Oh, honey!

We finally have honey. I went down to the hives to do an inspection and there was capped honey up in the honey super (the layer of box with short frames to "catch" honey). So I stole it!

I don't have a machine to centrifuge the honey out of the comb, so I used the crush and drip method. I cut the comb off the frame, just dripping with honey, then mashed it all together with a potato masher. Then I put it all into a fine wire collander and let the honey drip out of the mash into a pan. It took 24 hours, but I got good, clear honey. Just under 4 pounds of it.

The beeswax went into a homemade solar wax melter, to be melted and filtered. I think I will use the wax to make more beauty products for sale - lip balm and perfume balm.

I have less honey than I would usually expect, but since I had a hive die last winter due to starvation, I decided to leave most of the honey stores in the hive. I didn't take any honey out of my second hive, because it was just started this year. Next year I hope to harvest from both of these hives.