second harvest honey

our second harvest honey is in the jars. we only got 15 kilos the second time around, which is less than the first harvest. that's not how it's supposed to work - usually, you get twice as much honey in the second harvest as in your first. we got 22 kilos the first time, so we were hoping for 40+. however, having one lazy queen (who we have now replaced) and it being a very rainy, cool summer, 15 kilos it was. apparently with the bad weather, the bees spent all of their time indoors, eating the fruits of their labors.

the second harvest honey is quite different. i suppose it has to do with different flowers being in bloom, tho' honestly, i'm still learning this and i don't really know why it's so different. the honey is much darker, thicker and richer and just tastes deeper and more complex somehow. we made a jar with pecans and one with walnuts, to have with some nice cheese this winter sometime.

we've learned so much this year and it's very satisfying to use our own honey in our morning tea and to take a jar as a hostess gift when we go for a visit. we've decided to have five bee families next year, now that we've learned the ropes, so we should have even more honey next year. maybe even enough to be able to sell some.

first honey harvest

on thursday last week, our bee mentor said it was time for our first honey harvest. he came over (that's him on the right) and helped us take the honey-laden frames. only one of our bee families had produced anything, the other one seems to have a lazy queen and has not been doing their job (more about that in a separate post).

but our well-functioning bee family is doing very well. twelve frames, heavy with golden honey, were ready to be harvested. here, the sun shows just how full and beautiful the frames were.

husband constructed the box you can see. you need a box to transport the frames in. husband made one that fits six frames, as honey-filled frames are heavy and to carry more would be pretty hard on your back. he estimates that the boxes cost approximately 60DKK (about $12) apiece to make in materials - wood and hinges. the box has a bottom and a lid, as once you take the frames, you don't want the bees to find their way into them and try to come along to the harvest.

the bees indicate that they are finished with the frame by sealing it off, as you can see in the photo above. i found out the hard way that the bees are not at all pleased to have their hard work removed. i was merely the photographer and thought i was at a safe distance, but i got stung on my cheekbone. i can tell you it was VERY painful. the kind of pain that actually takes your breath away (tho' i didn't have an allergic reaction) and i actually had to lie down for awhile - it made me feel quite ill.

we transported our two boxes, which contained the twelve frames, to our bee mentor's house. he has a centrifuge for extracting the honey, so we did all of the work there. the sealing wax must be scraped off with a special tool. sabin loved that part.

each frame is spun in the centrifuge three times and the centrifuge holds four frames. the honey is spun in one direction, then the frames are turned and spun again. then you return it to the original position and spin one last time.

at this stage of the year, the frames are returned, wax intact, to the bees, so they can fill them again for the later harvest (some time in august). i didn't get photos of the empty frames, but they look a bit forlorn and messy, but the bees very quickly remedy that when you give them back to them.

the centrifuge has a tap at the bottom and you capture the honey in a clean white plastic bucket. it's then strained through a large mesh sieve to get the last bits of wax out of it. i somehow neglected to photograph that part as well.

i wanted some honeycomb along with the honey, so we cut the middle section from one of the frames. the bees will quickly build that back again (and hopefully won't lay any drone eggs there). i had to have some because i wanted to chew on a bit of wax, like when i was a kid.

we got 22 kilos - or 45 pounds of honey from our 12 frames. a pretty good harvest for the first time and for only one bee family. the honey has to stand for a couple of days before you put it into the containers. we got a big stainless steel stirrer that husband fits onto his drill and you stir it to aerate the honey, to help along the natural process, which i guess is a sort of fermentation (we're still learning). after two days of stirring and settling, we tapped the honey into the containers. we had friends visiting and the kids loved that part of the process. we filled 32 glass jars and 10 of the plastic ones with our first harvest.

we don't expect to sell any of it this round, but use it for our own consumption in tea and baking and in making cordials and preserves.  i expect to be experimenting in the kitchen very soon.

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further investment we made to get ready for the first harvest included purchase of a bee brush, for brushing them off the frames to put them into the box - 35DKK ($6.50), a special tool for lifting and separating the frames - 68DKK ($12.75), protective bee clothing for sabin -  200DKK ($37.50), 90 plastic containers with lids for the final honey product - 156DKK ($30) and 36 glass jars with lids - 96DKK ($18). the stainless steel stirring implement was 200DKK ($37.50).  we need several good buckets and the bucket with a tap on it (tho' our bee mentor gave us that one), so there will be some investment in that as well. eventually, we will get our own centrifuge, but at this stage and on the small scale we're working, we will use our bee mentor's equipment.  that raises our total investment thus far to 4610DKK ($864).

harvesting honey

it was strawberries & honey day around denmark today. the national beekeepers' association sponsors the day early every summer - to take advantage of the beautiful seasonal strawberries and the first honey harvest of the year. we went to our bee school to see how it was all done. we'll be "slinging" (i cannot find what it's called in english (centrifuging? spinning?) and i even searched an entire online bee dictionary) our own honey early next week, together with our mentor.

how most of our bee "lessons" function - here, one of the experienced guys explains to one of the other newcomers how to check whether the frame is ready and going to be easy to "sling" or not.

when the bees are finished making the honey, they seal it in. you have to scrape that off with a special tool before putting the frame into the centrifuge, otherwise, no honey will come out.

the front frame has had the sealing wax scraped off, but the ones behind it have been emptied of their honey. they will be placed back in with their bee families, and the bees will fill them up again by about august or so. after that second harvest, the wax will be melted off and repurposed and the frames cleaned and made ready for next year.

this is the hand centrifuge we used today. it holds three frames. after the first spin, you turn the frame around, so the other side is facing out, then you put it back and give it another spin, for a total of three spins.  the honey collects down in the bottom and you open the spout and let it pour into a clean bucket.

as the honey pours out here, you can see there are still bits of wax. you then put it through a large cloth strainer into another bucket (which i must not have photographed, because it was a rather boring big white bucket), from which you can then fill the containers with honey.

the honey is runny and golden and absolutely delicious (we ate it with heart-shaped waffles and fresh strawberries). and i can't wait to have our own.

one last shot of our bee mentor explaining to husband how to build a box for transporting the frames. it's ok to harvest the frames if they're about 2/3 full of honey, the bees don't have to be finished with them before you take them, since you're going to give them back. we also learned it's important to have a box where you can enclose the honey-laden frames, otherwise you'll have a whole lot of bees that want to come along for the ride.

that's the update for now, i'll tell you more next week after we harvest our own honey. as you can see, we enjoyed some fresh honey together with our dinner...we made pancakes with elderflower blossoms out on the grill table (using a pan, don't worry, we didn't try to grill pancakes). fresh honey, strawberries and elderflowers from the garden = summer bliss.