Bottling the Goodness that is Honey

Hello beelicious viewers! I participated in the fun experience last Friday (the 8th) of bottling pure delicious honey for the first time. It's quite a process and even a little messy. The good thing is you can always lick your fingers! 

Tim had extracted 2 mostly full buckets with near 70 pounds of honey inside as you know. Well, I offered to bottle that honey since I know we'll have so much more to bottle in a month or so. We'll have lots of work to do once the remainder of the honey supers are pulled from the hives. I'll be sure to have a special honey extraction blog post during that event. 

Tim lined up some bottles in the kitchen and the buckets close to the sink. After awhile I had gotten into a good rhythm and bottled it all within an hour or so. 

The gate on the honey bucket controlled the flow of honey into the jars. When it would spill, well, we'd have to wipe it off with our hands. No need to use water when that would be incredibly wasteful. This was liquid gold, after all.

Look at that amazing color! Tim had never harvested so early before but the nectar flow is still good so they'll fill up the boxes again in no time. 

Meanwhile, back at our personal hive...

I went to grab a peek in the observation windows but there was less than a handful of bees in the honey super. I know I need to be patient because the girls are going to do what they want exactly at the timeframe of their choosing. They will let me know when they're ready to deposit honey.

However, when I went back yesterday (Tuesday the 12th) I took a peek in the honey super again to find more girls working and sealing up the cracks!

I sure hope the number of girls continues to increase over the next couple weeks while the nectar flow is strong. They've done an amazing job in their house so I know they'll do a fantastic job in the honey super as well. 

Have a wonderful day and until next time, bee kind! 🐝