Our First Honey Harvest at Pauline Manor

When I first decided to bring bees to Pauline Manor, I pictured gardens full of pollinators, jars of beautiful golden honey, and another small step toward creating the kind of life I have been slowly building here. What I did not picture was how often I would question whether I had gotten myself into something I could not actually handle.

If you read my earlier post on Backyard Bees at Pauline Manor⁠, then you already know this journey started with a lot of excitement and not nearly enough experience. Bringing home the hives felt exciting in theory, but once there are thousands of living creatures depending on you and boxes that weigh far more than you expected sitting in your backyard, it starts to feel a lot more real.

But having bees at Pauline Manor actually started long before the honeybees arrived. A few years ago I wrote about welcoming Leafcutter Bees to Pauline Manor ⁠because I wanted to support pollinators and create a healthier garden ecosystem, and at the time, that felt like a perfectly reasonable amount of beekeeping for me. Tiny, self-sufficient bees living quietly in little houses turned out to be very different from managing full honeybee colonies, but looking back now, it feels like that small step probably gave me the confidence to eventually try this one.

If you follow us on Facebook, you may have already seen the video of Mike getting swarmed after mowing a little too close to the hives. He ended up getting stung 26 times that day and somehow did not immediately demand that I get rid of the bees, although he has definitely kept his distance from them ever since. That day shook both of us a little and reminded me that keeping bees is not all cottagecore photos and cute jars of honey.

So when extraction day finally arrived this week, I was carrying more nerves into it than I probably admitted out loud. Two nights before, I woke up at two in the morning after dreaming that I dropped the hive {again} and could not get back to sleep because I started wondering whether I had gotten myself in over my head. Those boxes are incredibly heavy once they are full of honey, and I found myself questioning whether I was physically capable of handling them long term.

Thankfully, extraction day turned into exactly what I needed. With the help of my friend Paris, and even Mike pitching in despite his recent history with the bees, we extracted and bottled our very first harvest of Pauline Manor honey. I learned more in a few hours than I had expected to and regained some confidence about keeping bees and harvesting honey… even when it is heavy. I learned a few tricks that made handling the hives easier, found out about tools I will absolutely invest in before next season, and was reminded that struggling with something does not mean you are failing at it.

The bees themselves were actually wonderful for most of the process and seemed far more patient with us than I expected, although I cannot entirely blame them for becoming a little annoyed while we removed something they had worked so hard to make. By the end of the day, I realized that a lot of my fear had come from assuming that needing help meant I was not capable, when in reality, learning from people who know more than you is part of doing anything new.

Then I tasted the honey and immediately understood why people become so passionate about local honey. I know this sounds ridiculous coming from someone who now keeps bees, but I do not even normally like honey, and I fully expected to politely taste it and move on. If I am being completely honest, the only reason why I got bees was to be able to offer honey along with my sourdough bakery! But once I tasted it, I realized how different it is from store-bought honey, and it made me even happier that I will have it now for myself as well.

The harvest itself was not huge, and we only ended up with a small number of bottles, but somehow that makes it feel even more special. In just a few weeks, when the Pauline Manor Bread Shed opens, we will have a limited amount of honey from our very own hives available alongside everything else we have been working toward, and there is something really satisfying about knowing people will be able to take home honey that truly came from my backyard.

I still have a lot to learn, and I still have to get these girls through the winter, but I ended the day feeling very differently than I did when I woke up at two in the morning worrying that I was in over my head. I left feeling proud of my two little hives, grateful for the people who helped me get this far, and excited to see where this strange and unexpectedly emotional beekeeping adventure goes next 🐝🍯🖤