It's here!!!!

It's been a lovely weekend.
Almost frost on the pumpkin Friday morning....first fire in the fireplace and home-made Brunswick stew...and Then, today, mid-seventies, with the most gorgeous autummmmmn sky.  I close my eyes and breathe in the season...mmmmm

OK...back to reality.

 Harvested the honey this weekend...(my first ever!!)
did ya hear that?

Harvested the honey this weekend!!!

Thankful for the electric decapping knife...it removes the caps from the honey cells to allow the honey to flow fly out. The honey flies out, because we spin it around in an extractor at the speed of sound  a very fast rate, and by centrifugal force, the honey spins out into a huge "tub'...sort of....anyway, I should have taken a picture of the manual extractor at work...we had a 'slanging' good time.
After the honey exited the extractor, through a double veryfinesieve, it fell into a bucket with a "honey gate"...I especially like the honey-gate.
It's kinda too late to get into all that, since I have to be at work in a quick 7.5 hours!!



from the flower //to the bee //to the hive---from the frame..to the extractor...to the veryfinesieve...to this bucket
to the bottle to the tongue of grateful souls!! ;0)





DD gets in on the action. His help is invaluable!!




Very thankful for the harvest, albeit a small one.  More thankful for so many other blessings.
It's been a lovely weekend!!


bee kind to one another!!
kb



Honey do ya' love me?

Today I harvested my FIRST 'crop' of honey...one super... nine frames.....and I am so excited! It is still in the 5-gallon bucket, but it is the sweetest honey I have ever tasted.  The 'oldies' all told me it would be that way...that there is no honey like your own.
We have had an incredibly dry, hot two summers in this neck of the woods.  I get such pleasure out of merely taking care of the bees, that I wasn't expecting to get honey at all this year. I  discovered laying workers a week and a half ago, so I combined that deep with the one next to it, (with the newspaper layer beteen the 2 deeps)hoping they will survive the winter, to be split in the Spring...just need a good queen...
I also have a nuc with 4.5 frames of bees that I am hoping will survive the winter--if all goes well, there will be 4 colonies in the Spring and I hope--with God's provision of enough rain and flowers--to have at least 4 supers of honey next September....
I am ALSO hoping to get "BLOGGER LESSONS" from one of my children, so I can post the really nice photos of my adventures.  Everytime I try to put a photo on the site, it 'jumps' to the beginning of the post....

Does anyone know where I can get honey labels custom made?  I am not your ordinary sort of person, so I don't want just an ordinary honey label!! (lol)

I've just discovered there is something sticky on my wrist ...  and forearm....and chin.....  Guess I'd better go clean up a bit!!
bee kind to one another!!
kb

WAWAWAWAWAWine...........

Yep-I said it...w i n e.....

OK_ so what do bees and wine have to do with one another?
Bees like grapevines, and I like wine... and bees....(heehee).
Another way to put it is "the more bees you have visiting the grapevine, the more grapes there will be; the more grapes, the more wine...get it????

So tonight my hubby and i started "brewing" some wine from the grapes at the beeyard. We didn't use our feet, mainly because we didn't have a vat...but we did get those grapes popped and all mixed up with the sugar and yeast....we'll see how THAT venture goes.

Ought to be ready to bottle by the next full moon.....

;0) I feel a camping trip in the making!! ;0)

till next time, bee kind!!
kb

It's Honey Collecting Time!!!

Today I harvested my FIRST 'crop' of honey...one super... nine frames.....and I am so excited! It is still in the 5-gallon bucket, but it is the sweetest honey I have ever tasted.  The 'oldies' all told me it would be that way...that there is no honey like your own.
We have had an incredibly dry, hot two summers in this neck of the woods.  I get such pleasure out of merely taking care of the bees, that I wasn't expecting to get honey at all this year. I  discovered laying workers a week and a half ago, so I combined that deep with the one next to it, (with the newspaper layer beteen the 2 deeps)hoping they will survive the winter, to be split in the Spring...just need a good queen...
I also have a nuc with 4.5 frames of bees that I am hoping will survive the winter--if all goes well, there will be 4 colonies in the Spring and I hope--with God's provision of enough rain and flowers--to have at least 4 supers of honey next September....
I am ALSO hoping to get "BLOGGER LESSONS" from one of my children, so I can post the really nice photos of my adventures.  Everytime I try to put a photo on the site, it 'jumps' to the beginning of the post....

Does anyone know where I can get honey labels custom made?  I am not your ordinary sort of person, so I don't want just an ordinary honey label!! (lol)

I've just discovered there is something sticky on my wrist ...  and forearm....and chin.....  Guess I'd better go clean up a bit!!
bee kind to one another!!
kb

My how time flies!!!

The month of August is almost over, and I have 3 (three) active bee hives.....one will *most likely* yield enough honey this year to sell (and/or share) so I can keep this cycle going.....

All 3 hives are "queen-right" and I am looking forward to the Georgia Beekeepers Association meeting soon...just can't get enough!! Hopefully, I will remember to take my camera next time I am in my hives,so Ican post photos.
I hope all is well with YOU!!

It's that time of year!

Oh how I love the springtime..."for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers have alread appeared in the land; the time has arrived for pruning the vines, and the voice of the turtledove has been heard in our land...."(from the Song of Solomon!!!)

It has been so beautiful here. The honeybees are out and about taking in their share of the nectar and pollen.

The first day of Spring brought a new grandbaby's song and the day before that brought a beautiful full moon to celebrate the elder grandaughter's birthday!!

I took pictures just after midnight and 19 hours later, so hopefully, I can post "Pixie's" moon, like I told her I would last month!!

Enjoy!!

Disco Inferno

Part of managing....ahem..... a farm, means we keep the grounds 'tidy' (haha). We "lit up" the pile of pine tree tops that the ice claimed earlier in the winter.... That flame lashed higher than the old house that watched close by.....

A 'managed' burn is 'good' for the forrest....and the farm! My brave hubby loves to burn off the land. I would guess he burned 95% of the 56 acres we enjoy so much. During some of that 'burning' I drove ahead in the Mule while he poured the fire out on the ground..carefully 'dropping' the burn lines so that they would meet each other, and not get out of control. When he needed more fuel, he got it out of the back of the mule...I dutifully took pictures...lots of them.

Fire is so powerful. I was mesmerized by the flames and the behavior of the fire. I wondered who first connected the words "fire " and "passion".......why do we cheer "get---fired---up--".

there is no fire without fuel.....

then I wonder .....what does being "on fire for the Lord" look like in every day life?

It's time I stoke THAT fire!! ;0)