Harvest Time
If you’d ask us what our biggest takeaway has been by creating an apiary in our yard, we’d probably say it’s been as much about the journey as it has been about the end result.
This has been our first summer working with honey bees and we’ve had a lot of help along the way. From our mentor, Brett, coming out to our home providing hands-on learning and assistance, to Honeybee Heritage supplying us with our boxes, supplies, suits and even the bees themselves, we’ve been fortune to have so much star power behind us. Thanks to all in the bee community!
Now comes the time to meet another group of people – those assisting us with harvesting our honey. Our mentor introduced us to a company that has been harvesting honey for over 25 years – this being Hemken Honey Company in Big Bend. Hemken allowed us to bring in our honey frames and utilize his equipment to extract our honey into the container we brought to his farm.
All in all, we were able to harvest 20 pounds of honey this summer. Tasting it was the most wonderful experience for us as it had a light perfumed taste reflected in its amber color. Bees get sole credit for finding the pollen and nectar.
While we did harvest some of the honey, several frames were left in the bee boxes as they will need this food source to get them through the winter.
You can view the process below in pictures and captions.
Our honey frames brought to the farm in a cooler. 
Scraping the honey with a sharp comb to break the waxed cap seals. 
Loading the drum with our frames. 
Frames loaded and now time to spin them. 
The rotation causes the honey to splatter on the inside of the drum’s walls to reach the floor of the drum. 
Once the drum floor collects the honey, it moves through the spigot into our pail passing through two strainers. 
It’s thick and unfortunately a honey bee or two came along with it. 
The white particles you see are the wax caps which will be strained. 
A spatula like tool is used to separate the way from the honey so it flows faster through the strainer. 
This little honey bee came through the strainer only to walk away covered in honey. 
The wax will be discarded by us. 
Here’s the last bit of honey to pass through the spigot into our 5 gallon drum.
After here, we visited Dadant & Sons to pick up our individual honey jars and lids in which to store this deliciousness.
For the time being, we’re happy to give away jars to family and friends, but if this becomes bigger, look for our brand, Wollenbees. Thanks for visiting!
