Honey harvest, poor egg production, overnight freeze, Men’s retreat

Monday evening, I tried to extract the honey from the frames taken from the hives Saturday, but that did not turn out well. When the Echeveria’s showed up to see the extractions process, we rapidly discovered that the coolness of the building made the honey far too thick to be spun from the cells on the frames. Mama and I were able to cut some of the honeycomb from a frame and get it into a small jar, but even though the frames were absolutely full of honey it would not flow freely enough to collect by spinning in the extractor. Apologizing to the family for the less than successful demonstration, I put coverings on the extractor with the two frames in it, covering the bucket with the other two frames in it as well, and started the heater we have in the well house to warm it us as much as possible overnight and through the class I was teaching yesterday.

When I tried again yesterday evening, I had a little more success, but even then, in the warmed-up atmosphere of the well house, it was still a slow process to coax the honey from the frames. I gave up after two hours but in that time, I had been able to get about twelve pounds of honey into the bucket I use to transfer the honey into jars. I should have been able to get double that amount. Perhaps if I had been able to warm the well house to ninety degrees, but that did not seem practical. The special five-gallon bucket I catch the spun honey into was placed in the house on the table hoping the temperature in the house would be enough to warm the honey to the point it could be drained easily into the accumulated jars, but that was not to be.

When I tried to work with the honey over my lunch break, the honey in the bucket seemed stiff, almost congealed. So, I put the bucket into our bathroom and set the heater to high. It will be hours before the entire mass is warmed enough to work with – maybe after church tonight. Otherwise, it will be late Saturday night before we can put the honey in jars for final storage and I am sure Mama will not allow the bathroom to stay hot for the next three days and nights.

We did not experience this problem with the honey we took from the hives in the Spring. Whether it was the hotter weather or the natural viscosity of the honey that had been produced at that time, it flowed very freely. In fact, it seemed too runny to be good honey. It tasted very good, so we worked with what we had, which turned out to be much easier than what I am currently trying to extract and move into jars. Next week I will place the frames back into the respective hives so the bees will have a head start on their Spring honey as well as use the honey I had to abandon efforts to get out of the frames. With what I left in the hives initially and what I will be placing back into the hives, my bees will be well fed through the Winter.

Over the past few weeks Mama and I have tried everything we know to increase the egg production from all our laying birds - chickens, ducks, and quail - without success. So, after doing some research, Mama and I have decided to feed the flocks fermented feed. The process of fermenting the feed is straightforward. We only have to put a set amount of feed in a bucket, put enough water in the bucket to cover the feed with water to about an inch above the feed and allow the feed to sit for a couple days. The feed, we are told will naturally ferment. We can only do a couple days’ worth of feed at a time because the fermented feed must be eaten within a couple days or it will spoil. Small batches are the key – so the instructions say. We will try. We have plenty of feed to experiment with at the moment.

Yesterday evening, in addition to getting the honey extracted, I spent a lot of steps getting faucets covered in preparation for an expected overnight freeze. The freeze did not materialize, but I prepared, nonetheless. All that work will have to be undone today to allow us to properly water the flocks and herds. We did get close to freezing but did not reach that temperature. However, we will be back in the nineties within a couple days. Thankfully, that will give more time to properly prepare things for the cold weather we know we have coming. It was a good practice run, but it made for a very hectic evening.

Tomorrow morning, I will be leaving for a Men’s Retreat in Rose Bud, Arkansas. I am looking forward it. I did not get to go to the retreat last year but the year before I thoroughly enjoyed the days we spent at the retreat and in the travel to and from. The church has fifteen or so men going to the retreat, so I anticipate that we will have a great time together. The weather is supposed to warmer than it was some years ago but should be pleasant. Cool and dry.

We are all looking forward to it.