September: Honey Harvest

Brian started taking care of bees at the ranch in the spring of 2009. And now, in September, he was reaping the benefits of his labors, or, I should say, his bee's labors. First he removed the slats from the hive.


He then used a metal comb to scrap off the caps of the honey comb. This is his bee buddy Glen who has helped us every step of the way with our bee experiment.


Then, he placed three slats at a time in the spinning drum (my name, not his).


I took a sample of the honey and I must confess, not too bad!


Each of the kids cranked the handle and spun the honey out of the comb.

And there was more and more and more spinning.


I was impressed with how strong they were.


Some just used it for a photo-op:)


Ethan thought he was a tough guy after one crank of the wheel. After all of the spinning we siphoned the honey through another bucket to continue to purify it.


And then we had liquid gold!


Brian was very appreciative of his little mini-me Ethan.


Brian is so proud of his first harvest!