Mt. Joy Farmer Busy Extracting Honey
by Sally Bair
Farm Feature Writer
Wilbur N. Erb, Mount Joy RDI, is involved in some sticky
business these days he’s busily extracting honey from
some of his beehives.
Erb is really a dairy farmer, milking about SO head of
Holsteins, but about five years ago he caught a swarm of
honey bees in Rheems and since then he has added to that
initial swarm and has about 23 hives.
Erb figures his interest in bees is hereditary because “my
great-grandfather kept bees before I was bom. I heard a lot
about it and I was always interested in it.”
Erb has his bees scattered at five locations, and he is now
extracting only a portion of the total honey crop. He wouldn’t
hazard a guess as to how much honey he extracts in a year,
but he did say that he got 19 gallons out of three hives -
recently.
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He explained that many people extract honey twice a year.
He said he finds his honey is lighter in the early summer
when there are alfalfa, locust and dandelion blossoms for the
bees. Towards fall the honey tends to be darker.
How does one extract honey? The initial step, of course, is
to collect the frames from the beehives. Erb says he uses
protective gear (but has been stung anyway). He says bees
do not sting light complexioned people so readily. Another
method of taming bees for working with them is to quiet them
with smoke. Fire is a dreaded thing among bees, he says, and
so when they smell smoke, they fill up with honey (so they’ll
have a supply if the hive is burned), and when they’re full,
they simply can’t move so quickly and they’re not as likely to
sting.
“Uncapping” is the next process. That means skimming
the wax off the frames by the use of an electrically heated
knife, in Erb’s case. He says some people use steam-heated
knives. Then the frames are inserted in a centrifugal ex
tracting machine, and after a lot of hand cranking of the
machine, the honey is out of the frame. At this point the Erbs
strain the honey twice, and then it’s ready to eat.
Mrs. Erb says the whole family loves it on toast, and she
has many recipes using honey in baking and cooking. They do
extract more than enough for their family, so they sell some
in quarts and gallons to friends and neighbors.
Erb says he started working with bees as a hobby, but as
his numbers increase, it’s beoming more time consuming
and more of a business. He said that today people are “really
looking for hives” and it is getting very difficult to obtain
frames or wax.
He also explained that apiaires must be inspected once a
year by the state to ensure that no hives are carrying disease.
Any hive harboring disease is destroyed by fire.
Erb is a member of the Lancaster County Beekeepers
Association. He farms about 180 acres, and in his spare time
he is an avid chess player. He carries on quite a few games
by correspondence, so he always has a partner and a game
underway.
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master Farming, Saturday. July 13.1974
Erb checks one of the frames in the extractor to see
if the honey has all been extracted.
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