Harvest

Last night our honey was returned to us. There is an entire process to harvesting honey from the hives. The extra boxes filled with frames (or honey supers) are taken off the main box. The bees are left an entire super to keep them in food over the Winter. These boxes are then opened up and the frames removed. Each frame is then gone over with a hot knife to remove the wax that caps each cell. The frames are then placed in a machine that spins them and causes all the honey to be ejected from the cell. The frames are then reused for the next year. It takes six times the amount of nectar to make wax than honey so we want the bees to be able to reuse as much was as they can. The honey is then filtered and given back to us along with the cap wax. We then repackage the honey into quart jars for sale and melt down the cap wax for hand balm and soap.
Last night it all came back to us but it was a difficult year for the bees. Where last year we had around 12 gallons for our hives this year was only 5. It was just too hot for them. Oh well, harvest time means we are getting close to taking it easier for the Winter then getting ready for Spring when the babies come!