The Commons » The Bee Hive

Honey Be Mine sale

tsmith — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 21:42:27 +0000

The Food and Farm Lab students worked hard during the first trimester to harvest the honey from our two Harley bee hives, process it, develop a brand and marketing strategy, and then sell their delicious product: jars of Honey Be Mine honey! Roughly eleven gallons of honey yielded about 175 8oz jars to sell. Friday morning was the time for the sale, and the savvy students made themselves available to the “captive” crowd gathered that morning, waiting to enter the Theater to see Pageant. About 80 jars went to the Harley faculty from pre-sales and another 80 jars were sold Friday morning. Each of the students in the class took home a 12 oz. jar of the golden goodness.

Harley honey, part two

tsmith — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 14:19:10 +0000

The eager students in the Food and Farm Lab class worked last week to harvest the honey from our two resident bee hives, with the expert help of Adriana Lozada and Arthur Rothfuss. The flats which were full of honey and had been capped off with wax were removed (after tricking the bees to inhabit other parts of the hive via a maze…), covered, and taken to the Project Space. The bees are quite methodical about how they make their honey and where they put it. As Adriana and Arthur showed the students, the bees build their honey from the inside to the outside of the flats, in a rainbow-shaped design.

The different colors of the honey (even on one flat) reflect which flowers and pollen were in bloom and available…. In this photo, you can see the dark color of the goldenrod flower pollen over the majority of the flat, but the upper corners are a lighter color because the most recent additions were from a different kind of pollen.

In order to access the honey (which will be spun out in the extractor), the wax cap needed to be removed from one side of the flat. The students heated the knife so that it cut through the wax more easily. The wax, once removed, will be strained, also. Here is video of cutting off the wax cap.

Once the flats were all uncapped, they were placed in the honey extractor and spun quickly to pull the honey out of the honeycomb. Here is a video of the spinning process: Spinning the honey out

The honey, once spun out, is collected in sterilized buckets to be strained and then bottled. We will keep you posted on the process and when the delicious nectar will be available!

Harley Honey has us all buzzing…

tsmith — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 23:58:48 +0000

The Food and Farm Lab students in this first trimester of school have some sweet ideas about farming and about entrepreneurship. In an earlier post, you were introduced to our volunteer bee keepers, Adriana Lozada and Arthur Rothfuss, as they taught the 9th grade English students about our Harley bee hives. They have also been involved with the Food and Farm Lab class, helping them determine how best to extract and do something with the approximately 50 to 75 pounds of honey in the two bee hives. The window of time for action is imminent, as the honey needs to be harvested in a short two to three-week window this fall.

The students of the class wrote and submitted a proposal to Dr. Ghory, Head of School, and our CFO, Ken Motsenbocker (himself a gentleman farmer). They proposed a learning expedition which would involve acquiring a honey extractor, harvesting the honey, then packaging and selling the Harley Honey to recoup the expense of the extractor. According to the proposal: “Our mission associated with this learning expedition is to extract, jar and ultimately sell the first ever batch of Harley Honey. Throughout this process we will 1. learn about bee husbandry and honey production; 2. develop a brand and business plan to sell Harley Honey; 3. implement our marketing and sales strategy; and 4. set Harley up for many future years of honey and associated profits (financial and otherwise).”

Here is the newly-acquired honey extractor and the associated accoutrements for the process:

And here are the members of the Tri 1 Food and Farm Lab class, exploring logo options and cleaning up. Stay tuned for updates on the actual honey extraction and ultimate sale of the first batch of Harley Honey ever!

The Secret (or not so secret) Life of Bees

tsmith — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 22:45:45 +0000

Many thanks to Erin Berg, US English teacher, for sharing and writing about this experience, and to Michael Frank, US Digital Media teacher, for taking the photos!

“In preparation for our next book in our 9th grade English class, Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, we attended a demonstration of the Harley School beehives on Wednesday, September 23. Our school beekeepers, Adriana Lozada and Arthur Rothfuss, showed us the inner workings of a beehive and answered student questions about the honey making process, bee anatomy, the life cycles of bees and the work dynamic within a beehive. Using what the students learned from the bee demonstration, they were able to make predictions about some of the themes and events they may encounter when reading The Secret Life of Bees. We will also continue to refer back to our experience with the honeybees as we begin to read the novel and explore the way Kidd uses honeybees as an extended metaphor throughout the story to explore the complicated dynamics between humans.”