Honey Spinning

Today we spun last fall's honey out of the honey comb.  We had two of these boxes, called supers, each with full trays of honey comb.

 You can see all the residual wax along the edges of the trays.

 Here Steve scrapes the wax covering off of the combs, opening them up so the honey can be extracted.

 We have a centrifugal honey extractor.  Two full trays can be inserted at one time, and then the handle is turned by hand, spinning the trays around and extracting the honey.

 Once one side of the trays are extracted, they are turned around and extracted more from the other side.

 Spout on the bottom of the spinner allows the honey to be drained into 5 gallon buckets.

 This comb tool helps open up the honey cells that the knife missed.  All the scrapings are saved and we put them out for the bees to gather the last bits of honey before we save the wax.  It can be melted and filtered to get all the unsavory bits out of it, and then the wax used however we see fit.  We use it in lip balms and hand creams, and I have also used it to make encaustic wax for my art work.  My house smells wonderful now, redolent of honey and bees wax.  Because most of the wax remains in the trays, we don't harvest much of it.  The bees will reuse the trays, hopefully filling them up again over the summer.  We got about 8 and 1/2 gallons of honey from these two supers today.
If you would like to see the post I created years ago where we captured a wild swarm of bees, you can see it here:  Going Buggy.
Other news from the home front, the hummingbirds have returned!  Too bad we can't feed them the honey but evidently it isn't good for them.  Seems odd but I'm not going to test it.  They get pure cane sugar syrup with no added coloring.
Till next time, be well.

Going Buggy

Hello, I have some new followers and would like to extend a welcome to them before I say anything else.  I have finally passed the 100 mark thanks to you all!  I can hardly believe it.  When I began blogging I thought maybe 20 or even 30 followers if I was lucky.   I haven't even been posting very often but here I have gained some lovely new followers.  Thank you!  I appreciate your support, all of you.  So I figured I had better post something new before I begin losing people.

I've been very busy out of doors but I have managed to slip a bit of studio time in now and then and created the above piece to honor all the bugs I have been battling.  The garden plants attract mostly slugs and chipmunks but still it struggles along.  There seem to be more bees this year than last, and this post will mainly deal with the capturing of a wild swarm.

Above shows a wild swarm of bees that landed in a tree in my yard.  That is a big ball of bees, waiting for the scouts to return to tell them where to set up a new home.

Here comes Chain Saw man, dressed in his bee suit, working to capture the swarm of bees.  He tells me a swarm of bees might carry as much as a gallon of honey with them as they move out with a new queen to try and find a new home.  Imagine what a gallon of honey weighs.  Then imagine what a swarm of bees carrying a gallon of honey weighs.  Not light!

They ball up high in a tree usually, as they wait for information about prospective new homes/hives.  Chainsaw man climbs up and cuts the branch they are collected on and brings it down.

He holds it over the new bee box home, gives it a firm rap.....

and all the bees dislodge and fall into the bee box.  Just like that.

He slowly works a lid onto the top of the box.

Soon, the bees are settled into their new home.  There has been a lot of wild bee activity this year, swarms coming in and out and one settling into a fallen down willow tree, as well as 3 captured swarms counting two at the neighbors.  Lets hope they have time to produce some surplus honey.

The weather has remained mostly cool, cloudy and damp around here.  It is a constant battle against the slugs and other critters, in our attempts to grow a garden.  But quite worth it.  I hope the rest of you are enjoying some fine summer weather.  Sorry I have been remiss in visiting others blogs, but it is a busy time of year.  Thank you for your time, if you are reading this post.  If you don't have time for leaving a comment, I understand.  Please return when you are able and I hope to visit your blogs again too.

Be well.