A hobby with sweet rewards: The basics of beekeeping and the honey you can harvest



MILWAUKEE -- There's been a lot of buzz about beekeeping in recent years -- and one of the reasons for it is sweet, sweet honey. Honey production gets underway in the spring -- and Dormie Roberts with Blain's Farm and Fleet joins Real Milwaukee with everything you need to know about the liquid gold.

Four types of honey:

Comb Honey
With comb honey, you keep the liquid honey and honeycomb. It can be a little tricky to get your bees to make this kind of honey, but if they do you have easy honey on your hands. You can simply remove the entire honeycomb, without having to extract the liquid honey. The wax and honey is edible so you can eat the whole thing.

Extracted Honey
Extracted honey is what most beekeepers harvest from their hive. With extracted honey, wax cappings are sliced off the honeycomb with a capping knife. The liquid honey is extracted by using a honey extractor. Centrifugal force extracts the honey as it spins in the extractor chamber. The honey is strained and put into containers.

Chunk Honey
Chunk honey is exactly what it sounds like - chunks of honeycomb that are put in wide-mouthed bottles and filled with extracted liquid honey. It can also be referred to as cut comb honey.

Whipped Honey
Finally, there's whipped honey. Popular in Europe, whipped honey is also called creamed honey, spun honey, candied honey, churned honey or honey fondant. Over time, honey naturally crystallizes into coarse crystals or granules. By letting these crystals form, you can make whipped honey. To make whipped honey, you`ll need to combine one part granulated honey with nine parts extracted honey. By whipping these together, you get a smooth, thick honey perfect for spreading on toast, pancakes and more.