OUR BEES

The hives are fenced in for bears with our Gallagher electric fence

Date: June 14th, 2010 Photos: 24

Pasture - In the pasture. You can see the solar barn in the background.

Inside the hive - Naren has the hive open for inspection.

Frame - A frame from the hive.

Honey Harvest - The fun begins with uncapping the cells.

Uncapping Honey Cells - We use a special knife, we have both heated and unheated.

Extracting - The frames are placed in the extractor. Centrifugal force forces the honey out of the cells. This is hard work if you are a small beekeeper and have a handcrank centrifuge.

Honey Flow - The honey comes out from a spigot at the bottom of the centrifuge.

HONEY 16 oz - The honey is filtered through several fine meshed filters.

Filling - Time to fill the little bears and the bottles. We work hard but our bees work harder. The pleasure is ours. Learn and enjoy the honey.

HONEY BEAR 2 OZ - Here is one of the little bears, ready to go!

Clover - Our bee working on a clover blossom in the front yard.

HONEY 16 oz - The big jar of honey, ready to be enjoyed.

Front Label - Front label on 16 oz jar.

Back Label - Back label on 16 oz jar. Many interesting facts there. Find more information on bees and honey in the "About Bees" section.

Bee on clover - Another shot showing the hard work of a honey bee.

Solar Charger - We switched to a solar charger S17, even though the D-cells lasted a couple of months, this is more environmentally friendly, and reliable.

Living Quarters - Our bees share the pasture with some sheep.

Bee Hives - Another view of the bee hives

Rocks - We keep rocks on top of the hive so ensure no strong wind tips it. The bees are good about "gluing" the sections together, they are secure.

Swarm - Sometimes the bees swarm.In nature this is the way new colonies are made, a group takes off with the old queen.

Battery Energizer - We often use a battery operated energizer for the fence. This one just uses D-cell batteries.

First Prize - Goshen Fair 2011, first prize honey

Sheep and hives - Naren with sheep and hives in pasture

Honey Harvest - Honey!