Honey Harvesting

I took part in a honey harvest and it gave me a much better insight as to why honey is expensive.

The normal honey harvest is around August, but sometimes there are circumstances which require an early harvest. My friend's hive was experiencing one of those circumstances this year.

You've seen the beehive boxes all around, I'm certain. Inside those beehives are frames that hold the wax foundations on which the bees build their honeycombs. Inside the honeycombs is where the bees store the honey.

The second-most important thing to remember about harvesting honey is to try not to get stung by any of the bees. The MOST important thing to remember about harvesting honey is to try not to get stung by any of the bees.

Proper protective gear, a smoke generator, hive tools, sanitized buckets, and strainers are all that is necessary to harvest honey. There are many other tools available that make the harvesting easier, but these are the bare necessities.

Once the frames containing the honeycomb are removed from the hive, the caps on the honeycomb must be pierced and then the honey squeezed from the honeycomb.

After all of the honey is squeezed from the honeycomb, it is filtered and then canned in sterilized jars.

Honey harvested "out of season" can often be bitter, but we lucked out this time. As you can see in the picture, the honey is darker than normal but, I am certain, will make for some fine eatin'!

Now, before you comment with things like "that's not how you harvest honey" or "this guy has no idea what he's talking about", you are correct: I have no idea how this is supposed to work. What I DO know is this: I have fresh honey; do you?