We have had honey bees for about 4 years now and have never gotten any honey off the hive. Because we just have one hive, we do not have any extracting equipment to get the honey out. This year we were determined to get some honey. One of the extra soupers(this is just another partition for them to make honey in. It goes on top of the hive) was full of honey and we were excited about finally getting to taste the honey. We were unsure as to how to do it. We have a friend at AIG who is very knowledgeable about bees so we asked him for advice. He was very helpful and told us how to do it. First, we had to take the souper that had the extra honey and set it on its side. This would allow the bees to escape and go back to the hive. We were supposed to let it set out all day and then go retrieve it. Hopefully the bees would be gone from it. Sure enough, there weren't many bees at all on the souper so we took it to the house. The souper had about 10 frames inside that we were hoping were full of honey. We got some cheesecloth and a 5 gallon bucket and were ready to get the honey. We took the frames one at a time and scaped the honey, wax and all onto the cheesecloth. Most of the frames were pretty full. After we scraped the honey off, we put the frames back in the souper outside. The honey when warmed would drop through the cheesecloth and separate out the wax. At one point, the honey and wax was so heavy, the cheesecloth couldn't hold it so everything dropped into the bucket. Needless to say, there was honey and wax down in the bucket back together. We had to start over again with the bucket and cheesecloth. This time, it worked and we got 9 1/2 pints of honey. YEAH!! We finally did it.... It seems like there was honey all over the kitchen but that was cleaned up and we were so proud of the fact that we actually got honey this year. We put the empty frames outside not knowing what to do with them next. The next day, there was a lot of bees around the frames. We decided to put the frames back on the hive so that they could clean up any remaining honey that we missed. We also fed them sugar water.
It was a new experience for us.
Buddy is in Montana hunting with our Pastor. They also went fly fishing in Yellowstone. They saw a lot of wildlife there (buffalo, elk, deer). They are having a great time. Buddy did a concert at a small church on Sunday evening for the rancher who was allowing them to hunt on his ranch. Friends of ours from Baker, Montana attended the concert. They have seen a lot of mule deer but none have been where they could get a shot at them. They have one more day and they will be returning home. We love Montana!
We are getting ready to start planning for a missions trip to Kenya,Africa next November 2010. We are going with a church in Michigan. We met a couple that have gone two times and were planning on going again and invited us to go along. We are so thrilled about this opportunity. Buddy will be singing and sharing not only with Maasai tribe but ministering to the children of missionaries at their school. We are so excited to see what God will do.
Next week, we are at the museum for three days and then home one day then off to Wisconsin to Living Waters Bible Camp.
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