Kirk and I got these bees (from a park in Chinatown) on September 3, 2009. I gave them a few baggies of sugar water to get them established, but after that they went crazy feasting on the blossoms in the Hollywood hills and canyons.

I am interested in making mead, too. I’m not much of a drinker, but I could foist it on visitors.

And Ounces – That is so quaint and olde worlde!!

You need to stop this. You got me started on keeping chickens in my yard…and of course I then build an automated coop. Now I want bees.

The wife is really not liking your influence on me.

Last week our chickens had been with us a full year…60 dozen eggs and counting.

I kid, I kid. Get her involved; my wife has been trying to talk me into chickens. I’m not ready since we’re still renovating the old house and so have two houses to keep up at the moment…

Or maybe you’re some kind of many-bodied gestalt creature able to keep chickens, maintain a beehive, raise kids, write books and edit a magazine?

* * *

I like that the 1 oz. bottles cost $.39. What can you buy for that little these days?

(you don’t need to post this, it was only to congratulate you!)

Be ever-vigilant.

Yes, you read that correctly 35 lbs.

that’s been pretty much our standard per super for the last 3-4 years.

I think using a centrifuge helps us keep the honey pure and allows us to collect more of it.

BTW…my newest creation. I had to figure out a way to keep the chickens off the deck (they like to hang at the back door and leave me little presents), but I also needed to allow the dog to get off the deck. A trip to Lowes…and I made this gate with a doggie door. All of these parts had other uses, but I tailored it to work.

http://tinyurl.com/34r9dvy

And I put together a RFID dog collar…so if the dog tries to go into the chicken coop (she loves their feed) the door closes on her.

* Don’t bother heating the honey. Just add one gallon of honey (I like Orange Blossom because I can get a gallon for about $25 around here!) and top up with water to 4 gallons total. Swirl and mix as best you can, either in the carboy or in a pot with a whisk. If your first gallon of water is warm it helps the honey mix, then you can add the rest lukewarm. Add some yeast nutrient (a couple teaspoons) and two packets of dry wine yeast (I like Lalvin Narbonne) and you’re good to go. The whole process should take about 20 minutes. Then the initial ferment will take a couple weeks, then once it’s clarified a bit rack it to a clean carboy.

* Sanitization. Cleanliness is next to godliness. That said, honey is pretty resilient stuff. Don’t stress too much.

* Add fruit into the secondary. If you want, you can freeze it first which kills off some of the nasty bugs and more importantly causes the fruit cells to rupture, meaning more fruit flavor and aroma. You can use campden tablets to sanitize the fruit must if you wish. The slower fermentation in the secondary will not blow off nearly so much of the aromas, whereas if you put it in in the beginning you risk messy explosive blowoff and loss of flavor and aroma.

* Add acid blend. It really helps round out the flavor, making your mead less of a one trick pony. If you add acid blend at the beginning, which can help the yeast, go easy. I say ‘can’, because yeast do like an acidic home, but honey is acidic, and some honeys are more acidic than others. I have had a fermentation get stuck because the PH dropped too low… Try 1/4 tsp for 4 gallons. You can always add, but you can’t take it away. Then add to taste at bottling. I only put about a half teaspoon total in these.

* Patience. Let it clear before bottling. This could take 6 months to a year. If you use bentonite or sparkaloid, mix it in very well then wait at least a week.

* You can always sweeten to taste at bottling. Just be sure fermentation is done, and consider adding sulfites and sorbate to keep fermentation from starting up again.

* Bottling. Move your carboy to where you’re going to rack from at least a day before you plan to bottle. This applies to wine too. It’s amazing how those sediments shoot up into suspension. Then rack into another carboy or bucket to get it off the lees. Then you can filter if you wish, or don’t bother.

* If you’re going to make it sparkling or petilent (a little bubbly) use beer bottles and bottlecaps. Otherwise your corks will shoot out. If you aren’t down with sulfites, use bottlecaps in case you get a renewed fermentation in the bottle.

Here are some posts I’ve written about my more recent mead projects for more info.

Thanks.

but we do get lots of bees in certain seasons.

And what a wonderful old man that is in the video. I’d like to meet him someday.

Gorgeous honey harvest! It’s so clear and pretty.