HONEY

If you have been following my stories you will know that Dan’s bees and I are not the best of friends. They were relegated to the far end of the farm last autumn, after they took turns stinging me through the summer months. 


But all is forgiven! We have our first batch of beautiful honey, 26 one pound jars in total. Dan has been a busy bee himself! 
​

Dan has five hives but only two made honey. The others were either weak or had badly behaved Queens or some such problem. This has been a difficult year for bees and some of his expert beekeeping friends had a smaller crop of honey than expected.
​

Dan collected the special frames in the hives where honey has been left. The bees make wax which seals the honey in. He had a special ‘knife’ which he scraped along the surface of the frame to take away the wax. (The wax is saved).He then placed the frames in a honey extractor. The extractor spins round and round and all the honey drains to the bottom of the extractor. He then strained the honey into another container. Jars ready, tap open, and the honey flowed in and filled up the jars. I stuck on the personalised labels which I ordered from a bee equipment company. They look beautiful and the honey is lovely. Dan says next year he and the bees will triple the harvest!