November 01, 2009

Milestones


After three years of beekeeping, we finally had our first honey harvest! It was well worth the wait, too. From one shallow honey super, we extracted 11 quarts of dark, liquid gold known as wildflower honey. The amount of bee-hours that went into making this honey is simply staggering. If I were to do a cost/benefit analysis of the various creatures we are responsible for around here, the bees would certainly top the list of most benefit received for the least amount of work. In fact, it almost feels like robbery. (We did in fact only take a little over half of the honey we were "legally allowed" to according to our bee book.)

Here are a couple of photos I took during the honey extracting process.
A full framed of capped honey.

The same frame after the caps have been removed.

Empty comb after the miracle of centrifugal force has done its work.

An equally exciting milestone this week was the grand opening of the Shanty Loo! Yes, after 10 months in process, the world's nicest outhouse is now open for business. Interior decorating and landscaping will be done at a later date, photos to come soon. :)

3 comments:

Suzanne said...

That's awesome! Did you have to wait 3 years for you harvest in order to build up the bee population?

missamandabeth said...

HI Suzanne! The first year we got our bees they spent the whole year building up their population, drawing out comb and making just enough honey to see them through the winter. We should have been able to harvest the following year, but for some reason they didn't want to draw out any more comb on the honey supers we put on. So, at the end of our second season we still had empty supers, but the bees themselves were strong, healthy and had plenty of honey to see them through the winter. This year, our third season, we managed to trick them into drawing out comb in one and a half supers and they then filled that comb with honey! Next year we already have the comb drawn out, so I'm hopeful of another good harvest. It is so exciting! Have you ever thought of keeping bees?

Suzanne said...

I went to a beekeeping class last year and it was really interesting - I would love to keep bees and harvest our own honey. But, I don't think our backyard is big enough to keep bees. It is definitely on my list of things to do once we get some land (hopefully in the next 3-4 years!)