Post by soldim on Aug 17, 2016 8:59:30 GMT -5
We harvested our honey last week with my brother in law, after postponing a couple of times because of uncooperative weather. For us, mid-August is getting towards the end of the window of opportunity, because after that the nights risks being too cold. Part of our hives are up in the mountains, and a single cold night is enough to end up with lots of crystallized honey, which is impossible to get out of the rates.
Spring, and early summer have been both cold and wet, almost to an extend where we had given up hope to get any honey this year. Fortunately, most of July and early August gave us good weather (except the dates when we intended to collect our honey). Still, less than half of our hives were both strong enough and had large enough stocks to harvest from.
We have five Langstroth hives, and about fifteen Warre hives. For collecting honey, the Langstroth ones win out easily, we pop out the frames, brush of the bees and spin them in the centrifuge. Then the honey goes through a strainer and is ready. The disadvantage of the Langstroth hives is that they are heavy and really a pain to take care of during the year, especially if you are out alone. In good honey years (heh!) they are impossible to carry or manipulate
The Warre hives, because of their smaller size, are a lot easier to handle throughout the year. However, since they don’t have the traditional frames but only a top bar, getting the honey out is a hassle. Generally, we remove a whole box at a time, tip them on their side and blow the bees of with a leave blower. Using the leave blower is great fun, but only moderately effective so we tend to end up with quite a few bees in the barn, and a sting every now and then (I have not gotten stung this year, or longer than I can remember). Then we crush and strain, definitely a whole lot more work and much less effective than spinning frames.
All in all, we ended up with about 100 lbs. of meadow honey and 40 lbs. of mountain honey. It is definitely sufficient for our families with enough to spare for relatives etc. We will also sell about 50 lbs. or so to defray part of the costs. In the past we have had years with up to 500 lbs. of honey harvested. Took quite a bit more effort at collecting day, but was financially more interesting. Anyway, a year like this serves as a reminder that we do it for the fun. And, fun was had while finishing with a couple of cold ones and grilling some duck breasts.
Spring, and early summer have been both cold and wet, almost to an extend where we had given up hope to get any honey this year. Fortunately, most of July and early August gave us good weather (except the dates when we intended to collect our honey). Still, less than half of our hives were both strong enough and had large enough stocks to harvest from.
We have five Langstroth hives, and about fifteen Warre hives. For collecting honey, the Langstroth ones win out easily, we pop out the frames, brush of the bees and spin them in the centrifuge. Then the honey goes through a strainer and is ready. The disadvantage of the Langstroth hives is that they are heavy and really a pain to take care of during the year, especially if you are out alone. In good honey years (heh!) they are impossible to carry or manipulate
The Warre hives, because of their smaller size, are a lot easier to handle throughout the year. However, since they don’t have the traditional frames but only a top bar, getting the honey out is a hassle. Generally, we remove a whole box at a time, tip them on their side and blow the bees of with a leave blower. Using the leave blower is great fun, but only moderately effective so we tend to end up with quite a few bees in the barn, and a sting every now and then (I have not gotten stung this year, or longer than I can remember). Then we crush and strain, definitely a whole lot more work and much less effective than spinning frames.
All in all, we ended up with about 100 lbs. of meadow honey and 40 lbs. of mountain honey. It is definitely sufficient for our families with enough to spare for relatives etc. We will also sell about 50 lbs. or so to defray part of the costs. In the past we have had years with up to 500 lbs. of honey harvested. Took quite a bit more effort at collecting day, but was financially more interesting. Anyway, a year like this serves as a reminder that we do it for the fun. And, fun was had while finishing with a couple of cold ones and grilling some duck breasts.