Day 22: The Vault's Big Payoff, Slicing Chunk Honey, & The Maiden Run of 'The Honey Runner'
When the summer heat turns relentless, a true beekeeper's determination only grows sweeter. Today, my junior co-keeper James and I braved a blistering 93-degree afternoon with one singular, hard-focused mission in mind: liquid gold. Day 22 is a spectacular celebration of our very first multi-frame harvest, the grand christening of our newly-named extractor, and a beautiful nod to family tradition that turned raw wax into gourmet artwork.
Amanda Collins
7/2/20262 min read
Sweat was pouring under our veils today as my son James (our resident Junior Beekeeper) and I marched out into the yard. The thermometer was clocking a sweltering 93 degrees, but we had a fire in our bellies and a singular, delicious mission: We wanted honey.
The Ranch Rejection & The Vault’s Big Payoff 🍯
We started our mission with high hopes over at The Ranch, pulling a few heavy frames from the super side. Unfortunately, the girls are still trailing just behind the finish line. Most of the frames were sitting well under that critical 80% capped mark, with one side of the comb consistently left half-uncapped. Fighting back a wave of disappointment, we popped those babies back into the box to let the bees finish curing their work.
But a seasoned yard manager always keeps a backup plan in their back pocket. Knowing how incredible the top box on The Vault looked a week ago, we shifted our sights to our beautiful pink hive and dove straight into the top super.
Jackpot. We pulled out five magnificent, heavy, fully-capped frames of mid-summer perfection!
Meet 'The Honey Runner' ⚡
Back inside the air-conditioned honey house, it was time to make some major operation moves. The votes from our amazing community have been tallied, the executive decisions have been made, and our motorized CIVAN mega-machine officially has a crown title.
Everyone, meet The Honey Runner!
We loaded up three of our standard foundation frames into her pristine stainless steel baskets. With a flip of the switch, the power drive kicked in, and we watched a gorgeous, thick stream of flawless Wisconsin honey fly out of the combs and pool beautifully at the bottom of the drum.
Slicing Into Legacy: Dad's Paint-Stick Masterpieces 🪵🗡️
While three of the frames went for a spin in The Honey Runner, the remaining two frames were reserved for something truly extraordinary.
Last year, my dad engineered a brilliant piece of custom hive architecture: he took a regular honey super frame, removed the plastic foundation board, and used sectioned paint sticks to divide the frame into three separate, open wooden bays. Without a plastic center wall, it forces the bees to build 100% natural, free-hanging, foundationless virgin comb.
The bees built out Dad’s paint-stick cells with breathtaking symmetry. Because there is no plastic core in the middle, you can't spin these in an extractor—the centrifugal force would shred the delicate wax. Instead, my son Jack and I laid them flat on the cutting board and carefully sliced the pristine, delicate wax squares straight out of the wooden dividers.
We cut them into gorgeous, gourmet block combs and slipped thick chunks straight into our clear glass jars before flooding them with liquid gold to create premium chunk-honey jars for sale. Looking at those finished jars on the counter next to those blocks of raw comb is pure magic.
📜 Moral of the Day
Patience yields sweetness, but adaptability catches the flow. The most beautiful rewards of the season often come from knowing exactly when to spin and when to slice.
The Honey Runner is officially broken in, the chunk-honey jars are shining on the shelf, and the junior beekeeper and I are officially in the honey business!