My honey harvest this year

[NAC89]

Finished bottling my honey from my last harvest of the year today. I extracted it last weekend and thought it looked darker than my first harvest from the end of June. They are both pretty delicious though .
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[gww]

Yours are in smaller bottles and that lets more light through but my early looks at least as dark as your late and my late is even darker, but I aint mad cause like you say, they both taste good.
Cheers
gww

[MikeJ]

1 pint from the early harvest, 1 pint from the later harvest (I'm joking of course)

Honestly though - Nice. I got 0 this year, but I really didn't expect any either (basically starting over).

There are a number of things that blossom in the spring (err... up here that is what I call June ) that produce lighter honeys.

[gww]

Mike
How many deep hive bodies do you have? Any that you don't fill with bees you should put out as traps. I would not relie on it catching anything but it might. I have caught 5 swarms in two years but do have lots of traps out. I got skunked my first year and so it was nice to find out it really was possible when I finaly caught one. Just an ideal to hopefully make bee keeping a little cheaper.

Cheers
gww

[MikeJ]

gww: I have a good number of boxes and a bit of drawn frames (I mean above what I am using right now). I thought about trying a few traps come spring (I never seriously tried before). It would be nice to get free bees

NAC89: Is that an extractor or bottling bucket?

[NAC89]

NAC89: Is that an extractor or bottling bucket?

That is just my bottling bucket. My extractor is just one of the 2 frame stainless cheapo off of amazon but it worked out really well. I’ve sold enough honey to get my investment back on my extractor and all my other harvesting equipment, and a little extra to buy some more equipment for the upcoming year, so I’m thrilled for only my second year.

[MikeJ]

Can't ask much more than that - being able to pay off the equipment with the harvest.

Being able to make a profit off the bees really "sweetens" the deal huh


Here in Maine we can't sell any amount of honey without inspection and licensing from the state (they call it food processing). I tried it once (through a local school's kitchen), it just wasn't worth all the hassle. Recently some food laws have changed (allowing towns to set regulations for farm selling in their areas), so I am hoping to get something done that way.