Newfoundland Insectarium beekeeper Andrea Doucette says she filters the honey extracted multiple times so it comes out crystal clear. (Amy Feehan/CBC)
Collecting the sweet honey from bees is a sticky business, but this central Newfoundland beekeeper says it’s worth the mess.
Andrea Doucette is the Newfoundland Insectarium’s resident beekeeper, where she manages 30 colonies at the Deer Lake property and then collects honey where it is sold at the gift shop.
“What I enjoy most is the look on people’s faces when they taste the honey fresh off the frame,” Doucette told CBC News.
“The delight and the almost surprise as they taste the bold flavours that come with the honey … that to me is worth it all.”
When she inspects a hive, she looks for capped honey, which is honey the bees have cured and placed as a wax capping on top of the frame to preserve for their own food stores.
“It’s a very sticky process to begin with,” said Doucette.
Doucette said she looks for full frames — which is a wooden structure that holds honeycombs inside the hive — of capped honey and then takes a knife to remove the wax cap.
“It’s kind of satisfying to see all the honey coming out here as you cut the wax off.”
Andrea Doucette says making honey is hard work, both for her and the bees. (Amy Feehan/CBC)
The next step is to place the frames into the honey extractor tank which uses centrifugal force to get the honey out, she said.
“The honey gets shot to the side walls of the tank and then just settles on the bottom. This machine is electric, which makes it a little bit easier for me,” said Doucette.
While that honey is draining, Doucette can get to preparing the next frames for extraction.
Seeing the honey coming out of the frames is satisfying, as it represents a lot of hard work — both on her part and the bees’.
“It takes 12 bees their whole life to make one teaspoon of honey,” she said.
“There’s a lot of hard work happening just to get here, on their part and mine.”
Beyond collecting honey
Doucette said she enjoys showing guests how honey is made in demonstrations held at the Newfoundland Insectarium, as well as educating people about bees.
“They’re very interesting — actually fascinating creatures when you get to know them and learn how they live together as a macro-organism. Everything they do is for the betterment of the whole,” she says.
It takes about 15 minutes for the extraction tank to get all the honey out from a frame, says Andrea Doucette. (Amy Feehan/CBC)
Part of Doucette’s job is to prevent the bees from swarming, which is when a large number of bees fly off to start a new colony.
“Once they swarm, half the workforce is gone and then there is no honey production. So we do weekly inspections looking for the signs of swarming.”
Those signs include an overcrowded colony and the presence of a queen cup, which is an empty beehive cell that can be used for rearing a new queen.
“Weekly I thwart their efforts to swarm away,” she says, laughing.
Doucette said it takes about 15 minutes for the machine to get through a frame. She then filters the collected honey through a sieve that collects wax, then puts it through a second filter.
“The honey comes out crystal clear on the other end,” she says.
Honey in shop
Lloyd Hollett, owner of the Newfoundland Insectarium, said for years he’s sold honey made by other Newfoundland and Labrador beekeepers in his shop, but over the years people asked if he sold any made on the premises.
“You always get people coming down saying, ‘Oh, can we buy some honey from the beehive upstairs?'” he said.
Hollett said the beehive in the facility was for observation purposes but last year, Doucette floated the idea that they should bring in more hives and start collecting enough honey to sell their own.
The first jars of honey went on sale in June, he said, and it’s proven to be especially popular on the days that Doucette does honey extraction demonstrations.
Newfoundland Insectarium owner Lloyd Hollett says this is the first summer they’ve sold their own honey. (Submitted by Lloyd Hollett)
The Newfoundland Insectarium is only open for a few more days before it closes for the season, but Hollett their honey will be back on the shop’s shelves when it reopens in 2025.
“[Doucette] got 300 pounds this year, I think, so she’s going to have lots for next year,” said Hollett.
He added their honey is made from wildflowers, as opposed to a mono-crop, which is what is mostly sold in grocery stores.
“It’s a very different honey. Wildflower honey is a lot more richer tasting,” said Hollett. “The people that try it really, really like it.”
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