Month: September 2016

Those were the words one of our helpers spoke as the thick golden liquid flowed from the bottom valve of the honey extractor. She was right – honey is especially precious, especially this year considering all the challenges I’ve had with the bees.

But to a bee, honey is food, fuel and life. Honey is the primary nourishment for larvae developing in the hive as well as thousands of workers and they go about their busy tasks. And in winter the honey stores are the difference between life and death of the hive.

During a worker bee’s six weeks of life (they live longer during the winter), it only produces about one-eighth teaspoon of honey. So you know every ounce is accounted for in a hive.

Humans like honey, too, so that’s why I’ve been so attentive to my bees, making sure they have the space they need to lay plenty of eggs, raise more bees, expand the hive and make lots of honey. So when the Iowa State Fair rolls around, we have some “extra” honey to harvest.

Hopefully, the bees will have filled their brood boxes, which I do not harvest, and that they’ll continue to make honey with the sugar water I’m feeding them right now. Most of the plants in my area are not producing nectar anymore, so fall feeding is important.

I probably will be feeding our bees until the snow flies. I make a 1:1 mixture of granulated beet sugar and water. Each hive gets about a gallon (using all of a four-pound bag) every few days. With five hives to care for, that is a LOT of sugar!

Honey has many nutritional and medicinal qualities, too. It is an anti-inflammatory and many people believe that locally-produced honey will help reduce allergies. Honey also is valued for its anti-bacterial properties, used as a source of quick, natural energy and cough suppressant. The list goes on and on.

Me, I just like honey on my toast and we’ve come accustomed to eating it on pancakes rather than any other kind of syrup.

This is my favorite time of year when I can offer my extra honey to friends, family and neighbors. That’s where the real fun begins!

Thanks, girls, for all your hard work and everything you do for all of us!!

Last week was the highlight of every beekeeper’s year: harvesting honey. It’s always an exciting time, when you get to see how well your bees have performed during the past season. For us it’s about mid-August, usually during the Iowa State Fair.

Just a few years ago I can recall the first time I extracted honey from those precious combs. My new bee friend invited me to see how an extractor works and she had baked a pan of cornbread. We worked in her breezeway all afternoon, the bees buzzing curiously outside the screens.

When I extracted in our garage a couple years later, our neighbors joined us. The girls loved to taste the honey from the capping tub. They were like little bear cubs, sticking their fingers into the gooey goodness, so I just gave them spoons!

This year our son, his wife and their three children joined in the party. The grandchildren were full of questions. How do you get the honey out?  Where are the bees? Why does the honey come out the bottom? When can I have a taste?

They took turns turning the handle on the spinner and opening the gate to release the golden bounty. It turns out that our daughter-in-law loved to work the heated knife, slowly peeling off all the wax caps. Our son worked the filters and all I had to do was manage the process.

By the time we’re done, we are all one sticky mess. But oh, the satisfaction! This year we got five big buckets of honey that in a few weeks will be bottled for gifts and sale to friends.

The season’s tasks are far from done. Already I’m looking ahead to all the bags of sugar I’ll need to make syrup for feeding the bees, scraping supers for storage, and getting everything else ready for winter.  And speaking of colder weather, will our bees survive the winter …

And so it goes. A beekeeper’s work is never done.