First Honey Harvest - By the Numbers

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.  

8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Psalm 19:7-10

The honey gate opened and the sweet, sticky stuff flowed.  You sit there and watch and marvel.  It is amazing what all goes into making honey.  All that work and we've robbed them of it!  We did leave some for them to eat, though.

Once we screened and filtered the honey, the food grade 5 gallon buckets filled up.  Of the five medium boxes of honey, we harvested four 5 gallon buckets of honey with varying amounts in each bucket.

Bucket #1 weighed 50.9 pounds

Bucket #2 weighed 53.5 pounds

Bucket #3 weighed 53.5 pounds

Bucket #4 weighed 11.4 pounds

The buckets and lids weigh 8 pounds total, so to get to the tare weight, we subtracted that out.

That left us with a total weight of 161.3 pounds of honey or 13 gallons!  That'll work.  We purchased jars and we'll be bottling the honey for sale and for personal consumption.  We will show that operation in the upcoming days.  We are also processing the beeswax right now.  I'll show you that operation in a few days.  We plan to make candles, lip balm, and have some remaining to coat the foundation frames.

Honey in the Bible symbolizes God's goodness, His sweet provision, and wonderful blessings.  He did, after all, lead His people into a land flowing with milk & honey.  Come to think of it, our little 5 acres is flowing with milk and honey, literally.  God is so good and His Word is so sweet!