So, this morning we extracted honey from one of our backyard hives. We didn't even take the whole super's worth of frames, we left a few behind and only extracted from about 6 frames. Here are some photos of the process...

Here is me using the the bump and brush method, after a little smoking, to remove the bees from the honey super.

They are not happy about getting brushed off their honey frames...after we collected all the frames we wanted to harvest, we put them into another waiting empty super and slipped it inside a plastic bag for transport to the honey house.

Here I am at the honey house using the hot knife to remove the beeswax capping from the honey comb. You basically slice off the capping and collect it in a tray below (you'll save this wax and honey for later...it's yummy!)

A close up of the wax capping coming off the honey comb...

Then, you use a metal comb to break open any remaining cell not opened by the hot knife...

The frames are then carefully placed inside an extractor, which is basically like a large centrifuge that spins out all the honey at high speed.

The honey drains out of the extractor into a food-grade plastic collecting bucket, filtered by two metal sieves and a straining cloth. So pretty!

Excess honey is squeezed out of the straining cloth...

And here is our beautiful honey! We didn't end up with a great quantity, but from only 6 frames we got about a gallon and a half of beautiful golden honey. It is very thick with a wonderful floral flavor. We tested the moisture content and it measured 17%. A good quality honey shouldn't have more than 18% and preferably a little less. Too much moisture in the honey means your honey can ferment later on, plus it makes it thin. With the drought this year, it's no surprise we came in at 17%. While the drought keeps us from getting as much honey, the honey we get is of higher quality. The bees will usually tell you themselves when your honey is at the right moisture content for harvesting, because they will cap it off between 17%-18%.

And don't forget that bonus honey and comb...I jarred it up...it's like candy!

I'll be jarring up some of our "Sweet Beez Backard Honey" for family and a few friends over the next week. Looking forward to a big harvest next year!

I'll be harvesting honey from one of our backyard hives this morning. As mentioned in an earlier post I'll only be harvesting from one of the 4 hives I'm maintaining. The weather this spring and summer has just been brutal on new growing hives. But for the first harvest it looks like we are going to get plenty off of just this one happy hive. I'll post some photos of the process. Can't wait to taste!

Stunning Blooms That Shine in the Heat of Summer

Here are some of the lovely Cone Flowers, Echinacea spp., blooming in my garden right now. While many plants are literally melting away in the heat, these tough perennials are coming into their own. They show best when it's nice and hot outside...

Interestingly, many of these new varieties of cone flower have the most wonderful fragrance, which you don't get in the species or older cultivars. It's always a unexpected surprise to walk by them and get a waft of their sweet scent.

UPDATE: After several years of testing, many of these large flowered hybrids didn't stand the test of time as long-term perennials in the harsh heat of Texas, especially when growing next to a lot of heat reflecting concrete. BUT, getting a good three years out of them and the beauty they added to the garden was well worth it!

Echinacea 'Mama Mia'
PC: Leslie F. Halleck

Echinacea 'Summer Sky'
PC: Leslie F. Halleck

Echinacea 'Summer Sun'
PC: Leslie F. Halleck

Echinacea 'Tangerine Dream'
PC: Leslie F. Halleck

I'll be posting a series of photos of plants that are beating the heat in my summer garden. With the hottest June on record just past and no end in sight for the 103+ temps it's good to know which plants can take the heat and still look beautiful in the garden.

Here is a lovely Pride of Barbados, Caesalpinia pulcherrima, I keep in a large container on the front porch. It gets scalding hot Western sun in the afternoon. But it's beautiful!

My Cute New Baby Chicks Have Arrived!

Ok..are these babies cute are what??? Here they are about a week old...

Little Cochin...hopefully a Blue, but probably a Black

Little Polish...White Crested Black, or may end up Speckled

Little Polish #2...Looks like she will be a Silver/Blue! (yay)

Soooo...I got a call from the post office this morning that I had baby chicks waiting for me. WHAT??? This was a back order from 6 months ago that I'd cancelled a while back. For whatever reason, they shipped the chicks anyway. Yikes!! Well, what do you do...you can't ship them back...So, I ran back at lunch to pick them up and then set up a new brooder for them right quick.

I'll be raising these three little babies for a while. Two are Polish hens and I'm not sure what the other one is just yet (Just figured out it's probably a Cochin, either blue or black...which I MUST have! lol). I really only have room for one more chicken...two more would be pushing it. But, it's going to be really hard not to get attached to these little munchkins. So, I may have a couple of specialty breeds that will need a new home in a bit...I'll keep you posted!

It's been a tough spring/summer for growing beehives. We had a stint of unseasonably cool weather and rain in May, followed by an unseasonably HOT dry June. Thus, I have mixed rates of development among my four hives. Between the two I have in my home garden and the two I have up at the garden center, I have two hives that seem very close to right on schedule in terms of honey storage, and two that are very behind. In fact, it appears that I may only be able to harvest this year off the two more advanced hives. Generally, you should only harvest a full honey super. If your hive has only one super on it come harvest time (here it's early to mid-July) then you are best to leave that honey for your growing hive. Do to the almost complete lack of honey in the hive that is behind, and the fact that it isn't an issue with the queen at this point (the hive is queen-right) I've decided to go ahead and start feeding that hive again, something you would normall not do at this stage of honey production.

I had to re-queen two of the hives this spring. Interestingly enough, the one hive that is behind at my house, is one that had to be re-queened in the middle of spring. But the hive that is on schedule up at the garden center is one that I re-queened about a month ago. It's just goes to show how detrimental re-queening can be when it's done right in the middle of spring brood production.

That said, the two hives that are on schedule have done a bang up job and their supers are loaded with honey. It's amazing how heavy one super full of honey can be! We will most likely try to harvest next week or shortly thereafter. Can't wait!

Heat Tolerant Floribunda

I have a ton of summer plant photos to share...just haven't had time to get anything posted! I'll try to get a few up in the next couple of days. Here is a shot of one of my 'Easy Does It' roses. This Floribunda is doing great and flowering right along even in 103F degree weather. I've been very impressed with it's performance.

The heat definitely impacts flower size and color for most plants, so you can expect the flowers on this rose to be much larger and more vibrant in the spring and fall. But considering the temps right now, the flowers are stil attractive. The bees have been enjoying them this morning...