The Messy Part of the Honey Harvest

When my kids were little, they'd complain because when I'd cook, there was very little left in the mixing bowl for "licking the bowl." I feel that way when I harvest honey. I'm so aware that in a bee's life she only collects enough nectar for 1/4 tsp of honey. So I feel dedicated to the concept of not leaving a drop in the bucket, so to speak.

This is the messy part of harvesting honey. I can keep the drips to a minimum by using cardboard under everything and by having these lovely crush and strain buckets with honey gates. But at the end of the process, there comes a point where the honey gate is useless. Then you have to use the rubber spatula to scrape every possible drop of honey and somehow get it into the tiny jar that is what is needed to hold the remnants of a harvest bucket.

It's a Gulliver and Lilliputian situation. The jar is so tiny and the bucket is so large. So this is when drips go everywhere. There's many a slip between the bucket and the lip of that jar despite my gripping it all tightly.



Below the gathered honey slides into the tiny jar.



I have been putting wax out in the solar wax melters, but this is the wax I have yet to melt. I washed it all today and set it up to dry tonight. Tomorrow or the next day I'll put it out to melt in the SWM.



Some of my wax is really light. Wonder if I can make a good wax block this year for the honey contest? It's late to do 18 pours, but I've sworn never to do that again. We'll see.


Here's the wax from this year that I have already melted. It will need to be filtered through silk before becoming a wax block or a candle.
I love all the various products of the hive, though, and will always melt my wax.