Reub's journey

05 September 2017

Honey night

After nightfall and beneath the red moon in smoke-filled skies, we went to Honey Night, an annual event held by beekeeping friends.



In the cool evening, unbothered by skeptical bees, beekeepers gather their equipment and help each other harvest honey.



I learned to use a heated knife to remove the caps from honeycomb cells. A bee, working her hardest, only makes about 1/2 teaspoon of honey in her lifetime. It's important to be efficient at this job and not waste honey by cutting too deeply.


The frames are then put into a centrifuge and turned by hand.



The honey leaves the cells and flows out.



It is filtered through cheese cloth. Then it's ready to be put into jars.



This all takes time and the work of many willing hands. It felt good to be doing this and not worrying about the wildfires all around, the craziness in Washington, DC, and the uneasy state of the world in general. How good it is just being with a few other people, working in the light with honey.

14 comments:

  1. I have a friend who keeps bees and harvests honey. I look forward to a jar each year. I've heard that eating local honey will help immunize you from plant allergies, kinda of makes sense to me.

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    1. I've heard that too, Joe. One local beekeeper has honey derived from poison oak blossoms and I've wondered if it would lessen the reaction to that plant.

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  2. How interesting! I had no idea making honey was so much work!

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  3. We buy local honey at the market. Some claim that local honey is better for you, but who is to know?

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  4. What an amazing task. Hoping we have this forever.

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    1. I hope it is forever too. But these days, with these ridiculous politics, who knows?

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  5. Nice to learn the process of honey harvesting. I have one question: If the honey was not harvested what would the bees do with the accumulated honey. Warm Regards Ram

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    1. Hello RR! They consume most of their own honey over the cold months of winter. Beekeepers have to supplement their hives with sugar water so that the bees survive. But I think bees try to make an over abundance of honey each year, just in case. So wise.

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  6. It is in such occupations that we find our center and our sanity. Too much immersion in either world, the macro and micro, warps our perceptions. This was a great post!

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