These are the honey supers with 12 frames of capped honey ready to go. I removed the frames from the deep freezer 2 days before they were to be processed so that they would thaw.
This is a serrated, decapping knife for slicing off the wax caps with which the bees seal the honey. The blade has a heating element to aid with cutting. Nothing like a hot knife through wax!
Once the frames are decapped, they are loaded, three at a time, into the extractor. This extractor is a hand-crank version rather than electric. It spins the frames and the centrifugal force pulls the honey out of the frames.
The honey is then drained from an outlet at the bottom of the extractor. It is filtered through a piece of cheesecloth to remove little bits of wax. The honey is ready for use once it is filtered. Honey is naturally antimicrobial and has too high of a sugar content to ferment without first being diluted. It needs no further processing or heat treatment (pasteurization) to preserve it or make it ready for consumption.
The twelve frames of honeycomb produced about two and a half gallons of honey. I will be doing a drawing on Halloween for one lucky reader to receive an 8 oz jar of honey. In order to get your name in the drawing, leave a comment on this post! The winner will be announced on this site on November 1st. Good luck!
Sara, Congratulations on your honey. I wish we could have bees, but at least we now have some land and a garden. Hopefully we'll get to talk soon. Hope you all are doing well. Kendra
ReplyDeleteWow. Two and a half gallons of delicious honey from 12 frames! It looks delicious! -Lee
ReplyDeleteWhat a neat process, I never got to see my dad ocess the honey because I bee's were killed before it was time. That is alot of honey!!- Andrea
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