For the last couple of days, maybe 3 or 4 even, I have been collecting honey jars, buying more caps and rings, washing jars and, well I am getting ahead of myself.

I had in the past, inherited some jars from various sources and put them in storage until now. They collected dust and grime. For the last 4 days, I have been washing and sterilizing them. I had to buy more canning caps and rings to keep the jars clean on the inside. I uncap the jars as I need them.

I have already bottled Tupelo into 12 oz bears, 1 1/2 lb pints, and 3 lb quarts. I then proceeded to bottle Gallberry in like amounts. When I am through, I will have bottled 5 gallons of each kind of honey including Wildflower. Sometimes, I bottle 1 lb bees that have painted eyes, noses, wings, and stingers. I use these for festivals as a novelty eye catcher.  Now I have enough on hand to be ready for at least two festivals. If I run out, then all I have to do is bottle more.

The process of bottling honey is not hard nor difficult. When bottling different honeys, start with anything that is not Wildflower honey. I usually start with Tupelo. Is clean my bottling bucket and dry it completely between each specialty honey. That way the honeys will not be mixed and can be labeled as such. When all the honey is bottled bottled, except for Wildflower, then I do not have to clean the bucket before bottling, because any honey that is left will be mixed with the wildflower honey which is a mixture of all the different honeys anyway. I only clean when I want to say, “This is a specific type of honey”, other than Wildflower.

Aside from enjoying the bees, I also enjoy selling honey and talking about my bees while showing the observation hive.