Honey and the Mason Jar Sieve

A colony dies in N. California

A colony of my bees didn't make it this winter, so I've begun pulling out the honey they made. 

Why did the bees die?

A number of factors, not the least of which we had a lot of rain in late November and December with chilly temperatures. 

Bees need to get out and fly every couple of days to purge themselves, but they can only do that if the temperature rises above 50 degrees.  Then too, these colonies were somewhat weak going into the fall.  They had two "brood supers" (the big boxes where the queen lays her eggs) of stored honey, but they ended up eating out some of the frames and getting into a frame corner, and they didn't have enough heat to stay warm.  So they starved themselves and then got too cold.  Sad! But that's what happened.  I found the queen and a small circle of attending bees surrounding her, dead in a corner of a frame.

Queen and attending bees had food. But they were just too cold.

So, anyway, a few dead bees and a lot of unused honey. What to do?

 Pulling honey without an extractor

I don't own a honey extractor - the one I had back in Indiana was auctioned off when I left there 30 years ago.  It was the old six frame extractor that I picked up at an auction, and I had never used it.  It was made out of galvanized steel anyway, so it was no big loss.
 
So I've been pulling honey for a couple of years now without an extractor, one frame at a time.  Here's what I use:

Bill of Materials

• Plastic foundation in all the hive frames.
• Very large stainless steel bowl.
• Large stainless cooking spoon.
• Rubber (or sometimes wooden) spatula.
• Four empty wide-mouth quart mason jars.
• Six wide-mouth mason jar rings.
• Four lids.
• A bit of new, fiberglass window screen.
• Scissors.
• Duct-tape.
• Plastic straws

Simple Mason Jar Sieve for straining honey from comb

Here's what I do:

1. The plastic foundation allows me to scrape out the honey and wax - down to the foundation - without re-wiring the frames each year. The bees will rebuild the comb as they bring in new nectar. (Not very efficient for the bees, but they're cheap labor.)
2. Normally I pull out one frame at a time from the colony, brushing off any bees, and bring it into the house.
3. Scrape the honey and wax into the large stainless bowl using a stainless spoon until I have cleaned the frame down.  I use the rubber spatula to get as much honey off the frame as possible, and then rise the excess off with hot water.  Then I return the frame back to the colony. (In the current situation, back to the empty super.)
4. I chop up the honey comb as much as possible with the spoon, and then ladle the mess into two quart-sized mason jars.  One deep frame of honey with wax seems to just fill two quart jars, but sometimes it goes to three.
5. I take two mason jar rings and duct-taped them "top-to-top" so I have a single band that can hold two jars, mouth-to-mouth.
6. A piece of fiberglass window screen is traced with the mason jar lid. I cut the screen in a circle that fits exactly inside of one of the duct-taped rings.
7. I put the taped rings (with the screen) onto the jar containing the honey comb so that the screen is honey-side in the ring.
8. I insert an empty mason jar into the top of the ring and then turn the whole thing upside down.

The honey drizzles down into the empty mason jar and that's about it.

The only problem with this technique is that as the honey drizzles down, it creates a suction in the top mason jar.  Placing the jars at an angle will allow the air in the bottom mason jar to move as a bubble to the top of the top jar.  This gets things going pretty well: I use the cleaned up stainless bowl for this purpose to act as a stand.  Two jars, bottom-to-bottom leaning against the rim of the bowl. It's a little wobbly with just two jars in it, but it works okay. If I'm doing two frames at a time, it's a little tricky, but as I said, it's a big stainless bowl.

Still, eventually I'll end up with a wax/honey plug that is against the screen that slows the drizzle.  So, if the mixture is really thick, I'll open the top jar and push and "smoosh" the wax along the inside glass with the spoon, and then insert a straw behind the screen - reaching to the top of the top jar containing the honey and wax combo. The straw then allows enough air to seep into the top jar and keep the mixture draining.

The process takes a couple of days, and I keep fiddling with it until all the honey is out of the comb. This is a work in progress, and I am still working on the details of the easiest way to set this whole rig going.

When I figure I've got as much honey out of the wax as I can, I simply disassemble the filled jar, put a lid on it with a new ring, and put it into the pantry.

I run hot water into the remaining jar with the screen and the wax - washing the wax until it's sort of granulated.  When the wax no longer has any honey on it I dry the wax between paper towels, and then put it into a plastic bag for a later time when I have enough to melt down in a homemade solar extractor.

The entire process, as I said, takes a couple of days, but the amount of time I'm actually working is usually pretty small - maybe 15-20 minutes per frame if I'm focused. Clean up is easy, as everything goes into the dishwasher - including the screen circles which I reuse. 

This obviously isn't the most time-productive way to pull a lot of honey, but since I normally only take a single frame or two at a time, it's appropriate for the normal amount of honey that we use. A quart jar filled with honey is about 3 lbs. It's certainly less expensive than buying an extractor, or the mess of setting one up, extracting, and then cleaning up that contraption afterwards.

Now, however, I've got a lot of frames with honey, so we'll see what I end up doing.

Thanks bees!  Sorry you didn't make it this year.  Next year - if we continue with this kind of weather - I'll probably insulate the hive boxes. 

One more note:  Last summer I took a colony from a tree that had been working wild mustard in the vineyards.  Wow! Amazing honey. The stuff was almost pure white, and was like eating candy.

The only problem was that the wild mustard nectar was mostly composed of dextrose sugar.  The result? 

Dextrose crystallizes easily, so I had a lot of crystallized honey in the comb itself.  So I had to heat the mason jars filled with wax and crystallized honey in a water bath before I could run it in the sieve.  A little more work, but the results were good.  A couple days later the dextrose honey was again crystallizing in their jars.

Putting the public back in the Republican Party

Right to Left: Robert (my father), and uncles Bill, and Phil in uniform during WWII

 Being good Midwestern Republicans

Both my parents voted Republican in each election as long as I can remember. It was a long history of Republican support, but I wonder how they would feel about the Republican Party these days.

They didn't seem to like FDR personally though they lived most of their early voting lives during the Great Depression and WWII. In later life my father commented that Harry Truman's Presidency was under-appreciated and under-valued. But it's doubtful that he actually voted for him.

My parents "liked" Ike during the 1950s.  I know they voted for Nixon in every election though I imagine they were ultimately disappointed. 

From what I understand, they were "okay" with Ronald Reagan, but I know they didn't think he was a particularly good actor, and I know they didn't think actors should be in politics.  After all, how can you tell if an actor is telling you the truth?

I'm pretty sure they voted for George H.W. Bush, and my mother probably supported George W. after the death of my father. 

More importantly than their voting record, my parents believed in the value of hard work. They believed that people were generally good. But they also believed at everyone needed to look after themselves and their families.

They went to church most every Sunday and were active in their congregation and in civic activities.  They weren't "joiners" or particularly "social", but had a small circle of close friends and respected professional relationships.  Considering that my father was on the road a lot, was an executive of a manufacturing company, the president of his industry association, etc., and that my mother was raising five children, today I find it surprising that they had any social life at all.

They were just good Midwestern Indiana Republicans.

Never ever talk about Politics

I can remember as a child going to the polling station in Michigan City once with my mother.  She showed me the levers of Democracy behind that heavy velvet-like curtain. But she never told me how she was going to vote. She never EVER talked politics. Nor did my father. If a political discussion erupted at the dinner table, they quickly changed the subject.  A person's political beliefs were personal beliefs. 

Politics, in the mindset of my parents, was not a pretty profession.  It wasn't "dirty", but just wasn't pretty.  I don't think they had grand visions about Democracy, but they had an abiding belief that basic fairness was an essential component of the Republican Party they supported. 

They probably would not have voted for Obama in 2008, but they would have embraced his message for the need for change during the financial crisis.  They weren't fans of big government - believing that the best decisions are made nearest the point of action. 

But they did, in fact, believe in Public Service.

My mother worked in an organization called Service League for many years.  My father was an official of his church. They regularly contributed to charities and local service organizations. 

They had a clear personal understanding of what one's behavior should be in public, and politics wasn't a part of that.

During their lives the tradition of Republican Party seemed their natural affiliation. It fit their understanding of who they were, where their traditions connected, and where their future was headed.  You could be a Republican in public, but you couldn't expose your deeply held beliefs in that arena.  Those beliefs may have animated your Republicanism, but not your public persona.

All the elements of the Republican Party my parents subscribed to now seem long gone.

The 47 Percent  

Mitt Romney has said that the 47 percent of Americans:

who pay no income taxes are people who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.

He also said:

My job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

During the Vietnam War I once asked my father what he thought the US should do. I was astounded by his answer.

"I think we should load up planes with food and doctors and engineers," he said. "Most of those people are just hungry. They have no hope. We need to give them what they need to find hope."

This morning I mentally contrasted this statement of a good Indiana Republican with Mitt's remarks.

I don't think he would recognize the Republican Party of Mitt Romney, nor the beliefs (whatever they might be) of the Tea Party Movement.

Putting the Public back in Republicanism

Maybe Ideology is the difference between a person with "a heart of gold", and a person with a heart made entirely of gold.

My parents grew up during the Depression. They helped to win a world war.  They supported the public institutions and the workers who did the day-to-day tasks that made institutions worth while.  They supported the troops and the veterans of wars.  They supported the values that maintained the public in our republic.

The Republican Party -- as represented by Congress and the Senate and the Mitt Romney campaign and the Tea Party factions -- has transformed what it means to be a Republican.

I'm guessing that - were my parents still alive today -- they could not support the goals or the candidates that are represented by this party of the 1%.  I'm guessing they would long for the days when the word Public had real meaning in the Republican Party. 

"If I were King of the Forest" and Romney had Won in 2008

Mitt Romney is now the 2012 Republican nominee for President. Throughout his campaign for this honor he has repeatedly said he is the better candidate.

But Romney also ran in 2008 - the year Obama was elected President.  A lot has happened since then.  So let's look what the world would have looked like, had Romney successfully followed his dream to the Presidency back in 2008.

Romney's Financial Crisis and the Recession 

Stock Market Collapse

• Romney - like Obama - would have inherited the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. 
• The crisis threatened the total collapse of large financial institutions, and downturns in stock markets around the world.
• The housing market plummeted, resulting in loss of value estimated in the trillions of dollars.
• Key businesses were without liquidity, resulting in plant closures, loss of productivity, and massive layoffs.
• Without work, thousands of workers were forced into bankruptcy.
• Evictions and mortgage foreclosures left people without homes and devastated the housing market.

Had Romney been elected, instead of Barack Obama:

• Banks would not have received financing from the U.S. Government to enable them to withstand the crises.(No more BofA, etc. Our savings would have been lost, and the U.S. Govt would have been on the hook for the insurance. But bank execs would have still received their bonuses).
• The automotive industry in the U.S. - representing approximately 4% of the GDP - would have been lost, along with approximately 2% of employment in the US. (No more GM, Chrysler, and probably Ford - if we could afford to buy a car, it would have been built somewhere else.)
• The housing market would have continued to lose value as the number of foreclosures accelerated. (If you were paying on a mortgage to finance your home, the chances of foreclosure would have skyrocketed as the lenders called in loans to cover their losses.)
• If you were lucky enough to have a job, your taxes would have increased as Romney's tax cuts would have been targeted to only the upper 2%. 
• If you were unlucky and had no job, your unemployment checks would have run out after only three or four months.
• Social Security would have been wiped out as Romney's plan was to privatize it and tie it to stock market investments.
• Your Medicare would be wiped out, because Romney's plan was to tie payments to the rate of growth of the US economy - or the rate of collapse as the economy failed.
• Your net worth - all that you own and all the money that you had saved - would be substantially less.
• Your children would not be able to afford to attend college, as higher education's ability to borrow would have been curtailed as a result of the loss of the financial sector, resulting in a failure of colleges and universities to fund their programs.

These are just some of the financial events that might have occurred had Mitt Romney succeeded in his quest for the Presidency in 2008.  They are imagined based upon Romney's own statements in the midst of the financial meltdown, and up to and including his performance as a candidate in 2012.

But let's not dwell on merely on the economics.  Let's look at Romney's foreign policy promises and declarations:

Romney's 2008 Foreign Policy (Some questions...)

• Where would Osama Bin Laden be today had Romney been elected in 2008?
• How many U.S. citizens be fighting in Iraq had Mitt followed his plans?
• Would we be withdrawing from Afghanistan if Mitt's policies been followed?
• What about Iran? Would we have troops fighting there?
• How about the revolution in Egypt? How about Libya?  Would we be setting up to fight in Syria right now?
• China? How would we be engaged in China?

There are a lot of questions - the answers to which most of us can only guess. Why? Because Romney's current stance on Foreign Policy is a mysterious mix of former Bush policies and muttered proclamations aimed at pacifying the Republican's Right-Wing. These policies are more than Neo-Conservative; they are truly Crypto-Conservative.  

Parsing the Image of Romney

There's no question that Romney sincerely believes today - as he did in 2008 - in his ability to "Turn the Country Around".  Today he's capitalizing on the incredibly difficult state of the economy and playing on the dissatisfaction of the electorate. 

He wants the electorate to equate the catastrophe's of the financial collapse with Obama's leadership.  He is ignoring Foreign Policy, as though this topic is not of concern to us.

And yet, had all of Obama's efforts been successful, it's doubtful that it would have made any difference to Romney at all.  Romney's agenda has always been simply to get elected.
But not to lead.
To rule.