People buy honey!

I can hardly believe this! Not only do our bees make honey, but when we put up a sign, people buy the stuff, too! I really didn't believe it would happen so easily.

I've discovered the popular size around here seems to be the 5-lb. jug. People think "food storage," and the 5-lb. jug is so convenient. For one thing, it pours nicely into smaller containers for table use. It pours nicely into measuring cups for baking and cooking. And 5 lbs. is light enough that most people can easily carry and shelve it. I had to buy more jugs for our next honey harvest, which is this weekend. And this will be the last of the season.

This honey will be from our Minnesota Hygienic bees; the last was from our Italians. I've never heard there's much difference in honey between the bee varieties -- it's mainly from the flower varieties they visit. This super of honey was a long time in the making, so we'll see what blend of flavor we get this time!

Our next project will be our beeswax products: "None of your beeswax" lip balm and a nice lotion bar. The girls at Honey Folk are excited to get busy on that line.

Honey in a jar looks good, too

This honey was actually from July's harvest, but you can see how nice it looks after the wax is strained out through the filters in the bucket. This shows a quart, a pint, and a 5-lb. jug in the back.

Second harvest -- Hurray!

Coming into this year, I was a bit skeptical that back yard bees actually made honey. I figured I'd picked up another hobby I was no good at and couldn't help but bungle. As it turns out, I had a medium super, again, completely filled with honey in a matter of a few weeks.

This time half the comb was nice and straight. The other half of the frames were drawn together here and there, but the bees did a nice job filling the super right up! It was so heavy -- it's a good thing my dh helps me heft the thing home each time.

After several hours of cutting comb, crushing and scraping wax and honey into a filtered bucket, we were done for the day. I kept one cut comb square, just because it was so absolutely beautiful I just love to look at it. I'm taking it to a youth activity tonight to let the girls have a taste, if they'd like. I don't think I'd particularly like eating the comb, but some kids might. I do love to just admire it!