Honey!!

This was a long awaited event... Dylan started raising bees with his dad about 3 years ago.  He invested his own money in some of the hives and equipment.  And the first two years had many ups and downs.  Even the most seasoned bee keepers have hives that die, or swarm and are lost.  It's an expensive business to be in, and the bees don't always cooperate.

But we are glad that he was so diligent and did not get overly discouraged - even when he lost one of his best queens earlier this year (despite great efforts of capturing them and re-homing them.  See that story here.)

So today, the boys went out and took two frames from each of the remaining hives and extracted their first batch of honey!

It was a crowd gathering event because we've waited so long to have our own honey, and because we've never done this before so there is always an interesting learning curve.

First, getting the new equipment unpacked and learning proper use of it:

Finally, it's all set up and ready to go!

They pulled just two frames from each hive so they could be sure to leave enough honey for the bees to overwinter.  It's a fine art as I understand it - you must leave enough honey for the bees to overwinter, but NOT too much because with too much honey they will not get rid of any bees over the winter and end up so crowded that you'll get half the hive leaving in a swarm the following spring.  Leaving you to wait for a new queen to be raised up.

First a hot knife is used to get the "caps" off of the honey.  The goal is to take off the caps but leave the honey comb in place so the bees can reuse it.

 Then the frames are put into the honey extractor and the handle on top is used to gently spin them around, releasing the honey to fall to the bottom.

And finally, honey came pouring out.  I was amazed that they had over a gallon of honey from just 4 frames!  And so thrilled for Dylan who has put so much time and money into this.  He will now get to sell his first batch of honey.  And we all get to enjoy our own honey this winter!

 

Endurance (vs. Giving-Up) - The inward strength to withstand stress to accomplish God's best.

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. - Galatians 6:9