Wednesday Afternoon, September 19

We knew this day was coming, and I was anxious to observe how Tim and Kelly Miller (Wampler Honey) removed a large hive of bees from the farm house where I grew up.

Correction: Kelly Miller said she was not there. She thought it was her mother-in-law, Anne Miller.

The bees entered in an area under the roof and were there when I was a girl – so that is seventy years. My dad and aunts and uncles remember the bees – so that is more than 80 years. My grandpa and great aunts and uncles remember the bees – so that is more than 100 years.

Tim said the hive may or may not have been active all those years.

Our nephew Travis Dull and his bride-to-be Stephanie Balmer are planning to live here after their May 2019 wedding and are renovating the 200-year-old part of the homestead. (They did not want to share the house with bees.) 🙂

Travis’ parents Larry and Karen live in the newer part of the house which is 115 years old – and a newer addition which is 21 years old.

Tim was inside when I got there, just beginning to remove the bees and honeycomb from an area about 2′ x 4′ area above a bedroom ceiling and below the attic floor.

He carefully removed bees and honeycomb – honeycomb by honeycomb.

It appeared that he was using a large putty knife-type scraper to remove the honeycomb.

He used a small vacuum to remove the bees and place them in wooden, screened boxes.

There were bees everywhere – especially after a strip of honeycomb was removed.

Those that escaped the vacuum were on the floor and flying out open windows.

I went into the room to get close up pictures as Tim worked – and was surprised that I did not get stung.

They were prepared to work with bees. I was not.

Tim removing bees from a strip of honeycomb.

Notice the honey dripping from the comb.

If the comb was empty, it was discarded on the floor.

Those that were filled with honey were placed in tubs.

In this tub they were laid out flat…

In this tub they were placed on edge.

I assumed that this was the best honeycomb, but I am not sure about that.

Scraping out the last remnants of honeycomb.

Tim thought he may have gotten about 20,000 bees.

Karen noticed that the hive swarmed last spring. Tim said that means the hive was dividing – so there may have been twice as many bees if they had been removed before then. 🙂

Wampler Honey Facebook pages says they have about 500 colonies of bees and produce 40,000 pounds of honey a year.

Imagine my delight when Tim asked if I wanted a piece of honeycomb.

I put it in a Ziplock bag – from Karen – took it home and placed it in a colander so the honey could drip into a bowl. When the dripping slowed, I put the containers in the microwave for a minute. Soon the honey was dripping again.

We got between 3/4 and 1 cup of honey – and have been enjoying it each morning on a piece of toast. Yum!

I love interesting days like this.