I am preparing for honey extraction this coming weekend. Tomorrow after work, escape boards will be placed on 5 hives. Then Thursday the supers will be pulled from those hives and the escape boards will be placed on 5 other hives. Either Friday afternoon or Saturday morning the supers will be pulled from the remaining hives. Extraction will begin on Saturday and I will continue until they are all done.
I will be taking pictures as well as video of much of the process. The postings may be a little scant this week, but there will be a load of stuff coming soon. Please bear with me. I know this is supposed to be a blog about bees and beekeeping and I will be getting back to that soon.
After my vacation I am still trying to get caught up around here. Last weekend I butchered all of this Spring’s roosters except one. The meat was canned and we prepared 52 quarts of chicken broth. It was yet another time I was glad that I bought the lard kettle.
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- Using the outdoor sink to prepare the ingredients for chicken broth.
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- This is a 23 gallon lard kettle that I bought at a flea market last summer. The stand was made by cutting an old fuel tank in half using a plasma cutter. There is an 11 inch propane burner mounted under the kettle that provides the heat.
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- Closeup of the kettle with all of the ingredients added. The paddle is made out of a 48 inch piece of hard maple.
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- Canned broth with canned meat on the right.
Questions or complaints?
