Beekeeping.

So after our terrific first day introduction, Ilze and Mark gave us a list of couple people that would be interesting to visit around the area and headed to Halifax for appointments. We headed out not soon after to a local beekeepers. Donald is a friend of Ilze and Mark and joined us that evening for dinner, but before that, he gave us some insight into honey production.

Basically the combs come in frames, which are placed into boxes called 'supers'. A base beeswax comb is first purchased, and that provides the base that the bees will build off of. Once the bees have got a thriving colony kicking it, they'll begin to fill the combs with honey. When the combs are all full, it's time for extraction. That is by far the simplest way beekeeping should ever bee explained, but hey, what will bee will bee.

Forgiving that awful pun and reading on certainly took some courage, I applaud your fortitude. So, extraction is basically the process which gets us honey in the form we know it best. The extractor is a huge cylinder that spins at certain speeds designed so as not to crush the comb. Once the frames are decapped, meaning that the beeswax is stripped off the top of each hexagon with a hot blade, they are placed in the extractor and spun dry.

The result: Honey at it's finest and freshest. For the record, freshly stripped honeycomb is like honey chewing gum and I can honestly say I could chew it until I get it jitters. Tasty stuff.