After allowing our 5 gallons of honey to settle for a week, it was time to bottle. We bought a mix of 1-pound and 2-pound bottles and set up a small bottling station in the basement. The bucket of honey sat on a footstool in the middle of a table, with empty jars on one side and lids on the other.
The process is simple - open the honey gate to allow a stream of honey to flow into a jar, and shut the gate at the right moment to cut off the flow and not overfill the jar. The bottle is held until the string of honey breaks, to keep drips off the rim. Since the honey is thick it is easy to get distracted while the jar slowly fills.
We ended up with nearly 62 pounds of honey, with the last three jars a bit thicker then the rest as the honey was the densest at the bottom. I had bought a refractometer for maple syrup, which can also be used for honey. Our honey measured at about 83.5 brix, which is in line with the 70 to 90 brix range for typical honey. Too much moisture and the honey will not be shelf stable, and too little moisture results in very thick honey. Our honey is very light in color, with a floral/herbal flavor reminiscent of the hayfield it came from.
While grocery shopping, I noticed the price for a pound of honey in the usual squeezable bear is roughly $4. That translated to about $250 in honey now stored in our basement. I believe that Maggie spent about $240 for bees this year for her two hives. I spent about $140 on bees last year and have yet to get any honey. Considering the cost of jars, hives, and other equipment, this year proves something I have suspected - bees are not a moneymaker on a micro scale. We will also have beeswax, which is another product that can be sold, but that would probably take us to break-even for this year. Mushrooms and maple syrup have provided much better returns. The bees do provide intangibles such as pollination, but as Maggie says, do we really need more squash? The bees have been a challenge and they may not yet be pulling their weight fiscally, but they have been fun to watch and we have learned a lot from keeping them. We joined a local beekeeping club, which has provided a chance to socialize with other like-minded people. We will hopefully improve our small apiary over time to produce more honey and more enjoyment.
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