The First ever Drop

Today was pay day - the very first honey was taken from the hives.

At MrB's place in the cellar, the wax covering was scratched off, the combs placed in a centrifuge and low and behold, honey flowed , in total 22kg. MrB filled a few jars so that we had something to eat tomorrow at breakfast (only 7kg or so!) and will fill the rest in to jars tomorrow when the air bubbles from the centrifuge/straining have gone.

On Flickr there is a series of photos depicting the work and some more details.

The honey is dark in colour as it is mainly honeydew honey or as it is called here "forest honey". In my case for this year, it is not as dark as a "normal" honeydew honey as we only extracted honey once, so there is a substantial amount of summer flower honey mixed in. I find it very tasty, mild and not too sweet.

What a great result particularly as the bees didn't come until mid May, after the main dandelion season which was followed by cold and flooding, the death of the queen, splitting the hive in two, adding an offspring hive and "growing" three new queens. Naturally the praise has to go to my mentor MrB who did 99% of the work.