We went from a warm and balmy October into winter by the end of the month. Shortly after wrapping the bees we got snow. But then our first major snow fall came on the 5th of November and left us with a good foot of snow. The snow didn’t leave. And we got some cold weather early. Nights dropping close to -20 a few times.
As usual I never got my honey extracted until October. Yup, not the ideal time, but that’s the way it goes sometimes….ok maybe a lot of the time.
The guys were out hunting so I went down stairs and started the process. Everything was going good until about half way through and my electric extractor stopped. The guys looked at it but it seems cause of its age something had worn out and it wouldn’t spin. I even tried made a new washer out of leather to see if that would work but, nope.
So armed with our headlights we headed across the road to one of my bee sheds and retrieved the very old and very reliable manual extractor. I’m talking vintage. My Grampa used one like this in the 40’s. So we packed it in the back of the truck and brought it home. I threw some soapy water in it and let it sit overnight.
The next morning after giving it a good scrub, I packed it up the front stairs and in the house. Then dragged the stand James had built me for my electric extractor up the basement stairs and got to work.
Considering the very hot dry summer, I was very happy at the amount of honey we got. I know a lot of people didn’t get any extra this year…so I am feeling blessed.
I also got a fair amount of wax. I haven’t really done much with my wax over the years so I decided to spend a few days cleaning it all and melting it down.
I really need to find a easier way to clean the wax, the process I did is so time consuming and messy. It was so messy I ended up splashing hot wax in my hair and down the front of my shirt. It was easier getting it off my shirt then out of my hair 😜. Sheesh, I am such a clutz.
