Rather than wait for reasonable temperatures, I decided to rob my bees in the early afternoon on a day with a high in the 90s. I’m one of those crazy people who doesn’t mind suffering in the heat. In fact, I like working outdoors in the summertime. When I was finished, my shirt was soaking wet and I was pretty red in the face, but it was worth it.
Historically speaking, we aren’t the world’s best beekeepers, and taking honey has only been an option twice, in four seasons of beekeeping. But this year I feel like things are starting to finally click for me, so hopefully next year we will harvest more than a few quarts of honey. Maybe taking honey will become so commonplace that I don’t feel the need to have a picture of myself taken while holding a frame of it. Ha! Actually, I like that it feels special and I am awfully grateful for the little I was able to take last week. As always, I have high hopes for the future.
I love this set of photos sooo much. You can tell how excited everyone is!
Thanks for posting these pictures! I am embarrassed by the stuff piled up on top of my refrigerator and your photos of the same makes me realize this is a common thing. I can not keep up with the collections of things our family continues to amass (myself included). Somehow I need to do a big organization/purge/cleaning, but it is especially hard when new messes are constantly being created. Yesterday my two children (almost 6 and 2) took out all the pots & pans, a counter top juicer and other misc kitchen items, as well as the flour and put everything all over the the kitchen floor. The kitchen was totally clean for the first time in days before this! Ah! Today’s new mess was taking all the books off the books shelves in their bedroom and piling them into a big empty storage bin I had not put away after using it to carry our clothes to our vacation home and back. So much for tackling the old messes when there is a new mess everyday!
Hi! I’m Kate – a first time commenter. We’ve been beekeeping for years (my husband keeps bees, as did his father, and his father’s father) and I just wanted to say how beautiful the harvest is that you’ve documented!! There are so many ups and downs in beekeeping…like most homesteady things I guess…but good luck to you and your buzzy friends!!
Ginny, this is a bit off-topic but I love your top in these photos! Do you happen to remember where it’s from?
that’s just old navy clearance rack! bought a month or so ago?
We are hoping for a good honey harvest this year but it’s still too early to take it. We usually harvest at the end of July or maybe beginning of August.
I love this so much! So, do you have foundation-less frames? Can you do that? We are so very new at this but I didn’t realize you could cut the wax right off of them like that! Maybe we shouldn’t have gotten the ones with the wired foundation? I’m really hoping our bee experiment works for us!
Yes! We are 100% foundationless–sort of renegade beekeepers. 🙂 We have been heavily influenced by Michael Bush http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm You should definitely check out his site! His books are kind of unorganized, but we found them really helpful as well.
Thank you! You know, as we were putting them together, it did occur to me that it was kind of odd that they would need a foundation to build off of…I mean, in the wild they just DO it. Maybe our next frames we’ll try that way and see which seems to work better! It certainly seems like harvesting would be easier without the frames but then again, what do I know? My eleven year old is the one taking the lead on this adventure 🙂
There are pros and cons–some of the main reasons we didn’t use foundation are: we don’t like plastic, and if we were to use wax comb it would likely be contaminated wax b/c most beekeepers use chemicals in their hives, and then also because bees w/o foundation naturally draw smaller cells that are less hospitable to varroa. Michael Bush really hammers home the whole small cells thing. Crush and drain is easy for harvesting honey, but eventually we will want to be able to use an extractor, and I think it will be a bit challenging–it can be done, but Jonny thinks he might need to build some sort of cage to keep the combs from breaking off while they are being spun. We need to do more research on that side of things!
My husband harvested honey this weekend using our extractor and he made out fine using the foundationless frame. Ours are wired. He put the frames back on the hives without any trouble, the comb was still in tact.
I love the photos of you! Great job!
this was great….. you are such a blessing and I think it is always a welcomed treat to live off what you have done and God has blest you with
What an awesome activity to do with your kids. I wish we could do such hands on things at school!
“Maybe taking honey will become so commonplace that I don’t feel the need to have a picture of myself taken while holding a frame of it.” Lol.
I love that your little guys are often pantless, makes me feel normal 🙂 my little guys rarely wear pants in the summer, lol.
Yummy honey. It’s nice to see you happy and smiling …
the last picture of you with the tray and silas is my most fav ever 🙂
Well done, Ginny. It looks scrumptious!
It looks so warm and golden sitting on your shelf. The picture of hopefulness and gratitude. Wishing you many more years of golden plenty!
collecting your own honey looks like the most exciting experience, and wonderfully satisfying x
But the photos are beautiful and it is a gift to celebrate the things that make up the pieces of our lives and everyday!
I would love to know where you got your longer amber necklace!
“High hopes for the future” – isn’t that what defines the Christian life!
Yes!
Have I told you recently how much I dearly love you and your blog? No? I dearly love you and your blog.
The feeling is mutual. 🙂
Congratulations on the harvest! You look radiant in these pictures Ginny.
Thank you! I was incredibly hot and sweaty!!
beautiful combs! you can appreciate this….my father-in-law has over 150 hives in the old country….
Oh yes, I only have 9 right now and they are taking lots of my time!
Awesome! I am living your heat vicariously!
Always love your photos. I love that your kids are always involved in what you are doing.
Great photos and beautiful honey. A positive outlook for the future…yes!