my honey harvest (pics)

[slacker361]

 

21 pints altogether ( I gave some away for those counting)



Look at how dark the one is on the left, and these came out of the same hive.

[hardwood]

Beautiful...and that dark honey is just drippin' with flavor!

Scott

[AllenF]

That is some dark honey.    Is there much of a taste difference between the light and dark?

[slacker361]

i am no expert but the dark honey seems to have a short sweetness to it where the light honey has a sweetness that stays in your mouth a long time

[L Daxon]

Congratulations on your harvest.  It is kind of fun to see the fruits of your labor all spread out like that on the counter -- not to mention the fun of tasting it over the coming months, if you don't give it all away first.  That is my problem.  I have promised so many people a sample of my first harvest, I won't have enough left for me to make it until next summer. Hopefully I'll be able to harvest at least some honey earlier in the summer next year (June instead of August) as my two hives will be second year hives by then, with maybe one or two more first year hives to help boost production.
Loved the pictures.  Can't believe how dark your honey is.  Do you know where it came from?  And how did you get two different colors?  Did you crush and strain all together or a frame or two at a time?

[gunner7888]

Slacker, since i am fairly close to you and a newbee also, I have sort of followed your questions because they have often mirrored my own questions. I am sooo happy to see someone else with such dark honey. Mine was so dark I was a bit nervous about it (it tastes great) Others have assured me all is good, but I have no idea what they were foraging to get the honey so dark. I know buckwheat gives a dark honey, but as far as I know, no one around here plants it (although next year I will be planting a small lot of it)   Scott

[slacker361]

hey gunner, someone told me that it is all goldenrod honey, the real darkstuff.  I am not sure why there is some light stuff in there also? maybe something else was blooming too.

[AllenF]

Black gold.   Texas T. 

Tell us about the harvest.   Crush it or extract?   How many frames?  Blond or brunette?

[slacker361]

blonde and brunette, oh wait that is another post..... :roll:

Crush and strain, I harvested right at the hive , well 20 feet from the hive, since i have the solid plastic frames, I just scraped them off into my bucket. A total of 12 frames all together. then with them still dripping from honey that I could not get off, I put the frames back in the hive for clean up.

Something about crush and strain ,it seems to waste about 1/2 pint of honey, it just wont come out of the wax maybe someone has some ideas on how to get all the honey out of the wax?

[Buz Green]

I rinse the wax off with fresh water and feed it to the bees (except for a few buckets which go to a friend who makes mead).

[winginit]

Very nice. I have no honey this year, just hoping the bees get enough out of this blessedly long goldenrod season to get through the winter. But looking at others' harvests is greatly rewarding and gives me hope for the future.

[AllenF]

I think crush and strain wastes a little more than that in honey.   For every pound of wax you collect, it takes 12 pounds of honey to make that wax.  To get all the honey out of the wax, you really have to crush up the wax and give it a day or two to filter through (warm days also). 

[slacker361]

my wife says the honey smells waxy, bees waxy, is that because i crushed and strained? does spun honey not have this smell

[AllenF]

I don't see where the waxy would come from.   What did you use to filter the honey with?

[slacker361]

a nylon paint strainer, does crush smell different from spun?

[AllenF]

Honey should smell like honey.   I have never seen a difference.   Maybe you have not aged that goldenrod honey enough?

[slacker361]

i dunno i think it smells good but my wife says it smells like bees wax, and she really doesn't like the smell of bees wax , maybe ill take it to school and mass spectrometer the honey and see what is in it

[AllenF]

Cool.   Take some pics and get us the results.   Very cool.

[caticind]

Funny, I've always thought beeswax smelled like....honey!

[AllenF]

They both smell like money to me.