After "stealing" the two frames of honey from the "girls".. Ed and I have been waiting to process it. Fortunately for us, Deb and Dave have all the equipment to do that, so we only had to borrow it this year. We will need to purchase our own sometime, but for these two frames it was nice just to borrow. First step... uncapping the honey comb... this was done with an electric knife that is hot and the capping comes right off....
Abbie was here and she was so interested in how this all was done... she watched very carefully.....
She really wanted to do it herserlf... but Papa said another time....
The bees capped the honey to store it, so, in order to get the honey out, you have to uncap it. The "cappings" wax is saved and can be used to make candles or anything else that contains bee's wax.....
Now that the frame is uncapped, it's time to go in the extractor....
The honey frames are spun, and the honey just shots out of the comb. Abbie had a great time spinning the honey from the comb.....it drips down to the bottom of this steal tub....
And then you open the plug and the honey pours out. You use a very fine strainer to catch any little parts of wax and such....
I have to admit, we got more than I expected to get... so I can only imagine what it's like to get a full taking of honey....Once we strained it threw this strainer, we did it one more time, just to be certain that it was all ready to eat....
The empty frames go back to the bees, they will clean up any honey that we didn't get, they will clean all the combs, and will begin to put honey back in. And this way, they don't have to build new comb from stratch.
And here it is.. our very first jar of honey. I like the dark color.....(and yes...) it is VERY tasty....
From just those two frames, we got four and a half pounds of honey. I'll give a few jars away, but the rest we'll keep for this winter's treats...
thank you bees!!!!
It's the fourth Thursday of the month, so in my world that means just one thing... check in day at NEADS!!! It's funny how I now get excited about driving into the city and working around it with my little girl... going to the city wouldn't have ever been "my thing" had I not gone into this "service puppy world"... When we got to NEADS, first stop is the scale... Debbie may look big, but really she is a bit on the small size and at just five months, she only weighs around 30 pounds.... I do hope she will get some size on her.
While we waited for Dave to finish up some things, the pups hung out in the main room. Zuzu (our mascot poodle) and Bernice traveled down with us this month. Some one had left a big bin of balls, and didn't the puppies have fun with those. Now, even though Deb had her own, you know that she wanted Zuzu's as well.....
Once Dave was ready, it was into the training room, just to take the usual time of talking about the puppies, telling what adventures they have had and getting questions and the like answered. It's a good time for the pups to wait quietly....
Even if it is boring ---- (right Rayvan???)
Today we "played" with the lift on the van. Debbie hopped right on, and sat and looked at me as though to say "OK, what's next"... all the puppies did very well with the lift.. so I dare say, next month, Dave will begin to have them "ride" on it....
Rayvan hopped right on as well.....from there we went over the hospital. I don't know why I didn't get any photos there, but we played on the elevators, had some lunch.. all the usual things. It's getting so these trips seem kind of routine.....
From the hospital to the bus station. I love the way that Deb handles all these things... she really is a "go with the flow" puppy, and I already have a very good feeling about her completing all the training and going into the service dog world.
Both Rayvan and Debbie are very steady puppies. After a while they just laid quietly and watched the world go by. Debbie even got stepped on by a gentlemen who claimed "he didn't see her??" She jumped out of the way, but then just settled right back down again.
Course, while the labs were "working" looked who schmoozed the crowd. Zuzu was the height of attention.. I told Bernice they should have put out a small tin cup and collected tips for the service dogs!!!!!
It was an absolutely wonderful day, the weather has been very warm and almost summer like. The puppies were all so good, that we allowed a bit of play at the end.
From here the others headed for home, but Deb and I stayed later. We were invited to be a part of NEADS training council, so we had to stay late for the that meeting. It was a very interesting meeting, and I met so many great people. I also got some "inside" scoop on the working of NEADS, which is usually something we don't have time for on the regular training days. It did make for a long day, but it was worth it and next month, Linda (our chapter leader) is planning on staying for the council as well... since she was away this month... and that would be great fun to go together and just be a part of NEADS and their plans for the future.
