Homesteading Middles: Hiding from the Honeybees

Homesteading Middles: Hiding from the Honeybees

Three years ago we harvested honey from our resident honeybees. I was still very fragile from my stint in the hospital and cheered from the sidelines and took pictures.

Capitalizing on our lessons learned we set ourselves up to harvest the combs in the garage - away from curious buzzing stingers. Doing the honey harvest within the confined space gifted us a concentration of the million faceted smell complexity. Each frame would add its own layer of pollen rich perfume. It was a bouquet resplendent in flower complexity and sweetness.

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Homesteading Middles: Harvesting Honey

Homesteading Middles: Harvesting Honey

Homesteading in the beginning is a lot of planting sticks in sawdust, building chicken coops, watering seedlings, navigating bee swarms, spraying growing fruit trees with neem oil, on and on.

We are slowly moving into the harvesting part of this cycle where the efforts of earlier years are bearing fruit. In this case, our first honey harvest - 30 months after introducing the girls to their new home by the comfrey.

Here is what I learned from the process.

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