October 2001
With the bees settling down for Winter we could turn our
attention to our honey harvest.
On Sunday, 7th October we sterilised lots of equipment ready for decanting
and weighing the honey into 11 lbs. and 3/4 lbs. jars. This is a very
long, labourious, sticky job as the jars must be accurately weighed out
into equal quantities if we are going to sell any of it to anyone.
First Dad and John scooped the bits and floating wax from the surface
of the now-settled honey in the white tub. Then Paul carefully poured
it into the prepared 1 lb. jars.
It was such a slow process that it took us all afternoon just to jar up
one bucket!
The cappings we had cut from the frames still contained lots of honey
so we filtered them through a fine mesh sieve. The result was a very clear
honey, it looked and tasted so good good we decided to enter it in a competition
at a local beekeepers' honey show.
It didn't win a prize but we got some good advice. I think the experience
has whetted our apetite for the future, because Dad is talking seriously
about entering more competitions next year.
During mid October Paul received a phone call from a lady in York. Her
friend had been one of customers to whom Lynn had sold honey the previous
month. She had liked it so much that she bought the remaining jars of
last years honey crop. We only had a few jars left so Paul delivered them
to her for £7.50! So with that and the money made from sales to
Lynn's friends we've made £25 from honey sales this year! Not enough
to retire on, but its a start.
Considering we have spent over 100 on hive parts alone I don't think we
will make much money from keeping bees!