Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Honey Harvest

A week and a half ago Dar was able to harvest the honey for the first time from his first beehive. It's actually been a really neat experience to watch him learn about and take care of his first hive. He's done awesome, and I love seeing his face light up when he gets to go tend to his bees. He absolutely loves it! I can bet ya that we'll be getting a second beehive next year, although he hasn't said he wants another one for sure yet.

He was able to harvest the honey from 10 frames, although they weren't all full. When all was said and done he got about 4 gallons (weighing around 50 pounds) of honey!! I was so excited when I went to pick him up after he was done harvesting and was surprised to see how much honey he got! Pretty cool. If any of you are locals and know where we are, let us know if you want some raw local honey. We'll sell you some :)
Getting the extractor figured out
Scraping the wax caps off the honey
Bee wax that we're going to try to make lip balm and stuff with
Technology is so nice. Can you imagine spinning the honey by hand?
The honey is double sifted to make sure all the wax and stuff gets separated out
The honey is delish!! It looks great, tastes great, and the best part of all is that it came from our very own beehive! I think it's safe to say that Dar's first season of beekeeping has been a complete success :) Bring on season #2!

6 comments:

Lape Family said...

Why is it raw honey?? Does it make a difference when you store it??

Lora said...

Very impressive!! It looks amazing!! A lot of Mike's family back in Swizerland are bee farmers - we can't wait to get a place BIG enough to carry on the Vogel honey tradition!! Congrats on your first batch!!

Theresa Escalante said...

I'm interested in some local raw honey. A quart or 1/2 gallon. Email me please. theresa.escalante@gmail.com

Jared & Tracee said...

I want some honey too! I do have a pretty sweet honey, but I want one that I can eat(hee hee) How much did you get out of the first harvest?

Jared & Tracee said...

I want some honey too!! I do have a pretty sweet honey, but I would like some that I could eat(hee hee). How much did your first harvest make???

Courtney said...

That is awesome! How neat to see the whole process and be able to create your own tasty honey. We miss you guys! Hope all is well. And I love the new font :)