The crew at Janiel Enterprises and Sweetheart Pollinators are busy harvesting honey in their honey plant. Six staff members spend six days a week from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Monday to Friday hard at work. The process begins sometime in July when the field crew makes a daily trip to Bow Island, Alberta, to strip the honey boxes. It’s hot, heavy work, and it’s not looking very green out there, and that dryer weather can result in a shorter season. The crew uses a leaf blower type of backpack to gently blow the bees out of the boxes of frames full of honey.

The crew then loads the pallets of brightly coloured boxes onto the truck. Incidentally, all those boxes have been spray-painted in bright colours by staff members. Once delivered, the frames full of honey are stored at a warm temperature (up to 40 degrees) overnight before the honey is removed. When the boxes are emptied, they are returned to the field.

It takes twenty employees to get the work accomplished, and they come from the Ukraine, Mexico, South Africa, the Philippines and a few from Canada. One of those happens to be Neil and Janine Specht’s granddaughter, Korie Marlow, who has been helping harvest honey since she was 14 years old.

Kostiantyn Tyschchenko, originally from the Ukraine, is the manager at Janiel Enterprises and sees the extraction of approximately ten to twenty barrels of honey per day. Each barrel holds 650 pounds of honey. Depending on the different floral sources, the honey can look and taste quite different.

Before the honey is extracted, wax needs to be removed from the frames. It takes seven pounds of honey to make one pound of wax, which makes wax reasonably valuable. The wax is extracted, melted and placed in moulds where it is allowed to harden. Two tons of wax are produced annually and sold by the truckload to large bulk buyers, such as makeup manufacturers.

During their busy season, Janeil Enterprises uses two extracting machines, which involves six employees working in the honey house. The honey is allowed to settle for a while in order to separate tiny remaining wax particles. After the honey is drained, the wax is collected separately and started up for processing or melting. The honey is put into barrels, and ten to twelve semi loads of honey are delivered to Bee Maid in Edmonton each year.

Back at Janiel Enterprises, you can watch pure liquid honey being poured into jars for customers who come through their doors. Although honey may eventually crystallize, it can be returned to its liquid form slowly and gently heating it over very low heat. Or you can place your honey container in a pot of warm water and heat on low, however, it’s not recommended using a microwave.

No matter how you look at it, the honey plant at Janeil Enterprises continues to be a sweet spot from July until September.