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DD's Honey Harvest

September 6th, 2014 at 11:34 pm

As I've previously posted we have a bee hive in our backyard. This is a 4H project that our DD participates in.

This year her hive produced enough excess honey she could harvest it.

The whole process is so fascinating. It is amazing to learn how bees "operate", the proper way to work with bees and the steps to harvest honey.

After you pull out frames of capped honey from the hive boxes you cut the wax caps off with a Hot Knife (electric knife that gets hot and cuts/melts the wax). Then you load the extractor.

This is the Extractor in our kitchen (you can see some of the wax caps on the top of the strainer).




The local beekeeping club allows 4H members to borrow the club owned electric extractor at no charge.
It works by flinging the honey out with centrifugal force.

Frames loaded inside the extractor.



Frames spinning.



Honey!
DD filled jars after letting the honey drain from the extractor into the bucket for about 30 hours.



Almost two gallons of honey collected.



Most of these jars will be given as gifts.
A few might be sold - DD's project leader has customers willing to buy local honey for $20/pint.

Posted in Education, Food / Groceries, Kids! | 13 Comments »

13 Responses to “DD's Honey Harvest”

  1. Buendia Says:
    September 7th, 2014 at 12:18 am 1410049115
    1410049115

    That is so cool! I have a few friends who keep bees, and it's amazing to me everything they've learned - what a great 4H project!

  2. creditcardfree Says:
    September 7th, 2014 at 12:26 am 1410049563
    1410049563

    Awesome! Love that you can borrow the equipment, too.

  3. snafu Says:
    September 7th, 2014 at 12:32 am 1410049937
    1410049937

    Thank you, I've always wondered about how honey is extracted and processed. Several articles have commented about lower production and significantly smaller numbers of bees. Is this regional or affecting your area? Is pollution a major factor in your opinion? I wonder why honey is rarely promoted to consumers. They certainly consume giant quantities of sugar and fake, processed sweeteners.

  4. alice4now Says:
    September 7th, 2014 at 01:15 am 1410052504
    1410052504

    Thanks for the pictures, very cool!

  5. Thrifty Ray Says:
    September 7th, 2014 at 03:39 am 1410061152
    1410061152

    What a great learning experience for the whole family! And fresh honey too! What a great 4H project!

  6. LuckyRobin Says:
    September 7th, 2014 at 07:07 am 1410073620
    1410073620

    I want to raise bees some day. Just need enough land to do it without bothering neighbors.

  7. Joan.of.the.Arch Says:
    September 7th, 2014 at 02:07 pm 1410098849
    1410098849

    Isn't that beautiful!

  8. Tabs Says:
    September 7th, 2014 at 02:20 pm 1410099640
    1410099640

    Wow, those are some awesome pics. Thanks for sharing.

  9. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    September 7th, 2014 at 09:16 pm 1410124586
    1410124586

    What a neat project to do!

  10. MonkeyMama Says:
    September 7th, 2014 at 11:06 pm 1410131168
    1410131168

    Awesome!

  11. PNWMom Says:
    September 8th, 2014 at 02:45 am 1410144350
    1410144350

    This is just too cool! Thanks for sharing! Smile

  12. Kiki Says:
    September 8th, 2014 at 04:35 pm 1410194145
    1410194145

    Fascinating, thanks for sharing!

  13. wowitsawonderfullife Says:
    September 14th, 2014 at 05:01 pm 1410714088
    1410714088

    Well that's really cool!

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