Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Day 8: They won't bite you, they only sting

Right after breakfast we went to the garden for our first time. I was given a bucket of wood ash to spread around the plants. This would help give them an increase in phosphorus, as well as keep the critters away.

Afterwards, we went to the beach for the first time, which is located at the bottom of the property. There was a nice little swim hole, surrounded by rocks on 3 sides. After cooling off, we went back to the house, and I got to use my clothes line for the first time.

Next, we checked on some of the hives to see their status (ready to swarm, queenless, harvestable, etc,). Some of the combs had fallen off of their top bars. So, we cut the brood cells out and left them within the hive, and harvested whatever was left of the comb into a bucket. At the end of the day, the bucket was full of bees that would have to be removed at some point.

We later on went back to the garden. There must be at least 15-20 different plants scattered around. Papaya, lettuce, watermelon, banana, and mango are only a few. There was a huge area covered with tall grass and other wild plants. Our job was to grab our cutlasses and clear out the area so the onions could be moved to a larger location. Due to the large amount of weeds, we were going to have to finish another time.

Once the sun went down, and the bees went back to their homes, it was time to harvest the honey. The bucket of bee-less combs from the previous day was full to the top. After grabbing a separate bowl, the honey extraction starts.  Holding pieces of the comb over the bucket, squeezing and twisting as tight as possible, honey oozes out of the comb and into the bucket. The now honeyless comb is thrown into the bowl to later be turned into wax. Once the bucket was full of mainly honey, it  was strained in order to separate it from the tiny combs left floating around. The now pure-honey is poured into as many containers as can be filleed, which in this case was exactly 1 gallon.

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