Honey time ...

Out of the extractor - In the mesh strainer is the larger bits of wax

On Sunday we fired up the extractor and came away with 80 lbs. of the absolutely most delicious honey we've ever had.  Maybe we're a little biased but it really did taste like the best honey we've ever had.  We were lucky and caught the weather just right.  The last few minutes of extracting is when the storms hit and we were able to finish up the extraction with the help of a large umbrella because you do not want additional moisture added to the honey.

Bottled with love

Soooooo patient

Last night was bottling night and we set up a production line to fill four cases of honey containers that we recently purchased.  I started off pouring and made such a mess that Yvonne took over and did a great job not dribbling honey on the sides of the jars.  It was fun.  Besides the honey we added another 5 lbs of wax to our growing bees wax collection.

Demoted to being the bottle washer

Time to set up a Local Honey stand

This honey was just filtered through mesh strainers with some cheesecloth so it has natural pollen and some fine particles of wax in it.  Absolutely delicious and good for you.

Papaya Pantation and a new Hive Stand

The other day I got lucky and was given 60+ papaya trees.  Some were almost 4' tall and some smaller.  All very healthy.  Even though I had a million things going on that day, I changed direction and spent the day transplanting trees and locating them throughout the Bee Farm.  Papaya trees are somewhat delicate and they're always dropping their skinny branches.  Plus they don't like  cold weather.  But the tropical feel of a Papaya tree as well as the delicious fruit is a big reason why we love Papaya trees.   So now we have about 70 Papaya trees on the Bee Farm and we may even get another 20 or so more next week.  Why not?  You can't beat the price of "free".

New Hive Stand

Notice the shade cloth.  It sure makes a difference.

Today was to be moving day for my backyard hive but instead I installed the new hive stand out at the Bee Farm and got everything ready for the move.  Besides installing the stand, anti-weed cloth was laid down and the new work bench was leveled also with anti-weed cloth underneath.   Looks like it could use another load of crushed shell though.  This new stand isn't the ant proof type I originally built for the main stand.  The ant proof stands require using a power auger and mixing cement.  I just didn't feel like doing all that and am interested to see if there even is an ant problem.  The crushed shell and weed cloth may be a good deterrent for the ants.

Shortly after the stand was installed the weather got quite rainy with dark clouds so I'll put off moving day until tomorrow if the weather cooperates.  The good side of the rainy morning is our new Papayas are getting a nice drink without me having to drag the hose around the yard.

When moving day finally arrives for our backyard hive, the hive will be split into two and some honey will be harvested.  A small nuc will stay in our backyard while the main hive moves to the Bee Farm.  The plan is to harvest honey from all our hives.   Several cases of honey containers and bears were delivered by UPS yesterday and are now waiting to be filled.

The next project on the to do list is to create a solar wax melter since the containers of wax that we've been accumulating need to be turned into something useful.  That's what I love the most about beekeeping.  The never ending opportunities to build stuff.