Oh Honey!

The last couple of years we have had a great deal of success with our backyard vegetable garden and chickens. We even had a pair of Cayuga ducks for a season, but had to find them a new home after realizing they were too loud and much too messy for the our suburban backyard. (Don't worry, they found a great home in the country with a big pond ALL to themselves!). Excited to complete our urban farmer experience, we decided to add a bee hive. Why not, right?

Marcus was inspired by his amazing late Grandfather Homer Len Foote; who was an expert Beekeeper, amongst many other talents. So with those fond memories and a lot of reading, educational films, and advice from the local beekeeper's store in downtown Sacramento, we made they leap into beekeeping.

                                                       April's Father Frank & Marcus

This year Marcus was able to capture a few swarms over the summer from outside his work. They had split from their original hives because a new queen had been born and they were on the lookout for a suitable place to build their hive. With a bee suit on, a smoker in hand and a box he successfully captured three hives over the course of a couple weeks. Two stayed, one left.

Since then, we have let them be...well bees. They served our garden well over the summer and we were confident they were happy in their new bee boxes. Uunfortunately, as Fall rolled around we began to notice more and more hornets in our backyard. Just recently we became aware that they can and will kill a hive. This was sadly the fate of our two hives. Now, all we have left is their hard earned honey to harvest.

Marcus started the honey harvesting process this week. He rented an extractor and other supplies that make it fairly easy. With some help from Marvin; Marcus' father, and the kids, it has become a fun family affair!

Here Marcus is using an electric (HOT!) spatula-like device to cut away the thin top layer of wax covering the honeycomb. After removing it from both sides of the frame, he then places the frame into the Extractor.

The Extractor holds two frames and works as a basic centrifuge; separating the honey from the honeycomb by spinning it rapidly. The honey is flung onto the inner walls of the barrel and drips down to the bottom for collection. Here Marvin is preparing to spin, as his granddaughter Anna watches.

Anna is using the hand crank to spin the frames in the Extractor. Grandpa Marvin did a great job supervising!

After a good long vigorous spin, Marcus and Marvin inspect the frames to see if nearly all the honey is extracted from them.

Noah was eager to fill his honey bear bottle. He was disappointed to hear it takes about a month to harvest, rest and filter the honey before bottling! No doubt he will help us along the way!

                                                       Marcus enjoying the process...

We look forward to finding out just how much honey the bees accumulated over the summer months. We are so sad they were exterminated by the hornets and have since learned of ways we can prevent this from happening to our next hive. More posts to come as the process continues!