Summer honey harvest strategy, plus mountain mint mojito recipe
Cheers to my mountain honey harvest that inspired this drink.
Little reminder that you’ll find me and my honey next week at Miatas at the Gap in Fontana Village, NC. Visit my husband’s booth (ChathamCNC). I’ll have a limited number of jars for the festival, but to guarantee honey is waiting for you (and choose your Miata color for the label) – order honey now.
Unlike all the things that went wrong with my spring honey harvest, my summer harvest last weekend had very few snafus. The one wrench in everything was fairly fixable: broken (empty) honey jars. When I saw the volume of honey coming in, I ordered jars the week before harvest. Half of the jars arrived broken. I returned them and decided to wait for orders before I replaced them. So far I have just enough of the right sizes based on the orders coming in, so I may be able to use up all the extra spares I keep stocked just in case of situations like this.
Benefits of piecemealing the summer honey harvest
Instead of arranging escape boards, jiggering the fume board (all hives are in shade), and spending a day hauling supers from the yard to the house, I decided to start pulling extractable frames in an earlier visit. Piecemeal frame selection solved many things for me:
Easy on my back. I’ve struggled with lower back pain my entire life. A few months after we got pigs I threw out my back after working on their fencing. It took nearly 4 months for me to feel like myself again. A full honey super (medium box for me) can range from 50 to 70+ lbs. If I hold the super against my body, I can manage moving it – but that’s generally not possible for me when stray bees are still on the box. I can also manage when lifting the super from a reasonable height—but the hives I extracted from all had supers at my head height or higher. Even when attempting a stool next to the hive, I couldn’t safely lift an entire super.
No truck needed. I usually need the truck to move supers. With taking frames in smaller batches, I simply walked them to the house. Extra steps for me and no fuel needs.
“Guaranteed” honey. Pulling frames off in advance meant that I knew I could offer honey. With so many things that can go wrong, I never open honey orders until the frames are off the hives. While things can still go wrong with the extractor (blow-outs are awful!), bottling, and more—having the frames off early reduced loss risk.
Helped manage hive space and small hive beetles. At every time of the year, managing the hives means managing space. Giving the bees more space to prevent swarming, less space to prevent wax moths and small hive beetles, just enough space to draw out new comb, etc. One of the high honey-producing colonies is struggling with small hive beetles. They had multiple supers of honey and althought they have a huge population, they can’t police the beetles across all that space. Removing honey frames in advance meant that I could reduce their hive space, which makes it easier for them to police beetles. Beetles will consume EVERYTHING. So if they get a strong foothold, they would not only consume the honey, but the wax, baby bees, and more.
Allowed me to spend a full day extracting. I usually try to pull supers and extract honey all in the same day. Pulling frames in advance meant I could get up and start extracting—and I did. I started around 10 a.m. and wrapped up around 5 p.m. going non-stop other than a 20-minute lunch break.
The day I extracted was a gorgeous, sunny summer day. I was sad to miss the great weather. I made up for it the next day with a hike in the Cherokee National Forest. When I got home from the hike, I wandered the yard and picked some mountain mint to make a mojito. The mountain mint is hitting its prime time right now. While the bees are enjoying it, I figured I’d enjoy it too.
Mountain mint mojito recipe
I recommend storing your drinking vessel in the freezer at least 30 minutes before preparing and serving.
7–8 mountain mint leaves
1 ounce rum
1 ounce lime juice
1/2 ounce honey
Crushed ice (for shaking)
Large ice cub (for serving)
Mint leaves to garnish
Muddle mint with lime juice and honey in a cocktail shaker
Add rum and crushed ice, then shake.
Strain into your preferred drinking vessel with a large ice cube. Garnish with mint.