Campbell's Honeyhouse was built in 1982 from lumber cut and milled right here on the farm. There was a recession in the spring of that year, and we were able buy the steel for the roof and sides at a good price. The trusses are forty feet wide, and were purchased for $100 each.
We'd been renting a honeyhouse at Roseneath, and learning as we went. We were new beekeepers at that time, and we needed to know what was required in a modern honey extracting facility. After renting for five years we were ready to go ahead, so we drew up the plans and proceeded to build our own honey extracting plant.
My father was a retired carpenter from a local lumber company, and at age78 he was only too happy to be the foreman on our construction site It was a learning experience for me, and we had fun working together, building our own honeyhouse. Sons, Peter, Ian, Robert and Jeffery, also worked on the project at one time or another. Each of the boys remembers doing something different on the building, and they have all left their marks on the structure, from the names in the cement of the loading dock, to the signage in the workshops and sales room.
Good things evolve with time, and although we didn't know it back in 1982 the honeyhouse was destined to be a work in progress. As time goes by, we are continually up-grading to newer and more modern equipment. Our first extracting machinery of galvanized steel, had been used before, and after a few years it was replaced with two stainless steel rotary extractors. Just recently these machines have been upgraded once again to a single automatic radial extractor that will spin out 6000 lbs of honey in 4 hours. Each time we upgrade there are a number of alterations that need to be made to the interior of the building.
Today, local electricians were busy installing some new lighting fixtures to brighten up the interior.
Extracting honey is such busy time! We try to to get all the jobs done, and everything up and running before the end of July. Its tradition at Campbells, to have fresh liquid honey in the tanks to be ready to pour into our customers containers on the first weekend in August, and this year, we hope, will be no exception.
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