$300 jar of honey
A few weeks ago we harvested honey from our new farm house. Our main agenda was to relocate the bees to a new home, but while we were at it, Mr. Michael, the bee man, cut out several honey combs that had "capped" honey - which we learned means that it was preserved and was actually honey. Uncapped honey is actually not honey at all, but nectar and it will spoil.
I wish I had time to learn more about bees, because this whole process has really sparked a lot of questions about these cool little creatures. But this busy mama hardly has time to Google the weather, much less research bees, so you're getting just a taste of all of the cool bee facts.
Speaking of taste, the kids and I love honey at our house. I use it for sweetening yogurt (I just buy the whole fat plain Greek yogurt and sweeten with honey vs. buying the kind with all of the sugar already in it.), cottage cheese, muffins, and pancakes. My mama used to make me a peanut butter and honey sandwich and I love making those for the babies. Between honey and maple syrup we really don't use sugar a whole lot...you know all of that healthy, whole food, boring stuff. Don't worry, our sweet tea is definitely has sugar in it.
While we are munching on our honey yogurt, Brett has been trying to figure out how to make sure the bees don't come back. The bees will actually smell the pheromone released by the queen bee and come back to the same spot over and over unless that chemical/scent is destroyed. His tactics include spraying some sort of chemical (Malathion and Bifrin, he tells me), painting the wall with paint laced with said chemicals and stuffing insulation in the wall before he puts the external siding boards back. Also, Mr. Michael is going to bring a pheromone boxes during the "swarming season" - which is from February until sometime in May - so that any bees that are in the area will be attracted to those boxes and not our house.
Here are some photos of our honey harvesting adventure. We're thankful for all of these fun and new experiences!
**If you're reading this in your email, you must click the title at the top that is linked to our blog page to see the videos. Only the photos populate in your inbox, not the videos.
I wish I had time to learn more about bees, because this whole process has really sparked a lot of questions about these cool little creatures. But this busy mama hardly has time to Google the weather, much less research bees, so you're getting just a taste of all of the cool bee facts.
Speaking of taste, the kids and I love honey at our house. I use it for sweetening yogurt (I just buy the whole fat plain Greek yogurt and sweeten with honey vs. buying the kind with all of the sugar already in it.), cottage cheese, muffins, and pancakes. My mama used to make me a peanut butter and honey sandwich and I love making those for the babies. Between honey and maple syrup we really don't use sugar a whole lot...you know all of that healthy, whole food, boring stuff. Don't worry, our sweet tea is definitely has sugar in it.
While we are munching on our honey yogurt, Brett has been trying to figure out how to make sure the bees don't come back. The bees will actually smell the pheromone released by the queen bee and come back to the same spot over and over unless that chemical/scent is destroyed. His tactics include spraying some sort of chemical (Malathion and Bifrin, he tells me), painting the wall with paint laced with said chemicals and stuffing insulation in the wall before he puts the external siding boards back. Also, Mr. Michael is going to bring a pheromone boxes during the "swarming season" - which is from February until sometime in May - so that any bees that are in the area will be attracted to those boxes and not our house.
Here are some photos of our honey harvesting adventure. We're thankful for all of these fun and new experiences!
**If you're reading this in your email, you must click the title at the top that is linked to our blog page to see the videos. Only the photos populate in your inbox, not the videos.
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| The bucket has a filter on the top so the clean honey can drain through. The bucket also has a spout that we'll use to pour into our jars. |
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| Always wanting the "look" the spoon. |
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| Random picture of one of the cows in the pasture behind our house. Brett took this while trying to get away from the swarming bees one day. |
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