Last Saturday, I did my first honey stall, at a Local Produce Market at the local village hall, to support the local community. Lets just say it was a great success, and I will be ordering my new honey extractor in due course, with the proceeds! I also sold eggs, and plants from the Allotments.
Despite the slow start to spring, and the cold high winds we have experienced this spring, and lack of bees flying, I was surprised by the number of honey boxes or ‘honey supers’, I collected at the weekend for extraction. I’ve still go to go back to remove 4 honey supers, that the bees are not wanting to give up easily!!!
here’s a 1 minute video, of the extracted filtered honey, flowing into rectangular honey buckets to settle, before processing (creaming!) or jarring. None of the pollen is removed from my honey, only the wax bits, and bee parts. The water content of the honey in the comb and extracted was 16.5%, tested with my calibrated refractometer.
Selling Honey in the UK, is subject to the The Honey (England) Regulations 2003, an easier version is here The British Beekeepers Association Selling Honey Complying with the Law. Yes there is a Honey Law, and monitored by the Honey Police!
and it states “The water content of the honey must be not more than 20%.The higher the water content the more likely the honey is to ferment.”
So that’s what work goes into a jar of local honey from a British Beekeeper, spare a thought for that the next time, you pick-up a jar of “honey-syrup” from a supermarket! If you have never tasted honey from a local British Beekeeper, I’m afraid you have never tasted real honey.
The analogy I like to use is the difference, between a 21 years old single Scottish malt whiskey and a blended whiskey! The malt whiskey is the local honey, and the blended whiskey is the honey syrup from the supermarket, in this comparison.
So support British Beekeepers, and purchase a jar from your local Beek today!
6 'honey-supers' on my bee barrow!
Andy's Hives
Andy's Hives
Now that I have my new Catering Certificate, see this blog post, I’m scaling up the Honey Selling activities…first I purchased a ‘A Pavement board”, to replace my smaller Local Honey sign, and Lindsey kindly did the artwork. The artwork is Copyright (c) Andysworld! (well Lindseyworld!) 2015. So be warned anyone that downloads it, and uses it!
Meltonby Honey Sold Here
Meltonby Honey Sold Here
Meltonby Honey Sold Here
Meltonby Honey Sold Here
Online Ordering coming soon….to a website near you!
I’ve been away from the bees, they’ve now all been fed, and now wrapped up for the winter. We will see what happens this winter. A few chores left to do, before the frosts, mouse guards to go on hives, external insulation on some of the hives, and finally this year treatment, nearer Christmas Day, a trickle of oxalic acid, to knock down the remainder of varroa mites.
The final honey from this Spring harvest has now been creamed and jarred, to create a creamed or soft set honey.
New jars and corkscrew bit for creaming honey
Jarring the Honey
Jarring the honey, each jar is at least 340 grams
final jars waiting to set (yes, that's a hive outside the window!)
All complete and jarred!
So, if you are in the “honey club”, there could be a jar, in the mail to you shortly!
hey, another Bee related post, board with Bees yet! A very busy weekend, with the bees….and I’m very tired!
"wild" comb made from pure beeswax
A week has past since, I’ve moved all the hives to their new secret apiary location, from my two apiaries, they have been now united down from ten to six colonies (hives). All the honey has now been removed and extracted, and the wet supers have been give back to the bees, to help them top their winter stores. (the super/shallow is the smaller box on the bottom of the brood box on top!).
Andysworld! Secret Apiary
The third hive from the right, was a small cast swarm from the University of Hull, which I transferred from a nucleus (6 frame box) to a national hive yesterday (11 frames), and I’ve started to feed for winter.
Today, I treated with MAQS, to minimize the Varroa destructor mite, and ensure the colony is at it’s strongest going into the winter, as part of my integrated pest management (IPM). The Varroa destructor mite, arrived in the UK in 1992, so since then we’ve had to treat against Varroa destructor mite.
So, I’ve got a week off, before I go back to the bees, and start feeding, so time to clean up, inventory the equipment, and start putting back in the “bee shed”.
(although need to check on small colony this week, to check they are taking feed down!)
if you look carefully, you may notice, honey leaking all over the floor, so I had to stop filming….to mop up!
These are the last of the honey supers (shallows or honey boxes), for me to extract that have come off the hives at the allotment. I’ve removed the last two supers, and I have one finally to remove from a hive.
Here are some pictures of capped honey comb, full of honey, before de-capping and extracting.
Each frame holds approx 2kg of honey. Approx 3-5 jars per frame.
Super of capped honey 10 frames on castellations per super
2 full supers ready to un-cap and extract
frame of capped honey, ready for de-capping and extraction, the two dark uncapped cells contain pollen!
close-up of super and capped honey frame
A busy time of year extracting the honey from the hives, which makes all the effort worth it! But now the hard work comes, starting to prepare the colonies for the winter ahead!
here is a little video, which is best called a “montage”….
I also had a little stealth mission to Leyburn to pick up a honey warming cabinet….
The Black Swan Hotel in Leyburn
this honey warming box, is to allow me, to gently warm oil seed rape granulated honey, from the spring, and seed with additional runny honey, so I can cream it, creating a soft set honey.
Honey Warming Cabinet
Finished with the swarming for the moment, and now onto extracting the first of the honey crop for this year 2014.
Pure Gold - and I’m not referring to the song Gold by Spandau Ballet. I’m referring to my honey.
from a swarm of bees which arrived in June, into one of my hives, I’ve successfully taken off 15kg of honey, which is now filtered, waiting for jarring and labeling.
Here is a quick video of the extracted honey leaving the extractor and being filtered, via coarse and fine mesh filters.
Just some thanks, to Vickie and Andrew (or Andrew and Vickie) for the loan of the extractor, and advice!
Why not visit Vickie’s Website - Wordweaver Stories, and not forgetting Paul @ JLB Electronics.
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