Honey Labels

I finally got around to making labels for our jars of honey.  We will be gifting some this year for Christmas and it was about time to get them gift giving ready.  I just used Avery labels because they are supposed to be partnering up with Martha Stewart.  Her team will be creating templates and designs just for Avery.  Unfortunately I couldn't find her templates, I think it's a young partnership and the products are not fully developed. 

I did however find a flower and a bee icon among their options and put them together on our label.  Over all I am happy with how they turned out and think it is really cute.  They did print slightly off center to the left, but it wasn't so bad that I was willing to throw a whole sheet out and start over.  Actually the perfectionist in me was willing to redo them but Andy said they looked just fine.  I think the recipients of these bottles will be quite pleased!

$20.30

I read $64 Tomato a couple of Summers ago.  For those of you who don't know anything about the book it is all about one man and his funny garden endeavors that every gardener can relate to.  He decides to figure out how much his prized brandywine tomatoes cost him based on all of his costs of building and maintaining his garden.  To his chagrin he realizes each tomato costs him $64.

In the spirit we wanted to know how much did each pound of our honey cost.  Considering we bought a  hive, tools, bees and everything else each pound of honey cost $20.30 which is expensive but about what I expected.

Extracting Video

As promised the video of us extracting our honey for the first time is ready.  You will even get to view my awesome coordination in a blooper at the end.  I hope you enjoy the fun of our first extraction.

Extracting

After getting the super of honey off the hive and away from the bees it was time to extract it off the comb.  Andy and I went over to Mark's house since he graciously offered to let us use his equipment since we have yet to invest in any of our own.  The process is the same as I posted last time so I won't repeat all the details but I'll show you what we were up to.

 Capped Honey

 

Cutting off cappings

 Not quite sure exactly what I was doing but it looks like I am preparing to claw the comb out with my right hand

 

 Comb filled with honey

 Cappings draining

 Frames in the extractor

Empty frames with honey spun out

Honey draining from the extractor

 

As usual Andy had his video camera so there just might be a honey extraction video in our future.  You could see the determination on his face if only this was actually in focus.

We owe a big thanks to Mark who saved us from being blundering idiots.  He saved the day when I panicked and generously donated his time and resources.  When all was said and done he didn't let me help clean up the mess I made at his house and sent me home with jars for bottling.  There is no thank you that actually shows our appreciation but I tried with some of the herbed biscuits I made last week and a gallon of his favorite sweet tea. 

Harvesting Honey

After finding that we had a box full of honey I went to our bee club meeting unsure if we should leave it on the hive for the winter or take it.  We didn't plan or prepare to be able to take any honey in our first year.  I wasn't sure that we would be equipped to do so even if we wanted to.  At the meeting after speaking with a few people and getting a generous offer by Mark, a friend and fellow beekeeper, to use his equipment I decided we should go ahead and harvest the honey off the hive.

On Monday after work I went home feeling ready and prepared to take the honey super off the hive and remove the bees.  I got the box off the hive, closed the hive up and then went over to the honey super to start the process of shaking and brushing the bees off frame by frame.  During honey harvesting you do not smoke the bees otherwise they will dive head first into the comb and you won't be able to get the bees off. 

As I was standing above the box the memory of unhappy bees the two days earlier when I didn't smoke the hive and the sting that followed flooded my memory.  I got scared and anxious.  I began trying to get one frame out but it was heavy with honey and the bees.  As I was working it out it slipped out of my hand back into the box and a plume of bees emerged.  I jumped away and panic took over. 

I went inside called Andy who had no better advice other than to just be safe.  I called two other beekeepers who didn't answer their phones.  I sat in the basement and told myself to put my big girl pants on it would be fine, I could do this.  There was no way I could just leave the box in the middle of my driveway.  I went back outside again stood over the box and full on panic flooded back in.  I worked up enough wits to put the box back on the hive, although not in the proper spot and walk away.  After an hour and a half of work I was back at square one.

I sent out an SOS email to the bee club asking for someone to come save me from myself.  I got back a bunch of emails with advice and a few offers to help over the next couple of days.  The same evening as my pathetic email Mark called offering to come by the next day to help and I gladly accepted.

Tuesday evening Mark came over with his equipment and a leaf blower.  I didn't realize you could just blow the bees out of the box.  In five minutes Mark had blown all the bees out of the box and had it wrapped up in the garage.  It seems that years of experience allow you to fearlessly remove bees quickly.

So I'm not quite the confident beekeeper I thought I was.  I'll get there but for now I'm still a bit of a sissy.  Normally when people come over to the house I tell them that if a bee is bothering them to walk away and not to swat at it.   However on this occasion Mark had to remind me of this as I was ready to run for the hills and flail my arms wildly when a frustrated bee wouldn't leave us alone afterward.  I am sure he was wondering how does this lady have a whole hive in her backyard. 

I don't have pictures for this installment because lets be honest during all of this I wasn't thinking oooh lets get the camera out.  The tale of my dramatics will have to be enough for today.  But I do have pictures for tomorrow's installment of extracting the honey off the comb.