• Home
  • About
  • Recipe Index
  • Contact
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Google+
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • RSS
    • Twitter
    • YouTube

A Healthy Life For Me

Cooking, Gardening and Living a Healthy Life

  • Recipe Index
    • Appetizers
    • Beverages & Cocktails
      • Smoothie
      • Cocktail
    • Breakfast & Brunch
    • Main Dishes
      • Beef
        • Beef {Gluten Free}
        • Beef {Paleo}
      • Bison
        • Bison {Gluten Free}
        • Bison {Paleo}
      • Chicken
        • Chicken {Gluten Free}
        • Chicken {Paleo}
      • Seafood
        • Shellfish
        • Whitefish
        • Redfish
        • Other
      • Pork
        • Pork {Gluten Free}
        • Pork {Paleo}
      • Turkey
        • Turkey {Gluten Free}
        • Turkey {Paleo}
    • Desserts
      • Bars & Brownies
      • Cookies
      • Cupcakes & Cakes
      • Pies & Tarts
    • Pasta
    • Salads
    • Side Dishes
    • Soups & Stews
  • Specialty Diets
    • Gluten Free
    • Paleo
    • Dairy Free
    • Vegetarian
  • Fitness
  • Gardening
    • My Garden
    • My Backyard chickens
    • My Backyard Honey Bees
You are here: Home / Gardening / My Backyard Honey Bees / My First Jar of Honey

My First Jar of Honey

22 Aprby Amy0

Liz stopped by to do a check up on the hives.  It had been one week since she installed her three hives and she wanted to make sure all was well.

She has been receiving call after call over the last week about bee swarms.  She routinely goes out and captures swarms and then places them in empty hive boxes.  That is why she left one of the four hives empty here in hopes of filling it with a captured swarm.  She found out today she will need to capture two swarms.  Yep, one of the new hives up and flew the coop, I mean hive!  Not even here a week and they left.  Well, who wanted them here anyway!  WE DID!

That’s okay, the new hive will be better anyway!

The two remaining hives she installed are doing fine.  Actually one was doing so well she installed another box.

Here is a picture of the queen doing her work!  She is the longer, lighter lady in the middle.

If I may say so, my existing hive was banging!  We opened it up and it was oozing with honey.  Last time we checked the bees were not building up into the next box, we wanted to try something out and placed the empty box below the boxed filled with bees and comb encouraging them to build down.  Which they do in nature when they build on their own.

After today we know it’s working, they are filling the bottom box, and we added a third.  Because my hive had a little comb built up that was filled with honey, Liz scrapped it off and we placed it on an unused hive top for me to strain later.

I learned something new today.  Bees are little mathematicians and architects.  They measure the space and if the numbers don’t add up they draw up new plans and build to accommodate. What the heck does that mean?

It means we left a little gap in between two frames when we closed them up last week and since then they filled it up by building new comb.

Can you see the gap we left?

Counting down from the top, between the third and fourth frame.

Here is the comb they built.

This is the lid, turned upside down. Exactly enough comb to fill the gap.  Crazy, huh!

After Liz headed home I took my recovered honeycomb and placed it into a screen strainer over a bowl.  I used a Pestle to smash down the comb to squish out as much honey as I could.  I did this outside, as you can see in the second picture I still had some ladies hanging out.  Sadly a few ladies died in the process.

  I then poured the honey into a mason jar.

 Since the comb was uncapped its shelf life is short so I figured I would put it to good use  I’m  making a honey cake tomorrow. Recipe to follow!

 

Oh, and by the way, my dogs love the beeswax! 🙂

Have a sweet day!

Related

You Might Also Like

  • Why I Keep Honey BeesWhy I Keep Bees
  • How to Set Up a Beehive
  • Bees Arrived
  • Honey Bee Hive Set Up | ahealthylifeforme.comHoney Bee Hive Set up…waiting for bees.

Under: My Backyard Honey Bees Leave a Comment

« How to Grow Chives
How to Grow Radishes »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Hi There!

Hi, I am Amy, food photographer, recipe developer, food lover, organic garden maven, fitness nut and lover of Airedales. Please stay a while and explore. More >>

  • gluten free
  • paleo
  • menu plan
  • fitness

Subscribe

Never miss a recipe! Subscribe to have new recipes and updates delivered straight to your inbox!

facebook instagram pinterest

Categories

Archives

Seasonal

Seasonal Eats

Turkey Black Bean Burger Recipe Healthy | ahealthylifeforme.com

Turkey Black Bean Burgers

Green Bean Turkey Club Sandwich made with Hormel Natural Choice Oven Roasted Deli Turkey | ahealthylifeforme.com

Green Bean Turkey Club Sandwich

Turkey Chorizo Sliders are the perfect grilled burger with a bit of spicy and tons of flavor | ahealthylifeforme.com

Turkey Chorizo Sliders

Paleo Spicy Turkey Stuffed Mushrooms Recipe | ahealthylifeforme.com

Paleo Spicy Turkey Stuffed Mushrooms

Turkey Sweet Potato Chili gluten free recipe | ahealthylifeforme.com

Turkey Sweet Potato Chili {gluten free + paleo}

Copyright © 2021 · Blogger Boutique

Copyright © 2021 · Healthy Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in