Honey Harvest

The honey is out of the comb and in the bottles. Here's some pics of our honey processing adventure.

We borrowed an old honey extractor. No that's not a 5 gallon bucket full of honey, there's a sieve on top of the bucket. We ended up with about half a bucket full.

The extractor reminds me of an old ice cream maker. After you cut the tops off the comb you put frames of honey into the wire baskets and turn the handle on top. As the basket spins the honey is thrown out onto the sides of the extractor and then runs out a pipe at the bottom. Newer extractors have a top on to prevent the honey from spinning out the top if you crank it too fast........don't ask me how I know this :(.

Then came the slow process of bottling. If you try to fill the bottle up too fast you get air bubbles in the honey.

                                            One pound of Big Ridge honey.

We ended up  with 26 1/2 lbs of honey. Plenty for us and our family  and friends.

If the Bee Goddess smiles on us next year we hope to do this again and if a certain girl is good Santa just might bring her a new honey extractor.