The Bees Knees

I believe that I mentioned in a past post that I am a beekeeper.  I still consider myself a novice despite the fact that 2016 is the beginning of my third year. I must admit that I am only now beginning to feel a little bit confident in my knowledge and skills.

I began with used equipment, a bunch of books, one beekeeping course, and dreams of all the honey I would harvest from my little army of bees (that would also work wonders in my garden).  I freely admit to being afraid of being stung; which, of course I have been.  It's really not that bad at all - nothing compared to a wasp. That is for certain!  In all honesty, the times I have been stung have been my own fault - by not being fully suited thinking I would be fine just taking a quick peek.  They showed me!

Beekeeping today is not for quitters.  With all the talk of colony collapse disorder, I am fairly certain that most people are aware of how difficult it is to get a colony of bees through the winter in the northern US - and truly, all over the world.  Sadly, I lost both of my colonies this winter.  I actually felt somewhat confident in the fall and early winter that at least one of my two hives would make it - especially in December when I saw them taking cleansing flights on unseasonably mild days.  I had left them plenty of honey and they appeared to be pest free.  Sadly I was wrong.  Two weeks ago, I opened both hives and found a bee ghost town.  There were virtually no signs of the tens of thousands of healthy bees that were there just a few short months ago.

Unfortunately, I am not the only one.  In fact, all of the other local beekeepers I have spoken to (many of whom have been keeping bees for decades) have also had huge losses.  It is becoming a regular process to start fresh every spring.

Despite the heartache of losing my bees, I am not ready to give up beekeeping.  On the contrary, it makes me more determined to succeed.  I truly think beekeeping is THE BEES KNEES.  Just about everything about beekeeping is magical to me.

Thankfully, I was left with close to 50 pounds of glorious honey that will enable me to start over.  I am investing in some brand new equipment and two new packages of bees.  If I didn't have this honey, I'd probably be done - as my husband isn't thrilled with spending a few hundred dollars every year to start over!

Here are some photos of my harvesting and bottling process.  I plan to share assembling, painting, and setting up my new hives in future posts, so keep watching!

Super frame filled with capped honey.

removing the wax capping

uncapped frames in the honey extractor

honey being spun out of the frames in my manual extractor

honey collecting in the bottom of the extractor

flowing from the extractor into the bucket with strainer to remove large pieces of wax

bottling into hive shaped jars

filling muth jars

The finished product: yummy raw and unfiltered honey!