My friend and mentor Robin and I are dressed and ready to go with the smoker and our bee brushes!
No openings anywhere!
We first smoked the girls really well (keeps them calm and distracted from what we are doing). Then opened the hive up and started brushing the bees off the frames. We put the frames into another empty box and then covered it with a sheet keeping the bees off.
The 3rd super was harvested in just a few minutes and we closed it back up again ready to extract!
We collected 7 frames full of honey in a separate box and took it into the workshop closed off tightly so the bees wouldn't smell it and come looking for the thieves! ; ) Ps. The bees have enough honey to get through the winter in the 2cd deep we left for them. I prefer not to supplement my girls with sugar water if I don't have too, avoiding potential problems in the future like mites...
Here is the extractor! 3 frames can fit into this baby at a time. It is hand cranked and spins pulling the honey out to the sides, later draining down through the bottom. It comes with a hot knife to help cut off the wax capping on each frame.
Here I am cutting the wax capping onto a pan. I have plans for that wax!
Frames are ready to spin!
One of my dear friends and her husband came to help! We couldn't have done it with out them!
Here is another close up shot of honey comb! Isn't it beautiful! You can see off to the right of the frame some darker spots. That is propolis, pollen protein for the bees.
Once the honey was extracted we poured it through a mesh screen, into another bucket with a spout. It was ready to go into the jars!
Another shot of the screened bucket.
Getting the last of the "gold"!
We did really well considering it was our first year. Usually in the first year you are told not to expect anything. We got about 12 pounds. Really good years can produce up to 100 pounds of honey per hive with healthy established colonies! It takes 12 bees their entire life to make 1 teaspoon of honey! What dedication! They are such amazing creatures! I love my bees!
No one was stung during the harvesting process! :)
What a motivating blog post! We have been getting local raw honey from some neighbors and I have loved it. I'm trying to work up the courage to have our own bees. Glad to see your first year was such a great success. How much money would you suggest it would cost to get started for one bee house? How have your kids been with the bees? Has anyone gotten sung while playing outside?
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