Several years ago my dad took up beekeeping. Now, if you know my dad, you know when he decides to do something, he does not 'half-ass' do it. So, when he decided he wanted to have a beehive, he did his research. He has watched more videos and read more articles about bees than you can imagine. His knowledge about bees is quite amazing. I have loved learning so much from him about the little insects that pollinate so much of the food we eat and create a sweet byproduct.
I knew the time for my dad to harvest honey was coming soon, so when I was talking to my mom a week or so ago, I mentioned to her that if dad needed help, I had some extra vacation days and would be happy to help him. A day or so later, I received a phone call from my dad letting me know he would take me up on my offer, and decided that Monday would be a good day to tackle the job.
Casen had a game at Prairie View A&M Sunday afternoon, so I headed to Kerrville after the game.
To beat the heat, we got up early yesterday morning with plans to head up to the hill where my dad's hives are located by 7:00am. I had instructions to wear long pants, preferably jeans, to hopefully prevent being stung on my lower half. We both dawned beekeeping gear and headed up to the hives. One of his hives has some very fiesty bees, so we opted to address that hive last.
We carefully looked at each frame and took the ones that were full of honey. So that the bees have food for the winter, not all frames were taken. We went from hive to hive, taking frames and making bees unhappy.
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| Some of the frames we gathered. |
When we got to the feisty bees, two of them made their way into my beekeeping hat. I was able to kill them both, but not until one of them stung me on my neck - OUCH! I am still unsure as to how they made their way in. My dad says they are houdinis. : )
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| See the culprit??? |
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Who knew the neck was such a
tender spot! |
It took an hour and a half or so for us to gather all of the frames and leave the bees wondering what had happened to all their hard work.
The next task was to remove all the honey from the frames. My parents live at Buckhorn Lake Resort which is a Class A Motorhome Community. There is a 'Barn' there where they have concerts and dinners throughout the year. There is an industrial kitchen there where we were able to extract the honey. Talk about a job!!!! I can assure you, the average individual has no idea the time and effort beekeepers spend harvesting honey.
There are several different uncapping tools you can use to remove the caps from the combs.
After my dad removed the caps, we placed frames (three at a time) into a hand cranked honey extractor. Mom and dad held the big pot while I cranked the spinner. While spinning the frames, the honey was forced out of the combs which then dripped down the inside of the extractor. We then took the frames out, and flipped them over and spun them again so the honey was removed from the other side of the frame. (Since that was a three person job, there are no pictures of that part of the process.) All I can say is that part was VERY tiring. Once the honey filled the bottom of the large extractor pot, we opened up the valve, and let the honey flow into a fine strainer over a bucket to catch wax bits and other impurities. We repeated this process until all the frames had been spun and all of the honey made its way through the strainer.
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Unfiltered honey going through
the strainer. |
After all the frames were spun down, we cleaned up our mess and let the honey set overnight to allow the bubbles to rise to the top before bottling the honey.
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| Our buckets of honey |
This morning we woke up and headed to the kitchen to bottle the honey. The bucket that contained the remnants had settled overnight, so I removed as much of the 'junk' and then strained the remains. We also removed the bubbles off the top of the honey that had been settling overnight by taking seran wrap and gently placing it over the top of the honey. The bubbles then adhere to the seran wrap which is removed and thrown away.
I was in charge of handing my dad the bottles, where he filled them with honey, and then my mom wiped any excess honey off the bottles.
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| We made a great team!!! |
All filled up!
The next step was applying the lids and sealing them up using a heat gun.
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| All sealed up. |
The next task was applying labels to the bottles.
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| Job done! |
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We harvested 119.2 pounds of honey,
which resulted in:
136 honey bears
3 jars + 1 big squeeze bottle |
I must say, I have a whole new appreciation for bees, beekeepers, and honey. While the past two days have been filled with a lot of work, the bees—and my dad—have been working all year to produce the 119.2 pounds of honey we harvested. Seeing firsthand just how much time, effort, and care goes into the process has given me an even greater appreciation for every jar of honey.
I truly enjoyed being part of the process and making new memories with my parents. It’s easy to take something as simple as honey for granted without thinking about all the work that goes into producing it. But this experience reminded me that the best part of harvesting honey wasn’t just what we brought home in jars. It was the time spent together, the opportunity to learn something new, and the memories made along the way. I’m grateful I got to be a part of it, and I’m already looking forward to helping my dad again next year!
