Honey Extraction Day

[Karen]

I agree with BG. Unless you have bears in your area, the animals aren't likely to be a problem. Some of my hives are in the cow pen and the cows get stung occasionally, but they don't mess with the hives.

[Karen]

No, he didn't get to shoot or even wrangle any of them. I confiscated his lasso at the door.

[Cimarron]

"Matt the Bee wrangler"...hmm maybe a new title.

Hey Karen, he didn't try to shoot one first before going after the honey did he? Lol

Thanks for sharing your experiences guys.

[JUSTIFIED]

I know you are asking Karen, buut, We had an orange grove next to our home in FL. Our neighbor had a mean spirited little house dog, he escaped their yard and urinated on the Bee Mans hives in the grove... It wasn't a pretty site, the little dog didn't return home.
Couldn't help but think how Karma even works in the animal world, I know of three people who carry scars from that little doggie nipping them (for no apparent reason) on their way out the door.
Soo if the animals (really anything) are going to mess with the bees, probably not going to turn out well.

That's kinda what I'm thinking Bio. Better safe than sorry. Plenty of alternative sources of prepping we can do. We've got plenty of room for gardens. We'll have those up and running shortly after we're in. Patriot Lady is going to explore dehydrating and canning food too once we're settled. Plenty of info on this board for that.

[1Admin]

One of our Shepherds follows me everywhere. She learned in a short period of time that jeans, the white long sleeve shirt and the veil meant keep your distance.

She snaps at the bees when they get close. They tear her up pretty good. She remembers and keeps a distance.

Worse sting was on the tip of the nose, anywhere else has just been annoying.

[BioG8r]

I know you are asking Karen, buut, We had an orange grove next to our home in FL. Our neighbor had a mean spirited little house dog, he escaped their yard and urinated on the Bee Mans hives in the grove... It wasn't a pretty site, the little dog didn't return home.
Couldn't help but think how Karma even works in the animal world, I know of three people who carry scars from that little doggie nipping them (for no apparent reason) on their way out the door.
Soo if the animals (really anything) are going to mess with the bees, probably not going to turn out well.

[JUSTIFIED]

Justified, home raised chicken is SO much fresher than store bought. The breast meat is pretty tender, but the dark meat is a bit tougher. These chickens aren't getting the nasty hormones and meds that store bought chickens get.
Bee keeping is pretty easy. I have never paid for a colony of bees. I have always collected swarms to get what I want. It's a lot easier than you would think to collect a swarm. Oh, and I live inside the city limits too. That should never stop anyone from keeping bees. I think it's a state law, but it might be federal, that no city or county is allowed to ban bee hives. They can limit the number of hives that you can have on your property, but they can't ban them completely.

Matt, you can have the wax. I'll save it for you. I only keep it if there is a larger amount. You can probably melt it down in one of those pots that melt scented wax. You will need to strain it to get the junk out of it tho.

Interesting. I didn't know about that law. Usually the breast is dry and the dark meat is tender on store bought. Wonder why the difference?

Karen we're moving to a home on about 1/2 acre in the middle of a small town of about 800. We have a large privacy fenced backyard and three cats. Is bee keeping a problem with animals around?

[1Admin]

Great thread, five stars!

Extractors are definitely the way to go. The first year we pulled honey we just cut the comb, hung it in a cheesecloth type bag, squeezed it, etc. Marginal results.

2nd or 3rd year (can't remember) we broke down and bought an extractor. Definitely the way to go.

We use a serrated type capping knife. Saves on electricity. Usually I'll just smoke the crap out of the supers, set them in the back of the truck, drive it up to the house, smoke it again. Usually by this point their is only a couple bees around. We carry them in the kitchen and extract there. We keep a cast iron fry pan going on the stove with hot water and keep the knife in there between cutting. Cut/kinda saw back and forth to get the cappings off. The wife puts them in the extractor and when it's full the boy cranks it.

We won't pull any this year. It's a rebuilding year for our bees. Lost several hives this last year. Gonna let them have it all this year to hopefully help the rebuilding process. Usually we only need to pull it every 2 years and we have more than we need and some to give away.

[Karen]

Justified, home raised chicken is SO much fresher than store bought. The breast meat is pretty tender, but the dark meat is a bit tougher. These chickens aren't getting the nasty hormones and meds that store bought chickens get.
Bee keeping is pretty easy. I have never paid for a colony of bees. I have always collected swarms to get what I want. It's a lot easier than you would think to collect a swarm. Oh, and I live inside the city limits too. That should never stop anyone from keeping bees. I think it's a state law, but it might be federal, that no city or county is allowed to ban bee hives. They can limit the number of hives that you can have on your property, but they can't ban them completely.

Matt, you can have the wax. I'll save it for you. I only keep it if there is a larger amount. You can probably melt it down in one of those pots that melt scented wax. You will need to strain it to get the junk out of it tho.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Now that brings back some memories...btw, all of that wax being cut off helps to make some nice candles. We used an old cold frame in the winter to melt down "waste" honeycomb and separate the impurities. Winter sun in PA still would occasionally scorch the wax.

hmmm interesting, thats a real good idea. Wonder if I could collect it then freeze it to do at a later time

[JUSTIFIED]

The knife we used is a decapping knife. It plugs in to heat up to melt the wax caps on the cells of honey. I need to get a scraper that I can use without electricity. Here at our little homestead we try to buy equipment that will work if the lights go out.
It really isn't a lot of equipment. Just some hives, a decapping knife, strainer of some sort (we used cheese cloth) and a honey extractor. You can use whatever containers you prefer to store your honey. I just happen to prefer canning jars. I just happened across an awesome opportunity to buy a honey extractor at a great price so I bought it.
The bees do the hard work. We just jump in and steal the honey :-)
Another farm to fork food we are enjoying for supper tonight is a chicken we butchered last night. My daughter is frying up the chicken right now :-)

I've heard that store bought chicken has nothing on the taste of a fresh butchered chicken. Bee keeping is one of the things Glenda and I talked about doing once we're farther along in our prepping journey but living in town would make it difficult for us.

[tech]

Now that brings back some memories...btw, all of that wax being cut off helps to make some nice candles. We used an old cold frame in the winter to melt down "waste" honeycomb and separate the impurities. Winter sun in PA still would occasionally scorch the wax.

[Karen]

The knife we used is a decapping knife. It plugs in to heat up to melt the wax caps on the cells of honey. I need to get a scraper that I can use without electricity. Here at our little homestead we try to buy equipment that will work if the lights go out.
It really isn't a lot of equipment. Just some hives, a decapping knife, strainer of some sort (we used cheese cloth) and a honey extractor. You can use whatever containers you prefer to store your honey. I just happen to prefer canning jars. I just happened across an awesome opportunity to buy a honey extractor at a great price so I bought it.
The bees do the hard work. We just jump in and steal the honey :-)
Another farm to fork food we are enjoying for supper tonight is a chicken we butchered last night. My daughter is frying up the chicken right now :-)

[Matt In Oklahoma]

I didn't realize so much equipment was involved in extracting the honey, Matt. Are you thinking of taking this on for personal or business gain?

Aint mine it's all Karen, she will chime in perhaps in a bit.

[JUSTIFIED]

[QUOTE=Matt In Oklahoma;42733]Then the hand crank was wound which spun the honey out and it collected in the bottom of the container

We used a bucket and cheesecloth to strain the impurities like honeycomb, pollen particles and bee poo out!

We then ladled the remaining impurities from the top and canned the rest.

Well that