The Honey Harvest (Part 5)

Once the honey is extracted, the job is not done.  We left you last when we used a honey refractometer to determine the moisture content of our honey.  We are using a de-humidifier to get it to the optimal level.  While we are waiting, we put all the boxes of (mostly) empty frames out about 25 yards from the hives.  You see most of the honey has been spun out of the frames with centrifugal force, but we don't like to waste anything, and the bees certainly don't like to waste any honey left over either.  If you look closely in the photo, the bees have found the honey on the frames that we robbed.  They are taking back what they can.

The girls are like a clean-up crew and they work diligently to salvage any honey, pollen, and wax that they can get and carry back to the hive.  

Peeking down, you can see a bee that is reaching WAY down within a cell to pull out any honey remaining.  They'll fill up cells back in the bee boxes.  They will use it for food OR we will get it when we pull fall honey.

I want to show you something.  This is what's called "drawn comb."  The foundation is the black plastic portion of the frame that's coated in beeswax.  The cells are hexagonal, or six sided.  This gives it strength and optimal capacity to store honey and pollen.  On a medium frame the bees will draw out 3,100 per side!  That's 6,200 cells per frame.  We use 10 frames per medium box.  The bees fill all those cells with honey and cap it.  In extracting, you saw us cut the caps off to expose and extract the honey.

Another interesting thing about the cells.  I don't know how to show it, but if you look closely, you might be able to make it out.  The cells are drawn out perpendicular from the foundation, but it is not straight out.  The cells are sloped at a very slight angle upward so that the nectar that is put in them don't drain out.  I don't understand how you can be a beekeeper and be an atheist.  Honeybees are witnesses of the order, the complexity, the creativity of our Creator!

Once the bees have cleaned up the frames of any leftover honey, we put the frames into the freezer.  We freeze them to kill any eggs or larvae of any critter that may have gotten in the frames.  Next spring, we'll put these frames in boxes and put out on the hives.  Here's the neat part about that:  Putting frames out with drawn out comb saves the bees time and labor.  Next spring, the bees won't have to use all their energy making wax to draw out the comb off of the foundation.  They'll be able to use that energy and time in making HONEY!

After freezing for a week or so, we'll remove the frames and seal in a plastic bag and store in a tote.  They will be all ready and waiting for the honey crop of 2026!