Harvesting Sourwood Honey in the Mountains

On Thursday and Friday, my four year old granddaughter and I went to the mountains to harvest whatever sourwood honey might be on the hives we have at Robin and Mary's farm in Rabun County.   When we arrived, the first thing I saw was this dead European hornet on the landing board of the hive.  The bees must have balled it and killed it - go bees - the European hornet takes live bees to feed their young - GRRR.
                                                                                 

Rain was threatening so I went quickly to work to take the capped frames of honey off of the hives.  This is Rabun County so I left them lots of honey so that they might make it through the winter and only harvested one super from the largest hive.  The smaller hive appeared to have swarmed and requeened and didn't have surplus honey for me.

The capped honey was just beautiful and I gave Robin a cut-comb square along with some liquid honey as a thank you for letting us have hives on his farm.

I put the harvest into a nuc box, covered it with a towel and when the box was full, transported it to the car where I had an empty super waiting.

Robin, who kept bees early in his life, put on a veil to watch and help.  

The way the hives look below is how we left them.  There is a goldenrod flow as August begins to wane so I may add a box to each to accommodate the fall flow, but now we have harvested from the blue hive and consolidated the yellow hive so that both may do well for the remaining days of summer.

Robin and Mary have a beautiful garden in which these hives reside:

Mary and Lark are standing in front of her zinnias and cosmos.

Lark and I went to my mountain house to crush and strain the honey before dinner.  Lark was quite the honey harvester and was seriously good at doing this.

She is using the little pestle in these photos, but it wasn't long before she switched to the big crusher that Bear made for me and was crushing in high style!

The next morning we bottled the honey right after breakfast.  Lark was good at this too and we had quite the assembly line going. 

And the honey was DELICIOUS - yummy sourwood probably mixed with tulip poplar - a different taste than we get in Atlanta.

My Honey Label for 2011

This year since I have honey for the first time in three years, I decided to spend the big bucks and paid $9.99 (I'm not kidding) for 144 of these gorgeous labels. My friend George (a fellow Atlanta beekeeper and now a new neighbor - he lives about a block from my new house) turned me on to these through his blog post about his labels.



I took the photo of the bee on the butterfly weed - I love the way it looks against the golden honey - maybe I'll use a different picture every year! Anyway the labels came from Colorado and the only disadvantage is that they were shipped on August 25 and didn't arrive in my mailbox until today - almost two weeks later.

I don't get why it takes that long to get to here from Colorado - but apparently they went by pony express or some other snail method.  Seriously, I get no mail of any importance except for Netflix movies - all bills are via computer - so how could the Post Office be so slow when surely in this digital age, they have much less to do?  Spoken, of course, with the voice of impatience that I have felt every day since about the 28th of August.



Here's an up close look at the label.



And here are my pretty little jars that I gave to all my book club friends at book club tonight. (We read The Glass Castle, a memoir about a little girl who grew up starving most of her life, so I guess I wanted to feed the book club since the book's subject was so hungry the whole length of the story.)



Note:  Why Google is a good company:  I have Google ads on this blog - it's a lot of work to keep it up and the occasional click brings a few dollars to my bank account over the year.
         A few months ago I wrote and complained that the ads they put on my site were all about getting rid of bees, poisoning them and such.  I said I was a beekeeper and the people visiting my site LIKE bees, so it seemed counterproductive to put Kill-the-bees ads on my site.  Suddenly about a month ago, the bad-for-bees ads disappeared and new supportive of the bees ads appeared (in addition to others for other subjects).  Yay, Google!

First Stonehurst Harvest

The owner of Stonehurst who usually lives in Germany came home for a couple of weeks. I wanted to harvest some of their honey so she could get a taste of it. We opened the hives on Sunday.

I always love to see the bees clustering around a broken pool of honey gathering it up. We took four frames of honey from their hives - only from the top box of hive 1 - to harvest.



Crushed it looked really pretty but in the jars was more medium than the light look you see here.



Because the frames were really pretty I cut five squares of cut comb honey and put it in my freezer. My agreement with them is that this year we split the honey. That is my recompense for being their beekeeper.




After I crushed the honey comb, a bee in the house tried to help me with clean up!



Here are my five cut comb squares. Really this probably isn't pretty enough for a honey contest because the cappings are too "wet" but maybe I'll enter them or look for better squares in my next harvest hive visit.  Either way they will be delicious to eat on hot biscuits.



I bottled the rest of their honey. From eight frames we got the five cut comb squares, four classic queenline bottles, two refilled Kroger plastic 40 oz containers (I was horrified because I think honey belongs in new glass containers, but Barb has ordered some pretty jars for Stonehurst and this will do in the interim) and
1.5 hex jars.



I bottled the four queenlines as if for a honey show. Stonehurst as an inn is a member of MABA and therefore could enter the honey contest but I can only enter once, so it seems to me, since I like on my own to enter honey contests, that Stonehurst should enter on their own and Caroline, the innkeeper, should make the entry, not me on their behalf.

Because of the four honey contest bottles, I am coming out on the short end of the stick in this division of the honey, since they are getting about nine pounds of honey to my 4.5.

I'll make it up in the next harvest, however.

It was a pretty start to their harvest. There are still four eight frame boxes to harvest on the hives at Stonehurst.

Preparing Honey and Wax for Competition

Because it is harvest time, many beekeepers are bottling honey and preparing bottles to enter into honey contests.  We are hoping to have record numbers of entries at the MABA honey contest in September.  We have recently rewritten and much improved the honey contest rules for our club.

I gave a talk at the June meeting of the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers on the topic of preparing honey and wax for competition and have uploaded it as a YouTube movie so that if you weren't at the meeting, you can learn about what to do.

It's a video, but if you want to pause it to read a slide better, it's easily done with a click on the pause icon (the two parallel lines) at the lower left..

Harvesting Honey with My brother Barry

I traveled to my hometown of Natchez, MS this weekend to help my brother Barry harvest his very first honey.  He was so excited.  He had asked me what he needed to do crush and strain and had bought everything I said down to the flexible cutting boards and a pestle!

Here he is harvesting his first honey crop (click on the slideshow to view it full screen):

Talk on Preparing Honey and Wax for Competition

I was invited to the Southeast Organic Beekeepers Conference in February.  I actually taught three workshops:  one on preparing honey and wax for competition, one on harvesting honey in my simple crush and strain way, and one on making lip balm and lotion.

Brendhan, the head of the conference, taped the talk I gave on preparing honey and wax for competition.

It's here, if you'd like to see and hear it.

Many Hands Make Light Work

I got a call from two beekeepers who had been on one of the Blue Heron inspections. I had offered to let them come over to help me harvest honey so they could see for themselves how easy crush and strain is as a harvest method and how it isn't messy at all. I invited them to come on Saturday.

We all put on aprons and Donna and Dick, my new beekeeping friends noted at the end that they didn't even get honey on their aprons!

I had my camera on the macro setting for taking pictures of bees in the hives and didn't get good pictures of the day, but the one below, while fuzzy, does show Donna and Dick hard at work. Don't get me wrong, I remember Tom Sawyer - the key is to get the other person to think that work is FUN!



Dick devised his own special two handed pestle method which made the crushing go quite fast.



After we had crushed all the honey and put it in the bucket to strain, we put the bucket outside in the Hotlanta heat to begin the filtering process. We sat down for iced tea, watched the beehives on my deck, and waited. We talked bees and honey a little while - I showed them my harvest so far this year, my 18th pour wax block from last year, and the various ways you can harvest honey - chunk, cut comb, and liquid.

After a short while, we brought the bucket in and I showed them how easy it is to fill a honey jar from the honey gate on the bucket. I do think that we all had fun.

They went home with a bottle of honey that they could claim as the result of their own hard work (thanks, Tom Sawyer!).

I'll bet I could have convinced them to paint a picket fence if I had had one handy!

Reminder: Blog Radio Talk show Wednesday, the 22nd 5:30 PM EDT: here's the address with the information.

What to do with Dripping Honey Frames after Harvest

After the harvest, I let the bees clean up the mess. When I've done crush and strain, the frames are all drippy with the remains of the honey. I harvested six frames, so I took them out to the bee yard in the five frame nuc that I used to carry them into the house. (See the sixth frame riding on the top of the box!)

I had an empty 8 frame box waiting for me. I had left two frames on the hive because they were not fully capped.


Here's a closer view of the honey comb left after cutting the comb off of the frame. First the bees will clean up the dripping honey, storing it in comb they are currently filling. Then the bees will use this remnant of comb as a starter strip to build new wax in the frame, if they are so inclined.

Here the box is filled with six drippy frames and there is space for the two frames left on the hive. I put those two back in their spots and put the super back on the hive. Because I sometimes get a super of honey around the Fourth of July (who knows where they get the nectar??), I put the box under the inner cover and will check it again when I'm back from vacation.


Below is my harvest from these six frames. I also bottled four queenline jars for potential honey contest entries and gave my daughter and grandson who helped with the harvest each a queenline jar. Those six jars are not in this picture. So from six frames of honey I harvested 18.3 pounds of honey.



Ordinarily I don't use such a variety of jars for harvest, but this year the harvest looks meager. From a "bird in the hand" point of view, I wanted to make the most of this super, so I bottled some large bottles for family, some smaller bottles for gifts and those two cute "Muth" bottles just for fun.

They are topped with a cork and have embossed in the glass: "8 ounces pure honey" with a bee skep and bees flying all around. My friend, Julia, told me about these so I ordered a box to see how I'd like them.

Bottling Honey with a Honey Contest in Mind

When I harvest honey, I always keep in mind that I might want to enter a honey contest. I keep on hand a box of 24 queenline jars which are standard for light, medium and dark honey in contests.

There are specific aspects of honey judging which are based on cleanliness of the jar. I wash the jars in the dishwasher and use the heated drying cycle. Then I never touch the jars with my hands after that - only pick them up with a lintfree towel.

I always pour the first four jars of each super into honey contest jars, lifted straight from the dishwasher. I pour the honey into the jar above the line so that I have some wiggle room as a contest nears.



Then I cover each jar with plastic wrap, rather than the screw top because you can't have any honey on the jar lid when the contest is judged so I don't top the jars until I get to the contest site.



Then I screw the caps on over the plastic wrap.



When you enter honey in a contest, the three jar entries must all be from the same batch of honey. To accomplish not mixing up the jars,
I set the jars into the box they came in and date the row so I will be sure to keep the same harvest together. I should put something under the jar bottoms. It's as important that your jar bottom be fingerprint and lint free as it is for the jar sides. So far I haven't addressed that.

People write about jarring the honey for contests and riding with it in their hot car to help the bubbles rise to the top so they can be skimmed off and not count against your entry. I don't have to do that because my already jarred entry will sit for several months before any contest and will easily be able to have all the bubbles rise to the top.

Entering honey contests

I'm no expert in honey contests, but my comments on my videos about bottling honey have brought questions about honey contests, so I thought I'd post about it. Honey contest judging is based mostly on how the beekeeper handles the honey. The beekeeper doesn't make the honey so the honey itself is only occasionally judged for taste in such things as black jar contests. The honey judge does taste the honey and points would be taken off if the honey tasted bad or tasted contaminated, which could reflect on how the beekeeper handled the honey.

The main honey judging is on how you handle the jar of honey. This comes down to packaging cleanliness. You are not supposed to have any human fingerprints on the inside or outside of the jar. There should be a clean rim of the jar - not sticky honey between the top of the jar and the lid. When you are cleaning the jar for entry into the contest, you have to be careful not to get cloth fibers in the jar - a man's linen handkerchief is recommended for avoiding fibers.

There are guidelines on the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers web page for how to prepare your honey for a contest. Another wonderful guide on how to think about preparing honey for honey contests is here. Ultimately it comes down to how clean your jars are from lid down and how clear your honey is (indicating how you filtered it). But as the writer in the University of Florida guide referenced second says, "Judging honey is not like evaluating other commodities. The product itself is not examined so much as the care the exhibitor takes in putting it up for show."
However, honey should taste like the delicious honey it is, and the judges do taste the entries.

Here is an example of the honey contest rules for EAS 2006 honey contest. You'll notice that while taste is one of the items to which the judge pays attention, it is last on the list. I noted in red the cleanliness issues:

Honey Classes
Class # Description
H1 Three 1lb. jars of honey: Extracted Light
H2 Three 1lb. jars of honey: Extracted Medium
H3 Three 1lb. jars of honey: Extracted Dark*Entries must be in 1 lb., glass queenline type jars and may have metal or plastic lids.
International entries may use 500 gram universal jars. (see clause 3 on show rules)
H4 Twelve 1lb. jars of honey: ExtractedEntries must be in 12 identical 1lb. queenline type jars with metal or plastic lids.
International entries may use 12 identical 500 gram universal jars. (see clause 3 on show rules)H5 Three section boxes of comb honeyH6 Three packages of cut comb honey: 4 inch squareH7 Three round section of comb honeyEntries must be in the appropriate container: Window cartons, round section lids-both
transparent, cut comb box-all sides transparent. (see clause 3 on show rules)H8 Three 1lb. jars of creamed honeyH9 Three 1lb. jars of chunk honey
Entries must be in cylindrically uniform “wigwam” jar or in the new “shoulder” jar.
(see clause 3 on show rules)H10 One frame of honey: suitable for extraction
Frames may be of wood or plastic and should be housed in a glass sided bee proof enclosure. (see clause 3 on show rules)1. All entries must be the product of the exhibitor’s apiary and have been produced since the previous EAS Honey show.2. Entries will be judged on their individual merit. Cleanliness of the container, lid or hardware, uniformity of wax cut, proper fill of jar or container, cleanliness and clarity of the honey, moisture content, aroma and taste will be considered by the judges. In creamed honey texture and firmness will also be considered.
3. No tamper-proof seals.
Now I'm no expert - I've only entered one honey contest for my bee club last year. My chunk honey did get second place, but I have learned a lot more since then about how to put it in the jar.

Lots of Honey

Tonight I bottled more honey from a super I took off of Mellona yesterday. I bottled 12 queenline jars in case I want to put any honey in a honey contest. These jars once put in the dishwasher were never again touched by my hands.

I took the jars out of the dishwasher with a cloth towel; held them with the towel while they filled; still holding them with the towel, put the jar on the counter. I then put all 12 jars in the box in which they came. Tomorrow I will probably freeze them.

In addition, I bottled 9 other 12 oz bottles (one pound of honey in a 12 oz bottle). This batch is still filtering and I expect to get about 2 more 12 oz bottles before all is said and done.

All told so far I have harvested about 77 pounds of honey total from three shallow supers. I only took 9 frames from two of the supers and 6 from the third, so all of this honey has come from a total of 24 shallow frames of honey - which is about 3.2 pounds/frame.

Good year in spite of the drought.