Sunday, October 30, 2011

Something Sweet for Halloween

Time passes in South Florida with the rain.  A normal fall day consists of the weather changing every thirty minutes.  Dodging hurricanes and flooding becomes the routine here from June-November.  For the rest of the United States this season yields great harvests and fantastic honey flows.  In Miami this time brings rain and very little honey production.  Fortunately, as October comes to a close, the tides turn and our time for planting and honey production begins!

I know it has been a while since my last posting.  I did not think the trips to the hives where I opened them and nothing had really changed would interest you.  During this change of seasons from wet to drier, I did not go occupy Wall Street or Miami.  Instead, this down time gave me opportunities to read more and prepare for the upcoming season.  First, I know that we will have some beeswax from the harvest, so I built a solar wax melter out of a Styrofoam cooler, Plexiglas, and foil.  Check it out!
Foam cooler lined with aluminum foil.  It can get over 200 degrees Fahrenheit in there!

The Solar Wax Melter and it's Plexiglas lid.

This is a little wax I was able to get from some rogue comb.  It is dirty, but this is much better than how it looked before!  Wax refinement takes a few steps, and we have not harvested enough wax for any crafts yet.

Oh, did I fail to mention that I harvested my first batch of honey?  No big deal...  I happened to get three full frames of honey from the last venture to the hives.  Naturally, I extracted them immediately using my new two-frame hand extractor.  The yield of about 0.75 gallons (6 pints) will go to family, but do not fret, I saw other promising frames in the other hive as well.  I will bring another box to expand the other hive and allow for maximum honey production! 
A full frame...at least 80% of the framed needs to be capped or else a risk of high moisture could lead to fermentation (not in a good way) of the entire yield!  Oh, and the frame is covered on both sides just like this.

EXTREME CLOSE-UP! WOAH!

Using the electrically heated knife makes for quick uncapping of the frames.  Also, the cappings come off clean and leave the cells generally undamaged making it easier and quicker for the bees to fill them up again!

Uncapping.

Uncapping action shot!


In areas that the knife cannot reach because they are too shallow or in corners, the uncapping tool takes care of the job.  Yes, it damages the comb a bit, but it gets the job done.


Cappings and their residual...no worries, none of this goes to waste!

The two-frame hand cranked extractor.  For the hobbyist.  The frames are spun for three minutes and then flipped around and spun for another three minutes to extract from both sides of the frame.

Empty comb...ready to go back to the colony.


The extracted honey comes out of the extractor and into a double sieve filter.

This is the only filtration the honey receives.  The large particulate like wax chunks, bee parts, and pollen are mostly caught here...of course some stuff gets through.

One of the frames did not have a plasticell foundation (a plastic middle with wax outer) and it started to fall apart in the extractor.  The solution was to crush and strain and, of course, end up with a ton of extra wax to process.

Yes, PURE HO.

Oh wait!  I mean, pure honey!  That is the yield, 6 quarts=.75 gallons.

Even though we waited a night to let the air bubble rise out, some still remained suspended in the honey along with a bit of pollen and other small particles.

Raw-unprocessed, golden, delicousness!

Nice lighting really shows how golden this batch came out.

This is the label I designed for now...first edition.

Now I just need to get the labels to align properly in the printer...

Ta-Da!
 Personally, I like the cute little plastic honey bears, but old fashioned mason jars work in the meantime.  I think the Bueno Bees name needs a classy logo as well.  This constitutes my solicitation for ideas and graphic submissions!  Please send them my way!  I am not an artist...please help, Nate...hint hint.  Otherwise, the labels will be lifeless and boring...can you imagine?

A quick update about the plantation: the city of Miami finished burying the new pipe a few weeks ago, but they still need to plant grass before they will let us back in.  So...I am still eternally grateful to Jerry for letting me stash the bees in his yard.  You know though...there is a fellow from work who has some pomegranate trees in his yard and inquired about getting my bees down there for the growing season...I wonder how pomegranate honey tastes.   

I will let you all know when I get a batch of honey that I am ready to sell and ship...so stay tuned!  Oh, and remember to bee kind to your neighborhood pollinators!

1 comment:

  1. jon - i love this. all of it. one of my childhood dreams was to live on a christmas tree farm, ride a horsedrawn sleigh in winter, and keep bees. christmas and honey - my favorite things! i'm so glad to see that your bees are happy and healthy. keep it up and let me know when i can get a jar! go for the pomegranate if you get a chance. all the best to you!

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