Robbing The Bees

 Woodson and Ada are some new friends of ours.  They came with their mom to help harvest the honey.  They are from Haiti and have a real interest in bees...and honey.  They were the best helpers!

 They got to help Mark trick the bees by smoking the hive.  The bees think their house is on fire and gorge themselves with honey.   They are too busy and heavy to come after you...or that is the story anyway. (Mark got a couple of stings as did Grandpa that night)

 They were so curious about the whole process!

 Ada couldn't get enough "tastes" in!

 His mom braved the bees and helped boost him up

 Thanks guys for your help tonight!  You both rock!!

 Shaura donned a bee suit to help Mark harvest the rest of the frames.  It was a measly harvest this year...we are blaming the very dry summer and low nectar flow. We usually get about 25+ gallons from our three hives, but this year only about 7-8.  We understand other local beekeepers have found the same thing in their hives.  The good news is that our hives are strong and full of brood.

And the next day...

 We spun the honey and enjoyed our harvest on warm, homemade rolls!

The honey is beautiful and dark and very rich this year! 

Thanks to Mark's cousin, Angie and her daughter - Shaeley (sadly I don't know the correct spelling of her name!) also...Shaura and Mom and Dad Firth for their help in the harvest. It was a great morning together!

Marie's brother passed away this past week and Shaura came out for the funeral.  We enjoyed having her with us and we will all miss Uncle Glen.

Thinking of Em and Sweet Honey!

This photo is from Emily's ipod...I couldn't up load without making it into a collage. 

These two sisters are a riot and they are so happy when they get to chat with each other.

So for the honey harvest this year....

 Not a huge harvest this year.  We calculate we have about 20 gallons of golden, sweet honey. I think we had over 40 last year.  But, that meant a little less work on the spinning day and that was great with us! A few photos to document the day and a funny story to boot!

We use a hot knife to cut the wax cappings off the comb.

 Into the spinner they go. Nine frames at a time. 

It takes about 20-25 minutes to spin a batch. 

And we use to do this all by a hand crank!!  Now we can flip a switch!

 It's always fun to open up that latch and watch the first flow of the golden honey begin!

 When you breath in that amazing smell of the beeswax and sweet honey

...it is heavenly!

Lots of hand washing in between licks! We promise!!

 Not a drop of the bee's hard work is wasted. Mark built this little sun oven to

heat the wax cappings.  The honey drains to a container below and the wax with be filtered and used for great things, like Jiggy Sticks!

This is the pan that catches the honey the wax...the goop stays above.  The wax lifts off the honey easily. We reclaimed over a gallon of honey from the capping wax!  I think it is the tastiest of all.

Within 24 short hours we have beautiful, raw honey ready to fill our shelves and tummy's!

Just about forgot the funny story!

Mark had propped open the door from the garage to the house so we could get in and out without the sticky handle mess....AND because this process smells so great that he wanted the whole house to breath it in.  Well, I had left a window open up in the studio and those busy little girls find that honey scent almost instantly!  I went upstairs to clean up a mess and my studio was swarming with hungry little bees!! It took me oven an hour to get them all scooted out!  One by one they were making their way down into the garage.  We were wondering where they coming from! Good news is that no one was harmed or stung in the process!

For our harvest dinner we enjoyed almond encrusted trout, veggies au gratin,
mashed sweet potatoes and homemade corn bread with fresh honey!

Wishing you were with us.