the swarm’s location a football sized swarm was hanging on the limb. I got a sudden rush, so I climbed up the ladder to cut the branch off the tree, but it was to heavy. Luckily I brought an extra suit for Justin. I made him give his video camera over and climb up to cut the branch while I held it and brought it down. The whole operation went off with out a hitch. I got them in a box and drove them to their new home.
I had already had the second hive set up for just such an occasion and as I walked up to it I noticed a lot of activity. I opened up the top to see what was happening and I got a loud buzz right at my face. I got that strike of terror again.
If you have an old empty hive, like the one I had set up for just such an occasion, you can bait a swarm into it with the old moldy smell. Apparently I was successful in baiting because now I had both hive boxes full and no room for the swarm I picked up! I’m picking up a new hive box tomorrow so they will have a home.
So in one day I saw more bee action then most hope for in a year. Lucky me!
P.S. I’ll post the video as soon as I can.
Bubba and Justin picking up the swarm: click here
Bubba finds a surprise: click here
