My first year of beekeeping went reasonably well and I actually ended up with a couple of frames of honey to share with my family and friends. Mostly these were frames that the bees had built differently than I had intended in a cross comb manner. I harvested using the crush and strain method and put it into jars to enjoy over the winter.

Something happened I wasn’t expecting that kind of freaked me out. As winter crept closer and the temps in our house dropped into the fifties (Fahrenheit) at night, I noticed the honey had started to turn white and get hard. This worried me because if I ever did start selling honey I wasn’t sure what my customers would think if their honey also got hard. How could I even sell honey in this condition or keep it from getting hard?

I was playing around with different ways to de-crystallize the honey on the stove by putting the glass jars in a water bath and trying to keep the temp around 110° F. There is some controversy over what is the max temp that honey can be heated to retain its “Raw” status, but from my research, most people agree that 120° F would be the max. I wanted to keep the honey as raw as possible, so by targeting 110° F on the water I would be below that threshold even if the honey in the jar reached the same temperature as the water.

The stove water bath was quite cumbersome and had to be monitored frequently over long hours to ensure that the temp was between 100-110° F. Too cool and the honey would de-crystallize, too warm and the rawness of the honey would be ruined. There had to be a better way.

As fate would have it, another interesting thing happened that same fall while attending a church basket raffle, we won something called a Quick Pot. We really had no use for a quick pot and were on the lookout for who would enjoy this as a Christmas present. We never did come up with anyone who wanted it, and it sat there on top of our fridge in its box until after Christmas.

During that long cold boring winter, a magical idea occurred to me while looking over at that Quick Pot on the fridge while waiting on my honey to de-crystallize. What if I could use this thing to keep the temperature of a water bath just right so I didn’t have to stare at a pot of water on the stove for hours on end.

Voilà! As it turns out this fancy gadget called a Quick Pot has an even fancier French function called sous vide. Basically, sous vide amounts to cooking sealed food in a water bath at a precise temperature for a long period of time. Kinda sounds like de-crystallizing honey if you ask me!

The best part was, it worked and I didn’t have to watch a pot of water never boil while de-crystallizing the honey and the temperature could stay at 110° F for up to 12 hours at a time. I guess we got the Quick Pot for Christmas after all and found a use for it.

Let’s get to work!

Bee Boy Bill

When I set out on my beekeeping adventure I was astounded by the cost of buying equipment. Not only was the equipment expensive, but I didn’t think it was adequate for our cold winters here in New York where we frequently dip below 0° F for weeks at a time in January and February.

I started looking at alternative methods of beekeeping and started to appreciate the increased protection Layen’s hives offered the bees. Later, I also grew fond of the low maintenance that these hives offer, being able to load it up with frames and check back in the fall to reap the honey.

I thought everyone should have a few Layen’s hives and decided I would make some videos on how I built mine so others could also enjoy these beekeeping gems! Not too long after posting a video on How to Build a Layen’s Frame, I started getting asked to sell my frames to beekeepers. This was both rewarding and frustrating at the same time. I could barely keep up making my own frames and didn’t want to start selling equipment to others, but how could I help them?

After a few conversations back and forth, I realized that not everyone had a jointer, table saw, router, or miter saw and they didn’t have the desire or space to get them either. I wondered, “is there a way to build a bee frame with just one saw?”

I’m proud to say there is! Not only can you build your own Layen’s frame with just one saw, but you can also build the One Saw Layen’s Frame Jig with just one saw! I also put together a build guide to accompany the video and look forward to seeing some homemade frames from my fellow beekeepers this spring!

Let’s get to work!

Bee Boy Bill