After we had our turkey dinner we got right down to jarring our honey. Maybe this will become a new Thanksgiving tradition. We were so excited to see how much we got this harvest. All this wonderful honey came from 2 hives during the Brazilian Pepper honey flow.
Yanni with all our honey
All of our hives are doing great. All three have queens and look to be in good shape for the winter. We couldn’t be more thankful for our bees.
This is the part of beekeeping that everyone ooh’s and ahh’s about – honey. It’s the fruit of your labor. So what goes into extracting all that honey? Well I’m going to show you…and yes, it is a sticky mess.
Step 1: Gather your extracting equipment. The basic items you will need is an uncapping bin, an extractor, a bucket, filters/strainers and an uncapping knife. Make sure everything has be thoroughly washed and is clean.
Gather your equipment
Step 2: Gather your frames full of honey. Don’t worry, we still left some for the bees in their hives.
Gather your frames
Step 3: Begin uncapping your frames. When honey is ready in the honeycomb the bees will cap it (cover it) with wax. This seals in and protects the finished product while it is still in the hive.
Uncapping
Step 4: Place your frames in the extractor to collect your honey. There are many types and sizes of extractors you can get, based on your needs and budget.
Extracting
Step 5: Filter, filter, filter. We run our honey through 3 filters. A coarse one that gathers the larger pieces of wax in the honey, a medium filter that catches anything the first one missed, and a very fine filter that will catch any remaining small particles of wax.
Filtering
Step 6: Wait. This is the hardest part! We let the honey sit for about 15 days. This gives the honey time to settle. All the air bubbles and any impurities will separate and allow you to skim it off.
Step 7: After you have waited you can go ahead and jar your honey. I’ll post some pictures of that once we get to it.
Beelievable 