Monday 27 August 2012

And then there were jars!

One of the joys of internet shopping has got to be when the cardboard boxes arrive during the day and are waiting on the door step when you get in from work.  Especially when you've ordered a few things from different places and you really aren't quite sure what order the boxes are going to turn up in! The first one to arrive this week was the honey settling tank, so of course it had to be commandeered into action as soon it was clean...


The whole bucket needs to settle so that any remaining bits of bees wax and pollen can rise to the surface with the air bubbles as the honey ripens...


So I'd better pour the whole lot in there...


Yup...the whole lot...nearly there...


Including scraping all the last sticky bits...

The second excitement of the week was this box...Truly I must be getting sooooo middle aged if I get this excited over a cardboard box...


But look at the loveliness it contained...

 

 

Now left to my own devices I'd have had the honey in those jars quicker than you could say "put the lid on that" but I really don't fancy hearing 'im indoors whinging at me as he picks bits of beeswax out of his teeth for the next few months so this padawan bee keeper needs to keep practicing patience and leaving the honey to settle.  Besides what else could I possibly do with the end of a bank holiday Monday?

So after the honey has settled for 5 days...its finally time to get the clean honey jars lined up...


Time to check how much scummy stuff there is on top...



Then its just a case of opening the tap and catching the steady stream in the jar...


The Official FIRST JAR of MY HONEY!...


Thankfully it also has a few friends....don't they look lovely?
If you breathe in deeply you can probably smell them...


Don't think I'll be winning any prizes in the honey show for clarity, maybe next year ( by then I may have perfected the art of patience...

 

What more could a girl want from a bank holiday?

Sunday 19 August 2012

Extraction X2

The weather forecast was for 30'c this weekend ..perfect (!) weather for working hard in a room of closed windows ..........so imagine my delight when the thermometer on the car topped 34'c as I drove to the apiary to spend the afternoon extracting honey!

On Tuesday, three hardcore bee keepers (including me) had taken off the supers of honey and stacked them up in the extractor room.  Its been a totally dreadful year for bees - after several years of pretty poor weather we have had the wettest summer since records began.  So from a total of 9 hives where you might ordinarily expect to get 3 - 4 supers of honey so 36 in total we have harvested a total of 4.  I can't believe the newspapers aren't already full of scare stories about the impending national honey shortage.

So to work then:
Job 1:  Use a scarily sharply pointed fork looking thing ( an "uncapping fork") to take the wax cappings off the cells of honey on the super frames...

 

The masters can uncap a frame in 2 slices ...us beginners took a bit longer... and made a bigger mess...


Step 2: load THE BIG extractor - with 12 frames (little extractors take 4 frames)... note how clean the inside and bottom of the extractor is at this stage...


Step 3: SPIN!!  
At this point give REALLY BIG thanks that we are using the motorised extractor and not the hand cranked one - did I say that it was 34'c outside and all the windows are closed?


...but not TOO fast ...or the frame will "blow" ...ooops


That's a pretty big hole for the bees to repair for next year!
But look at that lake of honey in the bottom of the extractor...


...it must be time to open the valve at the bottom of the tank...











No sooner has it started to flow than the sweetness floods out, all the spinning has mixed in a lot of air and the air bubbles rise up through the honey as it passes through 2 filters on the way to the high tech collection device below, a.k.a. the bucket.



So, now it needs to sit for at least 3 days to ripen...and then we get to jar it !

So now to the bit I was getting really excited about - EXTRACTING MY HONEY!!!!

Only one of my colonies had managed to do anything at all with the supers - I had a whole 7 frames of beautifully capped honey and one where the nectar was still wet...



You know the routine now don't you?

Step1:  Uncap the frames..


It takes concentration don't-cha know...


Just a bit more practice and I'll have it done in 2 slices.... honest....


STEP 2: load the extractor...
STEP 3: -spin - and today we give grateful thanks for the fact that Peter has modified his extractor to be powered by a drill!


LOOK!!!!!!
You can see the honey spinning out of the frames and pouring down the wall of the extractor - sort of golden candy floss - but 200% more gorgeous smelling!



STEP 4: open the valve and breathe in deeply...


Take out the empty frames  - these will go back into the hives and the bees will lick them (well, they would if they had actual tongues - but you know what I mean) finally clean before they go away for the winter...


If you tip the extractor towards the valve you can tip out the very last drops...


Or you can employ the help of a lovely long armed teacher to tip it even further for you...


And what did I get?
A (very small) bucketful  - but isn't it lovely...


And the $60 million question - how much honey is there in my very small bucket?


15.6 llbs Exac-erly

Now to learn the art of patient waiting whilst it ripens......





Sunday 5 August 2012

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.....

When I tell people I'm taking the family for a holiday in a beach house the first question they ask is normally,
" How close to the beach are you staying?"
" On the beach...not near the beach"
" What do you mean on the beach?"

Let me explain properly drive to Eastbourne and then turn left...
Park the car...


Walk up the driveway...


Step in through the front door...


Up the stairs...


Go straight through the kitchen and dining room...


Step out of the back door onto the decking...


Walk across a bit more decking...


Step through the gate onto the pebbles...


Across quite a few more pebbles...


Stop before your toes get wet...


Look left...


Look right...


Breath in deeply and feel like queen of the world!










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