First I cut the honey comb, second I crushed and strained it, and third I bottled it:
Our first batch of honey from a single frame. (Sept. 4, 2011.)
Nothing fancy about any of this. The honey still has plenty of little wax bits floating around, but I don’t care. I sterilized the small Mason jars and poured the honey in. No heating, no freezing, nothing.
September 8th, 2011: I made more exact measurements with my next four bottles. Each bottle holds approximately 250ml of honey, about half a pint. The weight measurements come to 340g, about 12oz, 3/4 of a pound of honey per bottle. I got 4.5 bottles from my second foundationless frame of honey, which is 3.4 pounds, a little over 1.5kg. With 27 more frames to go, if I’m lucky, I’ll get 40kg of honey from my hives this year, or about 90 pounds. I’m more than happy with that seeing how it’s about 90 pounds more than I expected to get this year.
I think we pulled two more frames from Hive #2, the foundationless hive. I can’t remember if it was two or three. Probably two.
The honey super still have five frames left inside, but they’re not getting capped and the weather isn’t getting warming. So I’m pulling off the honey super tomorrow.
I’m not sure what I’ll do with the uncapped honey.
At any rate, the grand total from the foundationless hive is 3 medium frames of honey for the year. That’s not impressive but it’s better than nothing, which is what I was led to expect.
I sure hope this foundationless hive does better next year.
Use a nylon stocking to strain your honey…there will be no wax left in it
A paint strainer works too, though I doubt nylon stocking or a paint strainer are 100% food-safe material.
A regular kitchen strainer works fine too. A few bits of wax isn’t the end of the world.