| The first step is to gas the bees. They had a special tool to do that with. It was basically a pump that you put burning cloth into. The smoke makes the bees disoriented... Or it's supposed to. Several made a "bee" line for Laura and me. We had to run off screaming and waving our arms several times. Amazingly, during this first process nobody actually got stung. |  |
| After the bees were smoked, they took the lid off the hives and started pulling the racks of honeycomb out. There were enough racks to pretty much fill the trunk of a Toyota, so how many ever that is. |  |
| This is what the combs look like before they are processed at all. The bees put a cap over each cell in the honeycomb to seal it. We transported all of the racks back to the basement where the harvesting equipment was waiting.
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 | We took turns doing the various jobs, because I wanted a chance to do them all. I also wanted to take pictures of everything. (The camera didn't get too sticky.) Here is the first step, demonstrated by Laura. To get to the honey, you must first take an electric knife and cut the caps off of the honeycomb. Burning wax and honey really smells good. This is a good thing, because we would smell it for about the next three hours. |
| After the caps are cut off, four racks of honeycomb are placed in a basket that spins. The honey is flung off onto the inside of a vat that collects it. After the honeycomb is spun, the racks must be turned around and spun again as there is honey on both sides. After that is done, you drain the honey out of the vat, and dump it into another vat that strains it. This is a vital step of the process unless you want some burnt wax or bee legs on your next sandwich. After it is strained well, the honey is allowed to drain into buckets and jars. We got over 15 gallons of honey out of the Randy's three hives. |
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| Laura only got stung three times. I only got stung once. On the bottom of my foot!!! The moral of the story with all four of our stings, was "watch where you step, put your hands, and don't get careless." |
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A little known fact: Raw pure honey doesn't spoil unless you get water in it somehow. Edible honey has been found in the tombs of ancient Egypt. One theory for this is that honey is an hydroscopic solution. This means that it has very little water content, and therefore will act as a sponge if it comes in contact with h2o. That coupled with it's high sugar content make it an excelent dehydrating agent. If bacteria or mold spores happen to land on honey, they are actually dehydrated by the honey and die. Another theory is that honey is a complex carbohydrate and bacteria finds it difficult to digest. Either way, honey just tastes great forever! | |
