Campbell's Honey

The Honeyhouse is a Hive of activity in September.

Customers bring their pails and come for miles for their favorite flavor. Some like it strong and dark, others like it  mild and light, but all love the sweet sticky taste of Campbell's Honey.

Everyone has a job, and no matter what it is, by the end of a day you will have honey in your hair, on your clothes and all over your body.. The air is filled with honey whipped  up by the high velocity of the rotating extractor as it spins the frames in the process of freeing the honey from the wax combs.

Peter wheels  a pallet of honey into the extracting room. This honey has been dried overnight at a temperature of 83 F. to make it warm enough to spin out  and leave the wax combs dry.

He wheels it around and leaves it at the hoist ready for John to put the individual frames through the uncapping machine and into the tray where it will travel along  a chain to be pushed into the extractor.

The Extractor is controlled by compressed air. The huge stainless cover raises by itself when a small  lever is toggled. After the cover opens more compressed air pushes a load of full frames in, while the previous load is pushed out.

Every 15 minutes a fresh load of frames are transferred in and out of the extractor. The honey runs out of extractor into a heated tank, where the small pieces of wax rise to the top and the honey is pumped from under this, into the final strainer.

This picture shows the Extractor full, with the cover still up. Peter prepares to give the carriage a spin before lowering the cover. The empty frames from  the previous load  are waiting to be boxed in supers, and transferred into the storage area.

Its a busy job that begins at 8 am and extends to12 noon. By that time, we need to barrel the honey off, and do the cleanup.  The floor must be washed, and the machinery wiped down before we can start again the following morning.