Barncast 81 -- Extracting Honey

Great show - I'm trying to catch up one the shows I've missed lately. It's been SO hectic here, and it'll only get worse...we're moving to Zurich - Yay!! - so there's heaps to do. The cats have just had their rabies vaccination and that seems to have started an avalanche of things to do (oops - no pun intended, I guess my mind is filled with all things Swiss and snowy!). India

Hey India!!! It's been a bit, and we've wondered where you disappeared to! Zurich, wow that's a bit move! I hope you enjoy it over there, let us know how it goes and how you enjoy it. :)

-Andrew

Zurich! Wowza! That's quite a move and a really exciting opportunity. I'm so behind on blogs but I suppose I need to go look at your blog and see what's going on. :)

We will be moving in January, and while I a know that realistically we need that time to arrange things, I want to go tomorrow! I was thinking of you guys when we were in Zurich for the interview. On the Sunday we took a walk through part of the botanic garden, which is beautiful, tranquil and just the place for a spot of spinning next summer....anyway, I took some pictures of the beehives. Althought there was the 'standard' hive that looks like your ones, there were some other amazing ones. Sadly, these were the pictures that my camera ate :0( As soon as I get the time for another stroll through the garden, I'll post some new pictures. India

I love the video! When I was a kid, my uncle had some bees. I seem to remember that he would put some of it in glass jars, with a piece of the comb in the jar. And I want to think that we used to "chew" on the wax, like a candy? Am I crazy? Could we have done this?

What will you all do with the wax that is in the plastic tub?

Great show, I really enjoyed it... Have a blessed week, NCN

That is soooooooooo cool!!! Love the video!

Hey, I have been listening to the shows for a week or so. I went back and started at the beginning and have enjoyed seeing how things progress. Anyhow, I saw NCN's comment above. I don't want to steal Andrew's thunder but I have bees and we always chew the wax. We call it "country gum". My kids and I chew it frequently. It's hard to beat warm honey/wax straight from the hive!

Wow! 3 comments in under 12 hours. I guess the video must be popular. :)

NCN, Nope you sure aren't crazy. Like Warren said Misty and I both like taking a chunk of the cappings and chewing on it. The honey squishes out and the wax turns into gum. You could do exactly the same thing with the comb if you cut it out of the frames.

You can take comb and instead of extracting the honey, cut up the comb up and put it in boxes. This is called "cut comb honey". You can also get kits and the bees build comb right in the boxes and you just break them apart. You can also take a chunk of comb and put it in a jar the fill the jar with honey. This is called "chunk honey"

Danielle, I'm glad you enjoyed the video. It was a lot of fun putting it together.

Warren, I hope you enjoy the old shows. Next weeks show is going to be a restrospective as we take the weekend off.

-Andrew

I have really loved the old shows! We have been sort of slowing life down and getting to a point where we can produce more of our own food. I took up the beekeeping about 5 years ago and that set the ball rolling. Anyhow, we still live in the city limits but we have a 5600 sq ft garden just out of town on a smallish piece of land we have so we get a lot of veggies from that. I hadn't thought much about rabbits or ducks for meat but the old casts have given me some ideas. I listen at work...er...I mean on lunch break so it has been lots of fun to "catch up"

I liked the podcast video. =0)

Warren, 5600 sq ft!!!!!! That's huge! I think it's about twice the size of ours and we have a hard time maintaining that and it's our backyard. I bet you get a lot of produce!

Ducks can be a bit loud in town, but rabbits are perfect. Quiet, few zoning rules, and they can work really well in a garage or under an arbor. Great meat, we just had some legs for dinner. You can use it like chicken.

Hey Sherry! Now is the time to look for comb for sale. I get what you mean, yes it's like brewing bear or wine. :)

ValerieC, thank you. :)

-Andrew

I can't tell you how much I crave honeycomb to chew on right now. Ack!

Just to clarify- 'beer is like mead' as in dealing will all the gear and general brewing or winemaking practices.

BTW, there are indeed beers that take years to finish -sometimes even stored in casks! Check out lambics from Belgium if you have never tried them.

Love the video. It was great to actually see the extractor working and the honey pouring out into the bucket.
Other videos that would be cool would be: Milking a goat A walk through the garden(Plant ID included) Daily chores Walk through the path in the woods (to the camp fire area)

I am sure there are many more events that would be great to video Thanks for another great podcast.

Kimberly