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First honey harvest of the season!

post #1 of 5
6/20/11 at 9:30am
Thread Starter 

So yesterday my dh and I went to remove bees from a man's barn wall.  Just a small hive that had moved into the wall in the early spring this year.  We got 2 boxes of bees, and harvested over 3 gallons of honey.  MMMMMMMM!

 

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Next weekend we have 2 more cutouts to do.  One on the outside of a house, in the wall under a bay window.  The other is in the ceiling of a garage. These both have been established for more than 2 years!  I expect to get about 8-10 more gallons of honey (we're leaving plenty for the bees).  We found someone who wants us to put bees in his hive bodies, and then he'll requeen them and pay us $80 per box and he wants 5 filled.  This started as a hobby early last year just because we thought it would be fun.  We did not intend to do anything other than provide honey and wax for our own needs.  Um, now we have invested in all the equipment we need, and are already turning a nice profit.  We love that we can do this together.  During the winter we'll start using our other products (mainly wax) to make things (batiking, candles, lip balms, etc.) and hopefully find a market for those things.  We may actually even sell honey this year since we've already harvested more than we did last year, and we haven't even touched our own 4 hives for harvesting yet!

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post #2 of 5
6/20/11 at 1:00pm

Hooray! The honey looks amazing.

post #3 of 5
6/21/11 at 5:51am

Wow, wow, wow!  Sweetness!

post #4 of 5
6/21/11 at 11:38am
Thread Starter 

I love to taste the differences in the honey.  This honey is from a different county.  It tastes more fruity, and like they've been feasting on alfalfa, which my dd says would be right for that area.  It is so tasty. 

 

We helped a neighbor (who admittedly doesn't know what he's doing and is afraid of his bees--he wasn't dressed properly for starters) harvest a couple of his frames of honey the other day, too.  His is what ours will taste like, as he is 3 doors down.  It is more like, well, a field of wildflowers on fire on your tongue, is the best I can do to describe it.  Last year's from here was like that, but much stronger.  This year's is way more mellow, though, which is interesting.  I'm sure it's in part due to the weather, but also the fact that some of our wildflowers aren't coming up in droves annually.  Some are only coming up every 2 or 3 years, such as our Snow on the Prairie.  I live where Ladybird Johnson had gobs of wildflower seeds scattered for miles and miles and miles.  It's beautiful!  Anyway, this year we had lots of horse mint out early, and Indian Blanket and Indian Paintbrush.

 

I just got in an order of frames for our honey supers.  We got 3 free supers the other day.  I have to go nail 50 frames together and install foundation for more honey!!!

 

Is anyone else here actively beekeeping?

post #5 of 5
6/21/11 at 6:30pm

I've been dreaming of beekeeping since I was 14, so for 20 years. I keep telling myself someday...

 

The variations in flavour are one of the things that I love most about honey. And bees are just fascinating.

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